July 3rd 2012 was the birth anniversary of a writer I admire – Elizabeth Taylor. She was born and brought up in the town of Reading, not far from where I live. In April this year I organised a one-day Festival to celebrate her centenary. The principal speakers were Philip Hensher, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Professor Neil Reeve, Diane Freeborn and Lynne Hatwell (aka DoveGreyReader). Elizabeth Taylor’s daughter, Joanna, and her son, Renny, and their children were there to add their memories. The audience included book blogger Heavenali. On July 7th I went to the Elizabeth Taylor Centenary Conference at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge where the keynote speaker was Taylor’s biographer and founder of Persephone Books, Nicola Beauman. And I wrote my own appreciation of Taylor for the online Arts Magazine Glow .
I’ve just come back from a two-week stay in one of my favourite places in France – The Old Bakehouse at Chateau Sentout on a ridge above the Garonne about twenty kilometres south of Bordeaux with a wonderful view out across Les Landes to the wide, western horizon. The…
I find it hard to begin a new book. When I look at the one I’ve finished, I wonder how I did it. I forget how I did it. I can’t see how I will do it all over again.
