Flaming June.

It’s been very warm this past month and there has been much to do in the garden.  The roses, olive trees and agapanthuses have survived the winter’s storms and salt blasting and they are blooming.

The house, garden walls and gate have been painted so all is now ready for the visitors.  Even the pizza oven has been spruced up.

And of the books?  No more procrastination.  The ISBNs have been ordered, the formats have almost been agreed, and the pictures are probably staying in.

You may remember the everyday story of organisational politics at St. Angela’s University Teaching Hospital.  There were the usual gang warfares, double-dealing, dirty street fighting – all very Shakespearean.  You can refresh your memory by clicking on the “Macbeth”, The Winter Storms and Introducing St. Angela’s “King Lear” Going Back, Older & Wiser and “Romeo and Juliet” Warring Factions and Naive Interns chapters.

These short stories will be brought together in a book over the summer.  You might like to place your order for Christmas presents.

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May has been busy. I’d forgotten how exciting it is to go to a live rock concert and the recent Rolling Stones ‘unfiltered’ gig did not disappoint.

From the pounding base that you can feel in your bones to the spectacular light show and staging as the evening light faded and the night took over, the stones rocked. The ever-youthful Mick Jagger danced the night away with his usual athleticism while the statuesque Charlie Watts played his drums without fuss or expression.

All the old favourites – brown sugar, tumbling dice, satisfaction – were played in a continuous stream for everyone to join in as part of a community singalong. 

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To start my new life as a writer of novels – no more research reports – I’m having a new office.  Actually, it’s a refurb of my slum quarters for the last 20 years.  All the debris and detritus of a working life have been boxed-up, bagged and labelled, and put into store.

I’ve postponed the job of sorting it all until the summer as I’m still getting over the shock of being able to get into my room without tripping over a pile of books, papers and files.

I think I’m going to like retirement, especially when the new room takes shape and the dust has cleared.

Everything is many shades of grey, including the builders and their gear. 

They tell me it will all be pink soon when they start to plaster the walls and ceiling.

Meanwhile, I’ve got the joy of choosing a new desk and book shelves as the battered old ones went in the big clear out. Continue reading →

It’s been busy here by the sea coping with our strange weather patterns.

One day it snowed so much that it settled…

and then the next day it was all gone and things went back to normal.

The garden doesn’t know what to do – keep hibernating or burst into spring.  But the goldfinches, which live in the hedges, know the season is turning as they are out and about building nests and getting food ready for new life.

It’s been busy retiring from 40+ years of work – finishing off the last reports, saying goodbye to all and deleting emails.  I’ve got 30,000+ to be sifted, archived, or deleted.  My friends want to organise a mass delete event with champagne to ease the task.  I’ve got an office that has over the last 20 years become a slum.  I have not seen the carpet in years as it has been covered in pending files, piles of paper, boxes, books waiting to be read and my collection of PhD chapter drafts.

As a retirement treat, I’m having a new office so it all has to go.  The builders are coming after Easter to clear the room and turn this ugly duckling site into a swan – a very cool scandi-style room.

This will be my new novelist den.  Ah, those goldfinches have lessons for us.

And of the book?  The research is going well but it’s all too enjoyable and I’m in danger of never writing the novels.  To add to my time-burning, I’ve been to a pizza-making workshop to learn to use my new garden oven.  It’s going to be great once I’ve worked out how to keep the fire going.

And then there are new hobbies to nurture with a trip to Madrid to see the big game: Real Madrid vs Athletico Bilbao, and the collections in the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Galleries.

Don’t you just love it when the sun comes back and the days get longer?

Enjoy the start of spring.

… and come back next time for news about the books …

It’s been a busy month with the Chinese New Year and another fun-packed reunion.  And I’ve now got two books in preparation.  Both are about hospital politics and badly behaved people.  One is set in our modern St. Angela’s University Teaching Hospital and the other is set in its predecessor 100 years ago.   At the heart of both is rivalry, and a nasty contest about how things should be done.  Both ended in ruinous court cases, trashed reputations, acres of negative press and criminal convictions.

There is much to research and I’ve discovered how much fun it can be to while away the hours in libraries disappearing down rabbit holes pursuing new lines of inquiry.

And I’ve made a new marvellous friend – the Archivist.  She brings my requests up from the stack on the hour – photos, letters and minute books from the late 19th century hospital records.

After hours of reading and viewing the forgotten documents, I feel transported to that world.  I even have the weather reports for each day of the year of the dispute.

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Holed up in the Bodleian

When the stygian gloom of January bears down on you there is no better place to hole up than the Bodleian Library in Oxford. And so it was, my January was very busy with researching, reading, and writing notes; and consuming buckets of coffee and plates of cake. Hours of fun spent scanning zillions of databases and getting distracted by interesting snippets that you happen on like an account of a skirmish in the Indian Mutiny reported in the Cornishman newspaper in 1858.

Oh, and then there is the joy of calling up old manuscripts and books from the stack. I could spend forever getting lost in there, like Alice in Wonderland but there are books to be written.

What better time is there to go on a course to learn to write novels. I learnt about finding the narrator’s voice, the role of the author, and the problem of siting the narrative.

I’m getting the hang of this so I’m about ready to pick up my writer’s pen for the two books in the pipeline. But, I haven’t done the Christmas cards yet. Too late.

So Chinese New Year cards will have to suffice, and then it’s the books, and maybe some more courses.

Have a Happy Chinese New Year and come back next time for a progress check on the book(s).

Storm Rising – Very Useful

This year on Christmas Day, I walked along our beach to find it bathed in a strange bright light that shimmered eerily on the silver-grey sea.  A sure sign the local fishermen say that a storm is rising.  And it did; we had hours of howling gales, rain and highly-energised angry white-capped seas.

Nothing beats Sachertorte

The perfect excuse to chomp my way through the Sachertorte, which had been carefully transported from Innsbruck, and fistfuls of sweets that had been hiding in the Advent Calendar waiting for their time.

The Advent Calendar
(sans chocolates)

Oh, and then there was the lovely gift of Grand Cru French wines to wash it all down.

Storms have their uses.

Delicious Grand Cru

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The Douro Valley

To get a final glimpse of the sun, I went sailing up the Douro from the lovely old fortified wine town of Porto, and on to one of Europe’s oldest university towns, Salamanca, where the soft late autumn light casts a warm honeyed glow on its mediaeval buildings.

Detail beautiful window with old forge in The House of Shells, Salamanca Spain.

On the lazy journey upriver, I made some progress with The Book. The axes of the conflicts have been mapped, and the storyboards for each chapter are  ready.

It’s the thinking about it all that gives such pleasure, but now the hard work begins. Continue reading →

The season is turning. Gone are the long lazy summer days and the hammock is packed away for next year. With the temperature falling and the light fading, the trees are rapidly shedding their leaves and getting ready for the big rest.

The first of the winter storms has already arrived in our bay. The sea and sky are increasingly dull grey and blurred at the horizon. The sea, energised by the wind, shows its angry white caps and big waves to remind you that nature is in charge.

But the autumn garden makes for much work before we rest. There has been a bounty of veggies this year so the big cook up is underway: casseroles, soups, pickles, sauces and pies. Exhausting, but tea and plum clafoutis with a dot of cream is a great reviver.

And of The Book?  I’ve thought about it.

?Maybe a thriller; gang warfare in hospital’s corridors; secret societies plotting against each other for control? Is this interesting enough?

I’m off for the last of the summer sun in Portugal, sailing up the Douro Valley from lovely Porto to Mateus Villa, and on to the ancient university town of Salamanca. Then it’s The Book, honest.

So far, for October, it’s The Book — 0 vs. The Veggies — 1.

Mind the ghosts and ghouls of Halloween and come back next time for a progress report on The Book …..

The dog days of summer were filled with hammock time, taking in the warmth of the sun and fresh sea air.  Despite all the good intentions, nothing got written for The Book.

But, some thinking got done and I’ve got a plan.

The struggles about whether to stay with pen and paper, or type straight to screen, may be resolved with a new gizmo that’s on order.

It’s a tablet which looks and feels like a sheet of paper, and, as you write with its fancy pen, it picks up your script instantly.  

I’m told there is no delay or “buffering”, whatever that is.

It may be the answer to the first of many hurdles that will stop me from starting the tome.

So far, for September, it’s The Book – 0 vs. The Hammock – 1.

October looks busy – all the harvested veggies have to be cooked and pickled or frozen.  And then there are the many book and music festivals to attend, and maybe a late holiday on the water somewhere warm before the autumn cool really bites.

Come back next time for a progress report on The Book ……