Some words about things I’m doing, or have occurred to me recently.

When I was 13, I had 26 penpals.  Most of them were around my age.  Some were embarrassingly local, like my schoolfriend Teresa, who lived around the corner from my house.  Others were local-ish, like Mandie, a friend made during a family trip to Norwich.  The rest were further-flung; introduced via an ‘international penpal network’. …

Burlesque the Musical (as opposed to the film) is an extravaganza for the eyes and ears.  You won’t find anything for the soul – the story and script are terrible – but not everybody needs such things, do they? In any case I had to cope with just the ears during Act One, as an…

I’ve been thinking for a while about how to circumvent the ravages of social-media posting and AI-writing.  Write Who You Are is my attempt: a guided email course during which you’ll write deeply personal words you’ll never show to anybody else. (You might want to use some of those words afterwards, in different ways and…

I thought The Choir of Man was awful.  But then, loud pubs, enforced fun, and bellowing, uncomfortably ‘cheeky chappy’ men aren’t my things (shame I like in Essex, really!).  It’s my personal opinion, so fair enough. Or not fair enough, actually, given the truly shocked looks on various people’s faces whenever I dared mumble that…

I’ve just written a Medium article, about the trials of promoting a book without social media. Full disclosure: it’s there because I make money when Medium members click on my articles. You’ve clicked here (thank you), but as kind as that is, I haven’t earned anything from it. At least, not yet. There’s a silver…

If you were an alien beamed down to earth, and you asked me to summarise Stepping Out, I’d say this.  “It’s like a cross between the dark situational humour of Abigail’s Party and the warm ensemble wit of The Full Monty. Only no-one dies or takes their clothes off.” If I could add another short…