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A writer needs a website like a bicycle needs a fish. Or something like that. People who bang words together for a living should provide some evidence of that skill in all media, apparently. But that’s a bit like giving a cartographer a blank map, or a monkey a banana plantation. A website, a blog, a twitter account, a facebook page – these all allow a certain kind of writer to pretend they are writing when, in fact, they are hiding from words. I am that kind of writer: word-driven but yet bone-idle; deadline-meeting but procrastinatory; clever with words but surprisingly dense about numbers, maps, agendas and anything that has diagrams; a good cook with dire presentational skills; a keen grower with no horticultural training; a wordsmith who longs to draw. In short, my blog is not called Writing Neuroses for nothing.

'Minding My Peas and Cucumbers' has just been reprinted. Thank you to everybody who bought a first edition - may everything you plant come up and may the slugs never find your seedlings.

Available to order online at amazon.co.uk, or buy from National Trust gift shops and, as they say, all good bookstores (or if not, let me know and I will try to persuade them to stock it!)

BUY NOW

[click cover to enlarge]