The Writer Laid Bare

Recently I was on a panel at the Berri Writers Festival where the discussion turned on Cyril Connolly’s famous quote, ‘There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.’ As someone who wrote her …

A slightly modified version of this post was published in The Jewish Independent

Several years ago, way before October 7 and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war, I was having lunch with colleagues from the writing and publishing universe. We …

I’m magnetised by sad stories, and collect them the way I imagine a comedian gathers humorous anecdotes. I offer them up like a depressing form of stand-up to loved ones, who aren’t always appreciative.

In my memoir, Mood: A Memoir …

‘You might get some bloke at a writers’ festival who stands up in the audience and asks: “In your “research” (titter, titter) for this book, did you really have two dicks in your mouth?” – but that’s out of everyone’s hands, and you’ll …

Psychologists say it takes us only one-tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger. While I couldn’t find any research as to how long it takes to form a first impression of a cookbook, my experience is …

A friend recently reminded me about Jessica Fletcher, the crime-solving novelist in the 1980s television series Murder, She Wrote. Played by the magnificent Angela Lansbury, she was an amateur detective and a bestselling writer, and she handled each task …