Alex Gutteridge's Blog, page 3

Days Out

Days out can seem like such an indulgence. Ever since I first started writing there has been this constant conflict - when I'm writing I always think of all of the other things which need doing and when I'm not placing words on the page I feel that I should be!


BUT as writers it is so important to put down our pens or close up our keyboards and make a conscious effort to get out and do the other things we love. It can only broaden our horizons and ultimately enhance our creativ...

Wordless Wednesday - A Swathe of Crocus

Don't forget the Detail

"Don't forget the detail," I always say when taking a writing workshop. A tree is not just a tree. It could be an oak or a willow or a flowering cherry. All are different. All immediately conjure up a vivid picture in the mind. That is what you are doing when writing a book; painting a picture with words.

In my next door neighbour's garden stands a large beech tree. It was present as a fully grown tree on a map of the area from 1912. This tree is probably about 130 years old, maybe more. But s...

What Are Writers Like?

I've read three things about writers over the last couple of weeks.


1. "Writers are like fleas, they get very little nourishment from each other."
    So said John Dos Passos, the Chicago born, radical American novelist.                  
    This quote was repeated in an article by Tim Lott about the loneliness of
     being a writer and given a staun...

Fairy Tales

When my daughter and I go for a walk we always have to stop after a few yards while she gets a stone out of her boot. Then, often, we stop a few yards later as she can still feel something else digging into her sole.

"You're like the princess and the pea," I said to her on Tuesday when we had stopped three times within sight of our front gate!

Actually this fairy tale was one of my favourites when I was small. I still have the original, rather dog eared but much loved copy of the book it...

Wordless Wednesday - Spring has Sprung!

All Change Again!

We have an exciting week ahead. By the time I write my next post we will have a new addition to our family. My son and his wife are having their second child next week. Unbelievably my grand-daughter is two years old and about to have a brother or sister. As an only child how I envy her.


We do not know whether this baby will be a boy or girl. I wonder whether he/she will have soft auburn curls like my granddaughter. Will this new arrival be like her? Will he or she possess her energy...

Wordless Wednesday - Love in a Bowl

All Saints, Stamford

'Lincolnshire churches cannot be bettered...above all they are a pleasure to visit'Simon Jenkins


In the centre of Stamford, overlooking  Red Lion Square, rises the parish church of All Saints. It's an imposing sight.




Again I had spent the morning writing in the library and set off, in a chill wind, to stretch my legs. I've always loved churches and churchyards. In the U.K. these days churches are often not open during the week, but All Saints was. I stepped away from the traffic, through t...

Two Beautiful English Towns

This week I have been lucky enough to visit two beautiful English towns on consecutive days. On Thursday morning, in blinding sunshine, I drove my daughter to Stamford in Lincolnshire.




The town has been used as a backdrop for period costume dramas such as Middlemarch and Pride and Prejudice.



For a time my friend Carol used to live in Stamford and we would meet up for lunch and a catch-up. My daughter had a day's work experience arranged at the local auctioneer's and, in an effort to get do...