by Graeme Cumming | Jan 27, 2020 | Life Lessons, Thinking Aloud |
Legend has it that my birth was traumatic. I nearly died, although the only lasting reminder is a small indentation where forceps barely missed my right eye. Between them, my godmother and my dad spent all night keeping me alive while my mum recovered from her own...
by Graeme Cumming | Jan 24, 2020 | Events, Literary Festivals |
Last week, I wrote a post about the Read Dating event taking place at Bourne Old Town Hall on 15th February – just over three weeks away. The concept is easy enough. It’s a bit like speed dating, or so I’m told (I’ve never done it, but...
by Graeme Cumming | Jan 18, 2020 | Events, Literary Festivals |
Last May I went to the Deepings Literary Festival and had a great day out, some of which I wrote about here. On reflection, I now know I should have had two or three great days out. Maybe next year. There was a specific event there which was promoted as Read Dating....
by Graeme Cumming | Jan 14, 2020 | Book Reviews, Fiction, Nostalgia, Publishing, Thinking Aloud |
In a recent blog post, I mentioned browsing in a second hand bookshop. I’ve picked up a few books there over the last couple of years – always picked something up while I was there. One of the last purchases was an impulse buy triggered by nostalgia. As a...
by Graeme Cumming | Jan 8, 2020 | Nostalgia, Thinking Aloud |
Last summer I spent a lot of time browsing in a second hand book shop in our little town. I loved going in there because… well, books obviously. But they also sold drinks and cakes you could either eat at a table in their little cafe at the back or they’d...
by Graeme Cumming | Jan 5, 2020 | Book Reviews, Events, Literary Festivals |
A few weeks ago, I wrote a review of Stone Cold Heart by Caz Frear. In the post, I explained how I came to have a copy of the book and, in the process, managed to acquire a few others. It has taken a while to get to those others, but I’ve made a start now,...
by Graeme Cumming | Dec 22, 2019 | Music, Nostalgia, The Gigging Years |
A few months ago, I wrote about gigs at Loughborough Students Union, and one of the acts I mentioned was Slade. I did see them more than once, and felt there was more to add. When I saw them, it was the early 1980s, some years after their heyday as, allegedly, part of...
by Graeme Cumming | Dec 18, 2019 | Carrion, Publishing, Writing |
Never done this before. Not sure I should be doing it now, to be honest. But, in a moment of madness, yesterday I went public with the cover for my next book (I know – it’s been a long time coming…). The reason I have a doubt about whether to do it...
by Graeme Cumming | Dec 11, 2019 | Book Reviews, Events, Meetings |
About every 5 months, a gathering occurs in a hotel in Stoke-on-Trent. On the face of it, not the most obvious place in the world to meet, but it seems well connected in terms of roads and rail – and the hotel is just opposite the train station. The people who show...
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,...
