I had a lovely Christmas and New Year with family and friends. In fact, I felt extremely lucky, as I know that due to the weather, many people were without electricity and heating over Christmas. Not to mention the homeless and those without family and good friends. I felt surrounded by affection and humour, which … More Happy New Year!
My daughter is five, and she and I (or her dad) read a story or a couple of chapters of something every bedtime together. Recently, I’ve re-discovered Joan Aiken. Some of her short stories are a bit alarming but my daughter has fallen in love with ‘A Necklace of Raindrops’ which is a beautiful story … More A necklace of raindrops
The London Season of 1913 is in full swing, and Rose has never felt more out of place. She can’t help but feel like a servant dressed up in diamonds and silk. Then she meets Alexander Ross, a young Scottish duke. Rose has heard all sorts of gossip about Alexander, but he alone treats her … More Diamonds & Deceit – review
I always hated parties – the sort of big occasions where people drank too much and talked a lot of rubbish all evening. I was never very good at it. Firstly I didn’t like the feeling of being drunk. I’ve always been a control freak and an introvert, and I hated the feeling of not … More Authors behaving badly
I’m so excited! People have been reading advance copies of Looking at the Stars and they’re putting up their reviews online, and there have been some LOVELY comments! First there was this one from the wonderfully-named PetrovaFossil on The Guardian Books Blog: “Looking at the Stars is one of the best, if not the BEST book … More First reviews for Looking at the Stars are in!
Last Thursday I had a Christmas Lunch at my house for some author friends. I put some floating candles and greenery in my fishbowl: and heated some mulled wine alongside some non-alcoholic punch (Jamie Oliver’s cranberry and ginger beer fizz, which was a Sainsbury’s recipe about three years ago and is DELICIOUS – sadly I … More Catching up with author friends
I’m so thrilled with these! They’re button badges which say I’M LOOKING AT THE STARS and I ordered them from the lovely people at www.buttonbadges.co.uk – aren’t they BRILLIANT?! I sent them a design (done by the fantastic Dom at Random House – thank you!) and they made the badges from it. I shall be taking them … More Badges arrive for Looking at the Stars!
So it occurred to me that I should probably say something about my new book 😉 Looking at the Stars is a book I’m very proud of. It’s the book that’s taken the longest to write, so it comes to something when I say that even after six years and umpteen re-writes, I still love … More Looking at the Stars – what’s it all about?
Sally is a friend of mine and I went to her book launch a few weeks ago. I loved her first book WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER, but although I thought ALL FALL DOWN was an epic read, I didn’t connect with it in so well. So I wasn’t sure what to expect from CLOSE YOUR … More Close Your Pretty Eyes – review
I bought some lovely fairtrade roses from Sainsbury’s about a week ago. They’ve lasted brilliantly, especially considering they were only about £5 for the bunch. They opened right out and I had to remove some browning petals after a week (if you pull them out gently, the brown won’t spread and the roses last longer). … More Arty flower display
Jo Cotterill 