Publication day approaches… and has been brought forward to 26 May 2022. What Time is Love? is available for pre-order now, from your favourite independent bookstore, or this link takes you to a range of online retailers. Final copies are imminent, but we have a cover design!
Continue reading “What Time is Love? update…”Latest writing
How to research a novel
One of the pleasures of fiction is imagining yourself into the minds of others, into other times or other places – and to make that believable, you’ll need both background research and specific details.
How to finish a novel
This first post in a series of blogs about writing was going to be on how to start a novel. But I feel like starting is rarely the problem – whereas finishing often is. Whether you plan a book out or plunge right in, the beginning is always full of shimmery possibility. And then… the […]
Review: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Leeds Playhouse
It’s a smart bit of programming to revive this scrappy, joyful rock musical about a resilient genderqueer performer right now – and to ride the wave of mainstream interest in drag queens by casting Divina De Campo.
How the first ever pop star blazed a trail of innovation
Think of an era-defining, wildly popular pop star: are you picturing David Bowie? Prince? Elton John? None of those names achieved anything like the domination of arguably Britain’s first popular music star: Charles Dibdin.
The surprising ways that Victorians flirted
Look up the term “collage”, and the Tate’s website will inform you that this was “first used as an artists’ technique in the early 20th Century.” But what if the Cubists, the Dadaists and the Surrealists were actually predated in this innovation by… upper-class Victorian society women?
Why assume it’s a problem if a woman is child-free at thirty? Maybe she prefers it that way
It was news last week that women are having fewer children and at a later age: the ONS reported that more than half of women in England and Wales don’t have children by the time they are 30. But it hardly felt surprising to me.
Review: She Loves Me, Sheffield Crucible
What a treat this is: a delicious romcom, staged with real wit and elan, so that it feels genuinely both romantic and very funny – not something revivals of old musicals always manage to pull off.
Review: Affair of the Heart, Michael Billington
When Michael Billington stepped down as lead theatre critic for the Guardian in 2019, after almost fifty years, it was seen as the end of an era.
Critic under the spotlight: the 12-hour play showcasing everyday jobs
The theatre critic’s job is largely conducted in darkness and silence. But last Saturday, the spotlight – and the microphone – was quite literally turned on me.