Old News
April 2008 Organising Association
events , including a coastal walking holiday
March 2008 Began writing articles
for Morgan Mag
February 2008 Walking the coast of
Brittany: Morlaix to Benodet completed
January 2008 Giving talk to AIKB on
the history of Brittany
December 2007 Giving a talk
‘Walking the History of Brittany’ at
café/bookshop Thématique in Mur-de-Bretagne -
Monday 17th 16.00
November 2007 - Xmas Fair booksigning in
Carhaix
October 2007 Aiming to complete
walking for the new coast book. Only 135kms to go.
September 2007 Signing books at fair
in Callac.
August 2007 - On Sunday 19th I’ll be
signing books all day at the Callac Culture literary event in
Côtes d’Armor.
July 2007 - I have started work on a new
book, walking the Brittany coastline - not the entire 1900kms,
but a mere 600. By January.
June 2007 - My new tarot website is now up
and running.
May 2007 - I’ll be at the Mind,
Body, Spirit Fair at Langourla, Côtes d’Armor, on
Sunday May 13 for tarot and book-signing.
April 2007 - my Introduction to the Tarot
course is now up and running, with the first student close to
completion and others spread out along the way.
The Nantes-Brest Canal guide becomes
available at the end of this month.
February 2007- my guide to the
Nantes-Brest canal is now finished and will be out in April.
I’m currently working on The Long Thought, a travelogue
about walking the 365km canal, and a guide to the Monts
d’Arrée
I am also writing a tarot course for
learning the basics - this will be available with or without
tuition by post/email.
Off to Witchfest International in London
on November 4th.
I’m signing copies of my novels and
tarot reading at Brittany’s first Mind, Body, Spirit fair
on Sunday 24th September 2006.
Very nice review of The Five of Cups in
the Somerset papers:
‘… set in the hills of central
Brittany and steeped in the wild and magical atmosphere of the
place. Essentially a romance, the book is also a profound
exploration of relationships and the personal quest for
happiness.
… an excellent style of writing,
combining evocative descriptions of the Breton landscape with
astute character portraits and naturally-flowing dialogue. The
legends and pagan associations of the area feature prominently,
as does the tarot – the Five of Cups tarot card
symbolising the starting point of the plot.’
Central Somerset Gazette
Five of Cups is out and already proving
popular I’m glad to say.
‘ I have really enjoyed reading it
… beautiful and so refreshing’
‘ a delightful reading
experience’
‘I couldn’t put it down
… the characters and locations really came alive for
me’
Thanks to all readers who have written or
emailed me via this site or my blog
I’ve started working on a tarot deck
with artist Sarah Wimperis who also lives in Brittany. We met
in Morlaix market and subsequently discovered we’d been
to school together. Her superb images so far can be seen on www.tarotseeds.blogspot.com
Comments welcome.
So far mainly confined to sport and sex,
but I’ll get on to more trivial topics later.
26/04/06 Article in Ouest-France daily
newspaper, mainly about Red Dog Books but giving good publicity
for my new novel The Five of Cups, which is set in Brittany.
‘L’histoire se situe dans les
monts d’Arrée, entre landes et mégalithes.
Elle est empreinte du côté magique des
lieux.’ Couldn’t have put it better myself !
The Five of Cups is finished and will be
out in June. I’m very grateful to my good friend Jane
Brayne, archaeological illustrator and fine artist, who has
painted a stunning and totally empathetic picture for the
cover.
Thanks also to Zoe Hart who has exerted
her benign influence on the writing of this book.
The novel is about a woman coming to live
in Brittany to get over a lost love and finding herself drawn
into the magic and power of the landscape: only the last bit of
that is autobiographical. Same themes as Moon Garden, but a
very different book. Thanks to all those who have ordered in
advance - look forward to your comments on this one. The Moon
Garden file continues to get heavier and heavier ….
My latest book, Discovering the History of
Brittany (ISBN 0 9536001 5 7), was out in January 2006 in
England and France. Doing very well! It can be ordered online
from Amazon, Tesco, etc. or directly from the publisher, www.reddogbooks.com
I’m touched and delighted to figure
in the acknowledgements of Kate West’s excellent new book
The Real Witches’ Craft (HarperElement), especially in
such illustrious company: Terry Prachett, Douglas Adams, Bill
Bryson and “Wendy Mewes for fine escapist Craft reading,
which is much needed, and for a personal reminder that authors
are real people too!” Thanks, Kate, and I’m glad
you enjoyed Moon Garden so much.
One of my poems has been selected to
feature in the Lucis Trust’s exhibition on the theme of
Hercules. ‘Before the Light’ was read aloud at the
Performance at The Wathen Hall in Barnes, London on Sunday
December 4th 2005. The poem can be seen online at
www.lucistrust.org/hercules and will be published in the
exhibition booklet.