The Dartington Estate (where I live and work and am currently in lockdown) has had to temporarily close due to the pandemic, but Virtually Dartington is open and offering you Will Kemp writing on Merce Cunningham at Dartington; free arthouse films via Mubi, courtesy of The Barn Cinema; footage from the Schumacher College and Dartington…
Impressive Books
My publisher, Impress Books, has changed hands. Immense thanks to Richard Willis who founded Impress Books and launched my career as a published historical fiction novelist. And hello, Jeff Collyer, who has taken over and has lots of exciting plans in the pipeline for the Impress Books list. Thank you, too, to my fellow Impress…
Summer Workshop, Girona, Spain
26–31 July 2020 Mas Carbó, Sant Hilari de Sacalm, Girona, Spain A five-day workshop exploring the concept of Wu Wei through Tai Chi, improvisation and writing led by Tew Bunnag, Denys Blacker, and Tracey Warr. Wu Wei is the sense of letting go, of letting yourself be spacious so that the universe can come in….
The Water Age at the seaside
Thank you to a reader for this shot of my future fiction stories, The Water Age, being read in Cornwall, and for the comment that it is an ‘intriguing, sensual and sad book, reflecting with such careful insight on the nature of water and our nature as watery beings’. The book is a collection of short stories…
Tracking stories through time and across landscapes
Sarah Gray’s interview with me on Soundart Radio discussing my medieval fiction, my watery future fiction, and new arts postgrad courses at Dartington Arts School – MA Poetics of Imagination and MA Arts and Place. Listen in:
Thwarted Lovers
Attended a riveting event yesterday where Martin Shaw retold the story of Tristan and Iseult in one day to an audience of 80 in Dartington’s medieval Upper Gatehouse. With lashings of humour and feeling, Shaw led us into an exploration of how the story conjures the rapture and damage of love. Romantic love thrives on…
Norman silver bird brooch
Writing on a Norman silver mine in the final stages of editing my next novel, The Anarchy. Found this exquisite Norman silver bird brooch to help with writing the scene.
The Gerona Beatus
I was recently in Girona carrying out research on a biography I am working on about the lives of three sisters who lived in the 11th century: Almodis de La Marche, Raingarde de La Marche and Lucia de La Marche. More on the sisters and the biography in a later post. In this post, I…
Offcuts from research
This month, I’m working on the final rewrites for my next historical novel, The Anarchy. The book will be published on 2 June and you can preorder it here. In the course of researching my books, I’m forever having to keep the story focused and leave out some of the fascinating characters and facts from history….
Dartington Laser – Tracking Water
The third in the Dartington Laser talks series – Art After The Collapse – takes place tomorrow, Friday 15 Nov, 7pm-9.15, free, at Dartington Studio 3. Pay bar in the Space Cafe from 6pm. The series considers how artists are working on ‘deep adaptation’ to a climate and ecological collapse that some say has already…
