Years ago, I watched the very charming TV series of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford, that tale of a small community of the first half of the 19th century. I think it was in the second series where the ladies go for a ride on […]
(My exegesis/thesis of 2007 for my Master of Creative Writing, Melbourne University. It’s not a long read, as the original included […]
My novel What Empty Things Are These is set in 1860. What could their dress say about the status of women in 1860? Well, that may be obvious – but what does it say about a particular kind of chaos in the minds of Victorians? Perhaps […]
Unbeknownst to me, of course, the train station wasn’t far from my modest hotel, in Montmartre. This meant, of course, that I parted with another of my limbs in payment for a taxi, fetched for me by a touter who no doubt […]
Anyone who has ever sold a house after twenty years or so will know most of the story of my trials. Suffice to say, very little goes smoothly, everyone accuses everyone else of being unhelpful … and the piles of rubble seem endless. Not only […]
Agde, floods, signing up and shipping out
Sneakiness and good timing meant that I could in fact escape the hotel for a meal occasionally, without being called back to eat with the family. I assume their kindly concern was […]
Now, where was I?
Ah yes. I had decided that, while the final decisions were being made about which house to buy, I should take myself to some seaside town of picturesque dimensions. Especially given it was still summer. Have some sort of […]
And so the hour-long trip to Montpellier by bus. In my last report I didn’t mention the slight confusion when I booked my seat. I thought they’d said three Euros for the trip, but when I went to pay I was told no, that’s one […]
Agents and choices; vineyards and medieval towns
It is absolutely evident that wine is the local industry, There are vines everywhere in this region. One of my agents (V, who originally came from Lebanon) chose, she said, to live just a […]
In which I make a trip to France to make its acquaintance and to choose from my short-list of houses.
I am here. I have slept a lot, as you might expect after seven hours from Melbourne to Malaysia (lo! I had […]
