SLOWING DOWN, BELFAST, CRANFORD & AN INTERVIEW

I am trying to take life easier and say no to gigs, but it's hard. I don't want to disappoint people but, at the same time, I need to slow down, spend some quality time with the family and go edit my 19th C London novel. Half of me is dying to get back to the book, the other half has The Fear. I most definitely need to take a step back from gigging. I have some commitments coming up but I need to slow it down for 2016. I'm a bit Lionel Shriver about it all, though...

£2.50 in Oxfam BelfastI went to my first meeting of the Irish chapter of the Historical Novel Society at the weekend in Belfast and it was great. So good to talk to people who have similar passions for the old. And I may have got the nudge I need to do something I have long wanted to do; I need to think about it and make plans. Something has to change in my working life or I will go doo-lally, that's for sure. I'm halfway there already.

While in Belfast I, of course, had a trip around the charity shops. I bought the above beautiful edition of Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. I have never watched the TV series, but I might seek it out now. The novel is fantastic. So far so feminist.

Meanwhile, The Irish Post in the UK interviewed me about Miss Emily and it appeared in last Saturday's paper. My UK PR, Lucy, kindly sent it on to me. Click and zoom to read: