Begin Again with Mrs Finnegan*
The most extraordinary housekeeper of her generation, Mrs Finnegan is about to write a book. But first, she tackles that age-old problem: what SHOULD you do when a biscuit drops into your tea?
Reading Allows ‘…People Long Dead to Talk Inside Our heads…’ Carl Sagan QUOTES FOR WRITERS
For 99 percent of the tenure of humans on earth, nobody could read or write. The great invention had not yet been made. Except for first hand experience, almost everything … Continue reading
How to Win at a Writing Competition without Claiming First Prize
Agents take notice of the results of writing competitions and competition organisers often have strong links with agents.
Writing is a Craft…Deirdre Madden QUOTES FOR WRITERS
I feel strongly that writing is more of an artisan activity than an intellectual one because you’re actually making something. I would feel closer to a basket maker, or a … Continue reading
Don’t be Ashamed of your TBR Book Pile – David Quammen QUOTES FOR WRITERS AND READERS
Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its … Continue reading
Mrs Finnegan’s Almanac: A Celebration!
This Almanac is One Year Old! It was on the 28th day of March 1836 at 8 O’ clock in the morning that I picked up my quill and started … Continue reading
What Reading Teaches you – James Baldwin QUOTES FOR WRITERS (AND READERS)
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented … Continue reading
Mrs Finnegan’s Almanac: Rainy Days and Daffodil Days.
I am not entirely sure what happiness is, but I think it must SMELL like Brighton on a daffodil morning when the wind blows from the south and it is … Continue reading
Fiction and Non-Fiction – the Difference Aminatta Forna QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Don DeLillo once quipped that a fiction writer starts with meaning and manufactures events to represent it; the writer of creative nonfiction starts with events, then derives meaning from them. … Continue reading
Mrs Finnegan’s Almanac: Ladies, get your red petticoats ready!
Proposing Two women are held responsible for the LEAP Year tradition that allows women to PROPOSE on February 29th. Queen Margaret of Scotland was said to have passed a law … Continue reading
The Best Moments – Alan Bennett on Reading QUOTES FOR WRITERS
The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular … Continue reading
Rejection Never Ends…Advice from Award-wining Irish Novelist Donal Ryan QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Rejection! Rejection! Rejection! It never ends for a writer, say, Irish novelist Donal Ryan but there is still joy to be had…QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Mrs Finnegan’s Almanac: Nasty Machines and the Husbands who Own Them
Mrs Finnegan reveals a guilty secret hidden at the back of her husband’s cupboard and something he did NOT do which is far worse,
Chop, hack, prune and trim…Nick Hornby QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Anyone and everyone taking a writing class knows that the secret of good writing is to cut it back, pare it down, winnow, chop, hack, prune, and trim, remove every … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 