David & Me.
This blog sounds arrogant but my aim is to celebrate David Attenborough through some memories and meetings. I was 10 years old when I watched Zoo Quest on a tiny black and white TV but it is etched on my
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05, 2026
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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
3
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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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
Anglo Indians : Prejudice and my own experience of it .
https://madrascourier.com/insight/anglo-indians-a-story-of-hybridity-music-legacy/ This feature in today's Madras Courier rightly celebrates the legacy of Anglo- Indians in India. The White Mughals who traded with India before Empire were exploitative and greedy but they were not racist. They enjoyed the Indian way of
25
06, 2025
The Rise and Rise of Oxford Indie Book Fair. Why? Is it tapping into a need?
(See the programme at the bottom of the blog) I’m one if the organisers of the Oxford Indie Book Fair. Our fairs are in Oxford in the University Examinations Halls and, on July 13, as the last event of the
21
06, 2025
I’m impressed: is this really my book?
I've drafted this to pitch for a translation into French . Even I'm impressed. Is this really my novel? I have the Stars Artists to thank . This novel is about them. Not only are they incredibly talented but they
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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
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03, 2025
Build BRIDGES not WALLS or climb over them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NvrzUnGE50 I had sad news today. An old colleague at the Oxford Tines, Helen Peacock, has died. Helen was the food writer for the paper for 25 years. I had to cast her away! She was born in Eynsham and