Finding my voice
So. The last book is on its way out into the world. Advance reader copies with yolk-yellow covers are being printed as I write. The proofs are on the hall table, waiting for one final read-over, to...
View ArticleStar Wars: what storytellers can learn from George Lucas
Christmas is so close you can almost touch it, but as everything seems to be about you-know-what at the moment, I thought I’d tell you about another story. True, it has not, up to now, been a story...
View ArticleBooks … and cake!
The daughter of a friend of mine turned 21 this week. My friend is a librarian (I’m Patron of Reading at the school this year), and see if you can guess how her profession has influenced her daughter:...
View ArticleGirls make great heroes … and villains
To celebrate World Book Day next week, National Book Tokens have just announced the results of their Great Big Book Poll … and girls rock. In a poll voted for by men and women, girls and boys, 6 of the...
View ArticleWhen a story becomes a book
It starts off as an idea. Then a few scribbles in a notebook. Sometimes, in a cafe. Then more scribbles, and maybe a Post-It note plot. Then it’s a nightmare. It’s hell. It’s...
View ArticleHappy Birthday … YouTube!
No doubt you all know that today is the 400th anniversary of the birth of Shakespeare. Woo! The English language wouldn’t be the same without him. Happy Birthday Shakespeare! I shall be reading some of...
View ArticleWinning Like A Girl – by Sophia Bennett
Nearly a century has passed since the first women won the right to vote in the UK (in Switzerland they didn’t get it until 1971!), but it’s still hard to be a confident, successful girl. In all my...
View ArticleFestival! by Sophia Bennett
When I was 21, my parents bought a house in Shepton Mallet in Somerset. They’d lived all over the world and still had a stint in Norway to do, but finally they had a permanent family home. It’s still...
View ArticleToday you’re going to write a story … by Sophia Bennett
Summer holidays are here! Today, you are going to do something amazing. You’re going to write a story. Here’s how. This is an exercise I do in workshops sometimes, and I love it. It’s great for ghost...
View ArticlePerfect 10, by Sophia Bennett
‘Nadia Elena Comăneci was born in Onești, Romania, (formerly known as “Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej”) in the Carpathian Mountains on November 12, 1961.’ So begins the Wikipedia entry for – up to now –...
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