Dave Cousins, author of 15 Days Without a Head and Waiting for Gonzo , shares his story making secret. One of the most common questions asked of writers is where do you get your ideas from? It’s a question that many will struggle to answer—not me. I know exactly where my stories originate. I’ll let you into the secret, but don’t go spreading it around. This is […]
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The inimitable Geraldine McCaughrean shares her experience of writing The Positively Last Performance , her wonderful new novel about a seaside town and a theatre full of ghosts, each with their own story to tell. First it was Turner, then Tracey Emin. Even the Rough Guide put it among the world’s ten top resorts. Karl Marx and T. S. Eliot […]
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Sally Prue on the influence of her childhood on her latest novel, Song Hunter : the story of a girl at the dawn of the Ice Age. ‘Hm,’ said my husband Roger. ‘This is a very autobiographical novel, isn’t it.’ Now the startling thing about Roger’s comment is that the book in question was my novel Song Hunter; and Song Hunter is not […]
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Award-winning author Gillian Cross writes about the inspiration for her latest novel, After Tomorrow – a dark survival thriller scarily close to home . . . Ideas can come from very unexpected places. After Tomorrow takes place in England and France, but it started with a picture of boys in Africa. I was doing some work with a charity […]
Read moreThis week has been designated national storytelling week , and that has turned my mind to the ancient art of oral storytelling. More specifically, it has set me thinking about books in which oral storytelling plays an important part – and what those books can tell us about the power of stories. I thought I would share my […]
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Today marks the start of this year’s BBC Radio 2 500 Words competition , run by the Chris Evans Breakfast Show. The competition asks children aged 13 or under to compose an original work of fiction of 500 words. The entries are judged by a star-studded cast of children’s authors, with the winning entries read out live on the Chris Evans […]
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