Silver Sound 4 November 2016: Village People

Today’s guest was author Debbie Young. Debbie has written a number of author guidebooks, including Sell Your Books (SilverWood Books) and Opening Up to Indie Authors for the Alliance of Independent Authors (jointly with Dan Holloway). She has also published two collections of essays, both inspired by life in the Cotswold village of Hawkesbury Upton – All Part of the Charm: A Modern Memoir of Village Life and Young By Name.

In addition Debbie has published a number of short story collections, including the Christmas themed Stocking Fillers. She is now working on the first in a series of murder mystery novels set in an English village not unlike Hawkesbury Upton – except, of course, for the murders!

Debbie has also written the book Coming to Terms With Type 1 Diabetes to raise funds and awareness for the JDRF. JDRF is the largest charitable funder of research into a cure for the disease, which affects both her husband and her daughter.

Amongst her many activities, Debbie is the founder of the Hawkesbury Upton Literary Festival. All events are free and it’s a wonderful chance to enjoy a day in the village and listen to readings and talks. The next festival is on 22 April 2017. For more details see the HULF website.

You can find out more about Debbie’s work and her books on her website.

Author Debbie Young at the BCfm Studio

National Memory Day Writing Competition - Debbie’s work is very much based in her local community, and it’s an excellent example of the advice often given to writers to “write what you know”. So if you feel inspired to have a go, or if you are already writing, you might be interested in the National Memory Day writing competition. National Memory Day is an annual celebration of poetry and creative writing for people affected by memory loss, and the first National Memory Day is 18 May 2017. The competition is for poems and short stories, and includes a Best Young Writer Award and Best Primary Carer Voice Award. For details see the National Memory Day website.

Diabetes - If you would like more information or advice about diabetes you might find the following links useful:-

The InternationalDiabetes Federation

JDRF

DiabetesUK

You can listen to the show here (10 to 11 am)

http://bcfmradio.com/silversound

Silver Sound is broadcast by BCfm 93.2 fm between 10 am and mid day on Thursdays and Fridays. I’ll be back on the show between 10 and 11 am on 2 December 2016 with another fabulous guest!

'We will have a fire': arson during eighteenth-century enclosures

Join our Winter Solstice Blog Hop! Thirty writers throw light on a dazzling range of topics . Follow the links at the end of this article to be enlightened and brightened by our blogs... “Inclosure came and trampled on the grave Of labours rights and left the poor a slave And memorys pride ere want to wealth did bow Is both the shadow and the substance now.” John Clare, The Mores On 1 May 1794, the writer Hester (Thrale) Piozzi of Streatham Park recorded in her diary that the furze on the common had been set on fire in protest at the enclosure of land “which really & of just Right belonged to the poor of the Parish”. Yet even while she acknowledged that the protesters had justice on their side, she criticised them for not “going to Law like wise fellows” and concluded: “So senseless are Le Peuple , & so unfitted to be souverain”. The senseless poor of Streatham were not unique. During the eighteenth centu...

My blog has moved to https://lucienneboyce.com/blog/

My blog has moved to my new website and is now at https://lucienneboyce.com/blog/ I'm no longer posting blogs on this site, but you can still read the old blogs on this site, or you can find them at the new location.

From Hogarth to Rowlandson: Medicine in Art in Eighteenth Century Britain, Fiona Haslam, (Liverpool University Press, 1996)

I’m often asked about how I go about doing the research for my historical novels. One of the sources I usually mention is visual art. I’ve always found that looking at contemporary paintings, prints, sketches, sculpture and so on reveals a wealth of information about how people of the past lived – what they wore, what sort of houses they lived in, how they spent their time, the towns and villages they inhabited. Going to an art gallery is one of my favourite research trips – especially if there’s a decent café with tea and cake at the end of an afternoon’s study! Of course, you don’t always have to take artistic representations literally. It’s obvious that whatever you’re looking at is an interpretation of the reality: it’s how the artist saw it. In fact, this subjectivity can be a real advantage if you’re looking for ideas about how people lived and thought. Often the most exaggerated representations, such as satirical prints or caricature, are the most revealing, telling us thi...

Search This Blog