Andrea Montgomery's Blog: Andrea Montgomery's Blog, page 7

A Tale of Two Literary Festivals

Literary festivals, it seems, are like buses – you wait forever for one and then two come along together.

This summer, for the first time ever despite having been regular visitors since before the Hay Festival was even born, we were in Hay-on-Wye during its literary festival.

Staying with one of our oldest friends whose family has lived in the town since the 1980s, we wanted to attend a couple of event...

Getting Rid of the Old Age Stereotype

Sometimes, all it takes is one question to make me realise that I’m guilty of letting an age-old, old age stereotype influence my thinking.

‘The only thing that’s constant is change.’ That was the mantra of the organisation where I worked in my thirties when I was under immense, unremitting pressure to deliver on deadlines; innovate, motivate and inspire change in others, and lead the way in total qualit...

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

One read of the back cover blurb of Gail Honeyman’s debut novel , Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, and I was hooked:

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life.
She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy.
Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled existence. Except, ...

Following Life’s Signposts

It was a beautiful day in the Holnicote Estate.

Bright sunshine cavorted through the branches of ancient oak trees, chasing its own shifting shadows as they danced across the woodland floor. Above the green canopy, the sky was the sort of intense blue we used to walk beneath in the pine forests of Tenerife, and away from the breeze on the exposed moors, the air temperature quickly had me down to short sl...

Sales of The Banana Road

As it’s almost 18 months since publication, I thought I’d share what’s been happening with sales of The Banana Road.

The last time I talked about the memoir on here was my virtual launch day which happened quite near the start of a 10-day pilgrimage through Northern Spain following the Portuguese Way of the Camino de Santiago. It was also right in the middle of our relocation back to the UK, a time fraug...

Maintaining Interest on my Author Website

Everyone who knows us, either virtually or actually, knows that Jack is the social media engine in our partnership.

While I stare out the window at the sheep; dither, procrastinate, and assert that I have nothing of interest to say on my author website or social media channels, Jack’s fingers dance across his keyboard from the crack of 8.30am to the tail end of 5.30pm with ba...

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

I was intrigued by the back page cover blurb of The Lost Apothecary and then read a favourable review in the Guardian, so I bought it. Jack read it before me (he’s a speed reader to my more ponderous pace) and seemed somewhat underwhelmed, muttering about ‘the modern story’ falling short.
So it was with quite low expectations that I began Sarah Penner’s highly lauded, New York Times bestseller.

Synopsis ...

Recipe for Summer Gazpacho

This is a really easy and delicious gazpacho which is perfect as a starter or a light lunch on a sunny, summer’s day. I wasn’t a fan of gazpacho until relatively recently (about 7yrs ago) as my only experience of it had been a tasteless, tepid, watery borscht in a Hungarian restaurant on a work trip back in the 1990s.

My gazpacho atonement arrived courtesy of the Beach Club at Hotel Villa Cortes in Tener...

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

I liked the synopsis of Small Pleasures so much I bought the book twice.
Naturally, that was an oversight, which I justified to myself by the excuse that there was a sizeable time gap between the purchases and which I resolved by giving one copy away as a birthday present. As fate would have it, it turned out to be a very nice gift because Clare Chamber’s first novel in a decade is an absolute joy.

Synop...

What Constitutes a Salad?

As July brings heatwaves and long, summer days, we’ve been diving into our repertoire of salads, and every time I make one, I think about people’s perceptions of what constitutes a salad.

I know that, in the grand scheme of things (Tory leadership election, heatwave, war in Ukraine…) this is not a question that is going to vex the minds of serious thinkers. It’s trivial nonsense. But as roads and tempera...