I am three lines from completing Mary`s Decision, which is the last story I am submitting for my collection of short stories, title Tell it Not, to be published by Red Heifer Press in January. It has to be approved by Peter Gimpel, my dear publisher of course, but till now he has liked every […]
For what we hope are the concluding weeks of Jeff`s recovery, we have been hunting through Netflix to find something both of us might be prepared to watch. The formulaic, violent crime series (pl) just don`t do it for us. The other day we hit on The Kominsky Method, but early in episode one, in […]
I have been surprised not to have missed theatre as much as I have missed live concerts, during this Corona year. Or rather – almost a Corona year and a quarter. The last concert we went to was a Chamber Concert at Kings Place, where the accoustics are superb. It was in early March 2020 […]
That is going to be the title of my short story collection. Jeff jokes that it`s offering easy puns for a reviewer who perhaps doesn`t like the stories. But I reckon anyone can dislike or like any story at any time. I chanced upon a project inviting Emerging Writers to apply for funding and support, […]
`Tell It Not` will definitely either be or not be the title of my forthcoming collection of short stories. One of the stories, published in The Jewish Quarterly in the nineteen eighties as `The Shelter,` is now called ` Tell It Not.` Final decision re title to be made in due course but meanwhile I […]
We set about living in Ashkelon in 1970. After a year or two there I began to feel that this was not the place in which I hoped to stay and bring up our children. Jeff began to work as a trainee paediatrician at Ashkelon hospital. The head of paediatrics at this small (then) hospital, […]
I have signed the contract for the publication of my short story collection, but haven`t yet posted it, secure delivery, to its destination in California. But I am pleased to have done this and in a few days will write to the three UK publishers who have not yet read or commented on the collection […]
Jeff is still recovering from neurosurgery, but all in all is pleased he went through with the operation. I am still tired after not quite sleeping enough, and all that. This afternoon we watched most of the Duke of Edinburgh`s funeral, which was genuinely moving – the absence of large crowds gave it an eerie […]
I have my early school reports, from Redland High School for Girls, Bristol. Nothing too memorable, I imagine. I was never either top or bottom of any class, but two statements have stayed with me until now. At five and a quarter this was said: `Deborah is still rather slow in the cloakroom. Her number […]
I remember the day of the Queen`s coronation. We had bought a black and white television. Our house in Bristol (in Tyndall Avenue, and yes Tyndall was a slave trader among other things…) had three rooms on the ground floor. Dining-room, lounge, and Daddy`s study. In the lounge my mother had set out plates of […]