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    Spring has finally, gloriously, sprung…
    by SJV
    2018/04/17  |  Features  |  

    Here we go chaps. Spring has finally, gloriously, sprung… I skipped to work yesterday with a renewed sense of hope and resilience despite the cancellation of the 6.22am for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHATSOEVER and the closure of Chancery Lane tube station due to ‘staff shortages’, despite the fact that I’ve …

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    Louise Candlish on book dedications
    by Louise Candlish
    2018/04/16  |  Features  |  

    Agatha Christie famously dedicated The Secret Adversary ‘To all those who lead monotonous lives in the hope that they may experience at second hand the delights and dangers of adventure’. It’s a dedication as artful as any of her plots, at once generous and damning: who of us wants to …

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    Losing My Serial Writing Virginity
    by Victoria Walters
    2018/04/09  |  Features  |  

    When Simon & Schuster asked me to write a serial for them, I was excited to try a new writing challenge but then I saw the deadlines when I had to write it by, and I was slightly daunted too. Whenever I’ve written a novel before, I have written a …

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    Here we go again….
    by SJV
    2018/04/09  |  Features  |  

    At the risk of repeating myself, here we go again. Tomorrow, LBF 2018 kicks off and the entire UK publishing world will set up camp in the halls of Olympia for 3 days of yada yada yada, shoe envy, tote collecting and sarcastic raised eyebrows. Those of us who work …

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    Smart Cookies
    by Holly Hepburn
    2018/04/04  |  Features  |  

    Authors are often asked how much research we do before writing a book. It’s a thing we all do, although some of my friends are more of the ‘make-it-up’ school of writing than others. And I fall into the ‘research-to infinity’ category, which has seen me striking sparks from white-hot …

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    Libertango….
    by SJV
    2018/04/04  |  Features  |  

    Like many things, musical tastes are deeply personal – very much like preferring a culotte over a jegging, brown toast over white, a cosy crime novel over a literary classic. There is no right or wrong, just a trillion shades of grey. I, for example, would always take a dirty …

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    Gone fishing…
    by SJV
    2018/03/24  |  Features  |  

    With full disclosure, I’m not writing this on my usual Monday morning #commute.  It’s Saturday 24th, I’m still in my PJs, and there’s a rerun of Agatha Christie’s Marple: The Moving Finger playing quietly to itself in the background. Last night, at 7pm, leaving 46 un-actioned emails in my inbox, …

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    You Me Everything…
    by Catherine Isaac
    2018/03/19  |  Features  |  

    The ability of books to change lives in subtle but powerful ways has always been a source of wonder to me. The way they take you on journeys beyond the scope of your circumstances or budget; or allow you to see the world through the eyes of others and make …

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    The podcast puzzle of Our House
    by Louise Candlish
    2018/03/19  |  Features  |  

    Welcome to ‘The Victim’, the acclaimed crime podcast and winner of a National Documentary Podcast Listeners’ Award… In Our House, one of the two narrators, Fi Lawson, tells her story in the form of a crime podcast interview. The podcast is called ‘The Victim’ and she has been an avid …

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    Finding the Stillness…
    by SJV
    2018/03/15  |  Features  |  

    Whichever plane, train or automobile I take, my commute to work will always have a half hour slot in ‘one place’. In the morning, thanks to the ungodly hour, that slot is (luckily) normally spent sitting down and normally involves catching up on emails, twitter or reading. It’s one of …