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 | Jul 18, 2019 | Gogglebox, Nostalgia, Television |
For those of you who don’t know, I’m the oldest of four children. When my parents separated, my mum was in her mid-thirties, which seemed old to me at the time. Now I’m the age my mum was when my daughter was born, I know she was comparatively young, and must...
by Graeme Cumming | Jul 9, 2019 | Nostalgia, The Gigging Years |
It was my mum’s birthday last week, and it reminded me of a gigging story. I’ve previously made reference to the fact my mum influenced my early musical tastes. Although I went on to discover and adopt different types of music in later years, I still have a fondness...
by Graeme Cumming | Jul 3, 2019 | Gogglebox, Nostalgia |
Some time back, I wrote about going to see Status Quo for the first time. The year was 1982, and you can read my account here – it’s worth it if only for the videos! That took place in May. In August, they topped the bill at Monsters of Rock held at Donington Park,...
by Graeme Cumming | Jun 30, 2019 | Blogging, Meetings, Writing |
Last year I had a blog tour for Ravens Gathering. Arguably, it was a little late, since the book had been out for a few years by then. However, I’d never done a blog tour and got talking to someone who organises them at a Book Connectors event in York a few months...
by Graeme Cumming | Jun 27, 2019 | Literary Festivals, Writing |
This is a continuation from my last post, so you may want to read that first. Click here if you haven’t. Because the Deepings are a bit of a drive from my house, we’d travelled the night before and stopped at a Premier Inn in Peterborough. As with all Premier...
by Graeme Cumming | Jun 24, 2019 | Literary Festivals, Writing |
A couple of years ago, the incomparable Linda Hill made mention of the first Deepings Literary Festival on her blog, Linda’s Book Bag. As it happened, I was thinking I needed to go to some literary festivals and this one seemed like a good place to start. Sadly, the...
by Graeme Cumming | Jun 9, 2019 | Gogglebox, Nostalgia |
One Sunday evening in 1973, I managed to persuade my mum to let me watch a TV movie. I say persuaded because it was school the next morning and, I suspect like most households at that time, Sunday night in particular was a night for making sure you were ready for the...
by Graeme Cumming | May 21, 2019 | Nostalgia, The Gigging Years |
Listening to the radio the other day, I heard Every Little Thing She Does is Magic. Not a big deal until I heard the year it was released: 1981. Was it really that long ago since I saw them? As with a lot of gigs, this one started with a suggestion from Zim. “Do you...
by Graeme Cumming | May 14, 2019 | Blogging, Meetings, Writing |
The Bloggers Bash presents opportunities for several things: to meet up and mingle with old friends and new; to be there when the Bash Awards prizes are announced and presented; and to learn more about the art of blogging. One of the ways we fulfil that last...
by Graeme Cumming | May 8, 2019 | Gogglebox, Nostalgia, Television |
In the early 1970s, I didn’t even know Cockney rhyming slang was a thing. By 1975, I was much more familiar with it, and that’s down to one TV series: The Sweeney. Then again, apart from learning that Sweeney Todd rhymed with Flying Squad, along with the rest of the...
by Graeme Cumming | Apr 30, 2019 | Music, Nostalgia, The Gigging Years |
When I was at school, most of my mates had nicknames. Zim, for example, was not the given name of my best friend. Strangely enough, Boo, El and Fathead weren’t parental choices, either. The closest I got was the mis-pronunciation of my surname – which still happens!...
by Graeme Cumming | Mar 30, 2019 | Blogging, Meetings |
As I write this, on the morning of 30th March, it would be very easy to reflect on the chaos that is the Brexit process as the UK parliament lurches in no particular direction at all. Fortunately, there is no such problem with the forthcoming Annual Bloggers Bash. We...
