Hello. This blog contains some book reviews, and some random thoughts on how I go about my writing. Such as….

THE NOTEBOOK FILES

I keep a notebook. I always ask for notebooks for my birthday, and usually get given two or three, which is great because they last me the year. My notebooks are part diary, part shopping-list, part sounding-board, part scribble-pad, part scrap-book, part note-pad, part address-book, part sketch-book, part mole-rat. No, not that last one. In my previous entry on the subject I referred to some notes made on a pigeon I encountered at a bus stop in North Woolwich back in 1982. I said I hadn’t made use of those notes directly in any writing. But my daughter recently pointed out that, in fact, there is a scene in one of my books (THE HOUSE OF EYES, winner of the Stockton Children’s Book of the Year Award, 1998) which features a pigeon and a boy named Keith. What’s more, it’s a scene that apparently made her cry when she first read it. (This makes me feel pleased that she found my story moving, but also a bit guilty that it upset her). Thinking about it now, I'm sure the Woolwich pigeon was a major influence behind the writing of that particular scene.