Sandra

Thank you for taking us with you on that trip down Memory Lane. What a lovely story. Here’s to Susie.

Well-written and informative blog, as always. Thank you.

I love seeing Welsh words and working out how they might be pronounced. I knew how to pronounce Abergele because my grandmother, father and aunt were evacuated there during the war, and Gran used to speak of it.

Many years ago, the law firm I worked at acted for a client buying a snooker…[Read more]

Yes, I agree with @raine and @jillybean. Boyne is clearly lazy and arrogant with it. I recall some online stoush he had with the Auschwitz Memorial Museum (!!) when they criticised the historical accuracy of his book, and his snooty and dismissive response. I have despised him since I must say. I tend to research more than I need but I have a…[Read more]

Fascinating, Richard. Rich’s words may have been ahead of their time, but that serves to emphasise how persistent the root causes of these disasters are. We still do it, even with our modern safety culture. Sadly, there are forces working to erode what gains have been made. The “Health & Safety Gone Mad” slogan may not belong to a formal campaign;…[Read more]

Totally agree re Boyne, @jillybean. He’s lazy and complacent, and doesn’t care who he hurts as a result.

Having recently discovered the horrors of researching hist fic, I must admit to struggling with knowing where the line is between really getting stuck on details that don’t matter, and making sure the whole worldbuilding feels authentic.…[Read more]

Pretty sure Stephen King now has a team of fact checkers. But yes I imagine the tone of those letters is gleeful. What I’ll say for King is that even though he’s writing speculative fiction, he portrays characters who’ve had life experiences he has not respectfully. The same cannot be said for Boyne! One of the big problems with The Boy in the…[Read more]

There are degrees to this and a dependency on the type of book being written. I am not searching for an artificial precision in moral culpability. I am not saying that there are some absolute rules at play. I am saying that if you bend the truth to suit your story, while at the same time maintaining that what you write is authentic, then there are…[Read more]

Looking For Paradise

The mossy church bench had no kids fighting around it. No grumpy, obstinate husbands, or house-din. Just bliss. I breathed deeply as I listened to the trees above, its branches whispering and swaying in a gentle breeze, stirring birds into song. A squirrel wriggled up rough bark and disappeared into the foliage, minding its…[Read more]

Thank you Richard – sorry, my original reply has also slipped through a portal. I hadn’t heard of this book and as a HUGE admirer of Ursula le Guin I will do my best to remedy that (might be a challenge, from what you say). Thank you for a fascinating blog and for highlighting so clearly how fantasy can be just as powerful, if not more so, at…[Read more]