All is True Bill Bryson pointed out that we know very little about Shakespeare’s life and if you look back through the excellent work of Peter Ackroyd, Ivor Brown, Dr Johnson and Evelyn’s gossipy diaries, that remains much the case. So can you make it all up? Can you fill a film about Shakespeare’s (known)…

I like short stories. It’s a mystery to me why some publishers have such a downer on them. It seems that they are not happy to countenance publishing a collection unless the author has already published at least one successful novel. I find that odd because there must surely be a market for them out…

A good day at the keyboard. My fourth novel, A Dish of Apricots, has definitely moved into the endgame. Here’s an idea of what’s to come: Philip Williams is the Catastrophe Kid. If anything can go wrong in his life, it will. Calamity follows calamity until he begins to believe that his life is ruled…

The Breakfast Club [Netflix] ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Teen flics are not usually my bag (apart from the inimitable Sex Education). I really thought this was going to be an exception. Five high school types, a jock, a prom queen, a nerd, a wildly unpredictable proto-goth, and an anarchical rebel are thrown together in a Saturday detention. They…

Humphrey sat on the garden swing with the green pistol in one hand and the red pistol in the other. A large King Edward potato lay in his lap. He sat there patiently, quite motionless. After an age, the squirrel came scampering up the steps from the lawn and onto his terrace. Pigeons waddled and…

Les Quatre Cents Coups (dir. Truffaut) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This superb coming of age movie has long been a firm favourite of mine and I enjoyed rediscovering it on Prime. The grainy black and white film captures Paris as I first knew it, grubby and run down but still magnificent. You can almost smell Disque Bleu and…

Our last morning was given over to a stroll in Central Park and the weather gods were good to us: it was bright crisp and sunny. Naturally, a visit to the Astro Diner was in order: first, because we liked it so much and, second of all (see, getting very fluent with these Americanisms)!) second…

O what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive When he was about four, Lucas kept a kiwi fruit as a pet. He had made a kind of crib for it out of a tin which had contained Marks & Spencers Curiously Strong Mints, and he had lined it with some…

I am looking back on our brief holiday in New York with amazement. Hard to believe that just a few weeks later much of the world would be in lockdown owing to the coronavirus. It seems we made our visit just in time. I’m so glad we did. Best to remember that this thing is…

Cherries ‘Do you have cherries?’ asked Bridget. ‘Oui, Madame,’ said the woman serving, ‘but they are still very dear at this time of the year.’ ‘Of course. How much?’ ‘Come, Madame, let me show you,’ and she directed Bridget around a corner of the stall, which was piled high with gorgeous things like round courgettes,…