by Graeme Cumming | Nov 4, 2016 | Writing |
Like many people, I enjoy reading books with recurring characters. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, for example, or Jeffrey Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme. Provided they’re well written, they offer predictability – you know what you’re getting. When I first decided to write...
by Graeme Cumming | Dec 7, 2019 | Music, Nostalgia, The Gigging Years |
Some time back, I wrote about the first time I saw Thin Lizzy when the original headliners were supposed to be Ultravox. It was a year later, 1982, before I finally got to see the band I was supposed to. In 1981, their biggest hit, Vienna, was cheated of a number one...
by Graeme Cumming | Dec 3, 2019 | Book Reviews, Literary Festivals |
I went to the Harrogate Crime Festival this summer. It was my second time there, though the first had been little more than a recce – a long afternoon in sunshine and mixing with authors, book bloggers and crime fans generally. This year’s visit was slightly more...
by Graeme Cumming | Nov 30, 2019 | Gogglebox, Nostalgia, Television |
There was a time when children were put to work at a very young age, often doing jobs adults couldn’t, like going up chimneys to sweep them. The nature of the work alone was cruel, and the pittance paid akin to slave labour. Those days, of course, are long gone,...
by Graeme Cumming | Nov 28, 2019 | Events, Literary Festivals, Ravens Gathering |
How is it that December is almost here. And that means the nightmare that is Christmas (Bah humbug? Me?). Most readers here won’t be local to me, but for the odd few that are, there’s this going on in Retford next week. It’s a small town, so...
by Graeme Cumming | Nov 23, 2019 | Thinking Aloud |
As I’ve got older, I’ve found I’m much happier in myself if I spend time with nature – something that’s reflected in my writing. Chunks of Ravens Gathering take place in woodland, and Carrion has key scenes in two different forests, and on two different...
by Graeme Cumming | Nov 8, 2019 | Gogglebox, Nostalgia |
My mum had a thing about Roger Moore – still does – and her enthusiasm rubbed off on me (though in a different way). I’ve talked elsewhere about The Persuaders!, and it’ll come as little surprise to regular readers that he was my favourite Bond. He’s done other...
by Graeme Cumming | Nov 1, 2019 | Music, Nostalgia, The Gigging Years |
A few weeks ago, I wrote about gigs at Loughborough Students Union, but one act in particular warrants more background. Some of the singers and bands I’ve written about have been very high profile – The Rolling Stones, Queen, The Police – and others less so. Tom...
by Graeme Cumming | Oct 20, 2019 | Gogglebox, Nostalgia, Television |
It probably won’t surprise you to learn I spent a lot of time watching TV as a child. Since it was the only way to keep me quiet, the telly became a surrogate babysitter for me. Bearing in mind that channels in the 1960s didn’t generally start transmitting until...
by Graeme Cumming | Sep 16, 2019 | Music, Nostalgia, The Gigging Years |
If you’re a regular concert-goer these days, the chances are you attend mainly large venues – arenas and football stadiums. For lesser artists – usually those who had their heyday twenty to forty years ago – you might catch them at concert halls. A place you almost...
by Graeme Cumming | Sep 12, 2019 | Events, Literary Festivals, Writing |
Have you ever noticed that, when you buy a particular car, suddenly there are loads of them on the road? Or you buy an item of clothing, and everyone seems to be wearing it? The reality is that there aren’t more of those cars on the road, nor has that coat or dress...
by Graeme Cumming | Sep 10, 2019 | Events, Literary Festivals, Writing |
Regular readers (both of you!) might recall that, back in May, I went to the Market Deeping Literary Festival. One of the events I attended there was their Read Dating session, and I wrote about it here. A few weeks ago, I was chatting to a fellow writer who’s a...
by Graeme Cumming | Sep 8, 2019 | Events, Literary Festivals, Writing |
Like most of us when we reflect on our childhoods, I have some very happy memories, although I didn’t always appreciate how good it was at the time. Even so, I didn’t particularly like where I lived and couldn’t wait to move away and leave it behind – again, I...
