Flash Fiction and Motherhood with Laura Besley

The Almost Mothers by Laura Besley made me cry. Several times. In pitch-perfect vignettes she explores everything from early motherhood to self-doubt to infertility. Her light touch and poignant stories meant I have already read it twice and would quite happily sit...

Siblings, Structure and Pandas with Gail Aldwin

I recently enjoyed ‘The String Games‘ by Gail Aldwin. Personally, I think it’s better to go into a book ‘blind,’ so I had no expectations. Right from the off I was drawn into this story of complex family relationships and tragedy. It’s all done with a very light...

The Power of Perspective

I just watched Nikita Gill perform some of her work, Maidens, Myths and Monsters and her novel in prose The Girl and the Goddess at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. The piece she performed (beautifully) was about Hera, the jealous and fiery-tempered goddess who...

When Writing Seems Impossible

One of my favourite reactions to the question ‘why do you write’ came from Lisa McInerney when I saw her at the Emerald Street Literary Festival last year. She’d just won the Bailey’s Prize for fiction (you can see my thoughts on the book here), so she had reasons to...