The Woman who Slept with a Monkey

19th December 2018

My story that won the Plymouth Short Story Competition (It’s not what you are thinking!).Here’s the link: Writing Competition 2018  

For Remembrance Day: a short story “Barn, 1917”

11th November 2018

(This piece of flash fiction originated as an exercise in a creative writing class.  The task was to tell about a barn and a man whose son has been killed  without saying it is a barn or that the son has died in the war.) I push open the great doors. They groan, echoing my pain. This … Read More

How do authors over 60 define success? Marylee Macdonald investigates.

29th April 2018

How Do Authors Over 60 Define Career Success? by Marylee MacDonald Career success for writers over 60 looks quite different from the success of writers profiled in such places as The New Yorker’s 20 Best Writers Under 40 or Granta’s  Best Young American Novelists. Writers in their 60s, 70s, and 80s can’t enter these literary … Read More

Feelgood or Uplit?

18th March 2018

“Feelgood ” refers to films or books that portray people and life in a way that makes us feel happy or optimistic. “Uplit” – a new term which I found in The Guardian and which is derived from “uplifting literature” – seems to mean the same thing. It works best when there is some sadness, some realism, to … Read More

Do you recognise this? A Russian story with a moral

3rd February 2018

Does anyone recognise this? If you do, please let me know. Years ago I used to perform it as a sort of party piece, but I’ve no idea where I got it from. A Russian peasant is trudging through the snow. He finds a poor little frozen bird, still breathing – just. He picks it … Read More

Hola! And other new words that annoy me.

1st January 2018

I may be an old lady but I’m on Facebook and I know how to tweet and blog. But there are some contemporary terms that I cannot bring myself to use. These make me wince – and I have no excuses to offer. Do others feel the same? When I began this post I was greeted … Read More

Coming of Age

18th November 2017

“Perhaps that sums it up – this story to date, that is. The mistakes, the missed clues, the silly pride, and all the self-pity. And finding love in unexpected places.” (Timed Out)  Timed Out, published in my seventies, is a ‘coming of age’ story in two senses. My character Jane Lambert is sixty when the … Read More

Writing about Humanism

9th November 2017

(First published in Humanist Life, July 2016) ‘It’s as though a door opened and someone beckoned; I didn’t respond, and the door was closed for always. I was still a non-believer, but not so militant now – perhaps because of that little Madonna, or because of my friend Maria who trusted in that God of … Read More

The Event – a short story

3rd November 2017

Arthur Tillotson squirms trussed and gagged in the centre of a huge circle of red-robed young women. Most of their pretty faces show fear, a few anger, a very few pity; all of them show resolution. They have removed their wide-brimmed bonnets but kept on their little white caps. A voice announces, “Girls, this man … Read More

10 Tips for Earning a Writer’s Thanks

18th September 2017

1.Don’t lend books.. 2.Don’t borrow books, except from libraries. 3.Review books on Amazon and Goodreads. 4.If libraries say they haven’t a copy, persist. 5.If bookshops say they haven’t a copy, persist. 6.Suggest contemporary writers for your book club. 7.Support independent bookshops. 8.Go to signings, events, literary festivals – and buy books. 9.Give books as presents. … Read More