Personal: It’s a long time since I had any hands-on contact with medicine and medical research, but the experience of those years was to an extent formative. One develops a way of thinking, an addiction to hard work and long…

Personal: I have just finished the first draft of The Man in the Mirror, my long-planned “deconstructed Mills & Boon romance”. It features the stereotypical heroine and hero but explores their back-stories and explains how they came to be the…

Personal: As I said two blogs ago, Dr Kathryn Starnes and I will be presenting the next instalment of our folktale evenings in Glossop on 9th June. This time our theme will be tales of faerie… and fairy-tales. A number…

Personal: If you’re anywhere near Chapel-en-le-Frith on Friday-Saturday 10th-11th or 17th-18th June, why not spend an evening watching three one-act comedies in The Playhouse, Eccles Road, performed by the excellent Chapel Players? One of the plays, Bequest, is mine… and…

Personal: On Thursday 9th June, Kathryn Starnes and I will deliver another evening of Peak District folktales and discussions in the small upstairs room of the Labour Club, 11 Chapel Street, Glossop, 7.30-9.30 pm. This time our theme will be…

Personal: It’s a privilege to act as tutor to the creative writing group in Chapel-en-le-Frith, under the aegis of Chapel Arts. No two members of the group are alike in writing interests, style or background, but they’re all enthusiastic, all…

Personal: I’ve now learned that my one-act play Bequest will be performed by Chapel Players in the Playhouse, Chapel-en-le-Frith from 7.30 p.m. on June 10th and 11th and June 17th and 18th. It will be one of three short plays…

Personal: Our Glossop Bookfest team has now settled on a date and venue for our celebration and promotion of local authors: Saturday 12th November in the Methodist Church, Glossop. There will be stands for authors to offer their books for…

Personal news: Here’s what Glossop Creates, our local umbrella organisation for local artists and craftspeople, said on their website about our forthcoming folktale evening (12th May 2022): ‘Everyone enjoys ghost stories… and we have some brilliant ones in the Peak…