Years ago, I bought my parents a framed print by the Punch cartoonist H E Bateman entitled ‘An Attempt to Evade the Best Seller’ which summed up our family's reading addiction. I still have it. Even when I’m writing flat-out, I never stop reading. The TV might go unwatched, the radio unheard and this blog … Continue reading Chip off the Old Blog: the Joy of Books

New book alert! As a Christmas treat, I have a short story collection out, exclusively on Kindle at just 99p. A Christmas Wish…and Other Stories features eleven fictional stocking-fillers packed full of good cheer. The title story, set in a romantically haunted bookshop, was the inspiration for publishing this collection. I wrote it a year … Continue reading Festive Short Story Collection

Autumn is always the most magical of seasons, even with the heating still stubbornly off, a hot water bottle under each arm and greyhounds leaning in for body warmth as I type this. And here’s some news to warm your cockles if you’re waiting for the third Comptons novel: it will be out next summer. … Continue reading Crackling fires, woolly jumpers – and book news!

I’ve shared my life with dogs, and the one who stayed loyally by my side during my thirties and forties was something special. Perhaps it was just timing: she saw me through the turbulent years of divorce, second chance love, motherhood, multiple house moves, career troubles and the darkest days of bereavement. Yet I believe … Continue reading Dog of a (mid)Lifetime

I’m thrilled to share the news that I'll be appearing alongside the Guardian's TV critic and all-round womanly wit Lucy Mangan at Stratford Literary Festival on Friday 12th November, where we’ll be talking motherhood, midlife and all its multi-tasking with the wonderful Jane Garvey. Lucy’s first novel Are We Having Fun Yet? is a riot … Continue reading Stratford Literary Festival

I read recently that Jackie Collins kept an immaculate archive, every press clipping about herself neatly cut out and filed, all editions of her books in every language shelved in order. No mean feat for a woman about whom so many reams of material was written and whose literary output was so prolific. She was … Continue reading Jackie Collins, a Pocket Diary and a Box of Treasures

Mid lock-down, feeling guilty that we hadn’t taken the children anywhere more exciting than the local footpaths for over a year, we came up with the bright idea of a Virtual Reality headset. This way, we told them eagerly, we could each scale Machu Picchu, ski down the Matterhorn, lie on a tropical beach, parachute … Continue reading Virtually Worldly

I have book news, and I hope you’ll forgive me if it’s not quite what you were expecting: Today, I’m thrilled – and slightly terrified - to be able to share the news that my first novel as alter-ego Georgie Hall will be coming out in the UK this summer entitled Woman of a Certain … Continue reading Meet my other half

How many of us started Lockdown 3 with Dolly Parton in our heads 24/7 singing ‘Here You Come Again’? I know I should be grateful it’s finally exorcised the Kylie Minogue earworm that’s been there since Glastonbury 2019, but oh… I’m writing this from the far end of the dining table, pausing to issue a … Continue reading Learning on the Job

Who doesn’t love a British autumn? Even this one, more locked in and lonelier than most, has so much to offer: it’s aflame and awash with colour again, a constant reminder that even on those days we want to stop the world and get off, the seasons come and go regardless. This morning, just before … Continue reading Creature Comforts and Wild Joys.