Don’t write Beijing October 1979 out of history.Thank you Maryse, Jenny,Ray and Shrenik.
They marched under this banner - 'In Politics we want Democracy and in Art Freedom' 1989 ? NO
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02, 2025
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01, 2025
Simon Schama and I
Simon Schama and I https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0026zyn/simon-schamas-story-of-us-series-1-2-whose-britain-is-it-anyway I may not have Simon Schama’s brains and erudition but, watching episode 2 of 'Whose Britain is it any way' made me realise that we share the same attitude to the evolution of this
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12, 2024
Oxford Indie Book Fair on Dec 1, the biggest in the country and a challenge!
Andy Severn, James Harrison Ray Foulk and I had a dream of an event for book lovers which was free to enter, welcoming of everyone whatever their age or background. I tell the story of how it all
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11, 2024
Sanity in a Mad World? Memories of Colin Dexter and PD James.
Today I weep for Ukraine and the environment. I really don’t understand my fellow human beings. What a terrible confession for an author! Many young black men voted for a racist. Many ‘Latinos’ voted for a man who builds a
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06, 2024
Speaking Truth to Power is still Perilous.
https://madrascourier.com/opinion/writing-the-womans-life The online Indian newspaper, The Madras Courier has published an essay by Lupamudra Banerjee. It is a powerful and deeply personal invocation of women writers who wanted to break the chains. The timing of this feature is inspired by
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06, 2024
Have you discovered Shepherd.com? It’s a research tool and an asset for authors.
Shepherd.com has only been established for three years but is already getting good traffic. I'm one of 9,000 authors who have shared five of our favorite books around a topic dear to our hearts. Below are the links to my entries.
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05, 2024
Wow! Philip Pullman and I had the same response to questions.
It’s the wonderful Oxford Arts Week. On Tuesday, I was on a panel in Littlemore church exploring the creative process. This evening, I attended the annual Arts Week Forum which had a distinguished panel including Sir Philip Pullman. Imagine
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05, 2024
Sir Roger Bannister a great Scientist, a great sportsman and a great human being
https://www.sylviavetta.co.uk/2018/03/23/some-of-my-memories-of-a-great-human-being-roger-bannister/ A series of commemorative events are taking place in Oxford to mark Sir Roger Bannister's breaking of the the four minute mile. Last night, I watched this film in Merton College where Roger was a student . It reminded
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10, 2023
The Fourth Oxford Indie Book Fair: Exciting event in a great venue – November 26
Andy Severn of Oxford eBooks organised a book fair in the village where I live. I encouraged author, architect and founder of the Isle of Wight festival, Ray Foulk and publisher James Harrison to have stands. We felt the idea
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08, 2023
The Banality of Evil. We need to confront it closer to home.
My book group chose to read Isabella Bird’s A Lady’s life in the Rockies. https://www.virago.co.uk/titles/isabella-l-bird/a-ladys-life-in-the-rocky-mountains/9780860682677/ Born in 1831, Isabella, daughter of an English clergyman took a solo trip from San Francisco to the Rocky Mountains. It’s likely that the producers