Please say NOT IN MY NAME
These inhumane times are hard to bear. It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of evil. There is one thing we can all do and that is to say or express, in any form we prefer, NOT IN MY
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02, 2026
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11, 2025
The Joy of the Oxford Indie Book Fair
The joy of the Oxford Indie Book Fair: inclusion, creativity, connection, fun & thought. The Lord High Sheriff gets it and describes it as ‘uplifting.’ https://highsheriffofoxfordshire.co.uk/a-morning-among-oxfords-storytellers Oxib is run by a volunteer committee, and you can see from the faces
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11, 2025
The tables turned & Oxford Lives interviewed ME!
...and my life in one picture thanks to the artist Diana Bell. Last week I was interviewed for Oxford Lives by Jeremy Allen and Graeme Fry produced this podcast from the interview. https://oxfordlives.libsyn.com/oxford-lives-episode-69-with-sylvia-vetta For ten years, I wrote the life
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11, 2025
Writing ‘Reptiles’ evoked memories of Bagley Wood
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/4430842.run-bagley-wood/? Reptiles, my latest novel starts with Toad Patrol in Bagley Woods. In this pic, I’m wear my high viz jacket but the month wasn’t appropriate, the amphibians move at the end of February and in March. This
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10, 2025
ONLY CONNECT! Kennington ( Oxfordshire) and Musanda(Kenya)
ONLY CONNECT There is a glimmer of hope with the ceasefire in Gaza although given, Netanyahu unilaterally ending the last one, the world can’t trust him. Trust is so important and it comes through connecting with mutual respect and showing,
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10, 2025
Making HISTORY and friendship across continents.
https://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/25522672.kennington-twin-village-africa-weekend/ I am proud of my village. On Saturday there will be plenty of red, white and blue bunting mixed with Kenyan red, green and black. Flags for what they are meant to be used for, celebration and hope
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09, 2025
Meeting Giorgio!
Meeting Giorgio! https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/italian-fashion-designer-giorgio-armani-dies-91-2025-09-04/ Today the death was announced of Giorgio Armani. What’s my connection with the fashion designer? My journey to becoming a novelist began when I took up freelance writing for magazines mostly about art, antiques and books. The
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08, 2025
Stand up for the young people wrongly charged with terrorist offences.
Stand up for the young people wrongly charged with terrorist offences. The activists who broke into the RAF facility at Brize Norton knew, that their actions were illegal. Political resistance such as the suffragettes, the gay rights movement, anti-apartheid and
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06, 2025
Come Together – Flow Together: the only way to solve the world’s problems.
We need hope in these dark times and Confluence Collective founded by Malcolm Atkins and friends never fails. I wrote a poem celebrating how the group bring creative people from every community together, from India and Pakistan from Ethiopia and
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04, 2025
Memories of Helen Peacocke: The importance of my talk at Headington LitFest on May 10
On May 10, I'll talk about the importance of telling your story. Yesterday was the funeral of the former The Oxford Times food writer, chef, author and drama critic, Helen Peacocke. The Humanist celebrant, Ian Wilcox used