If you are after some Nordic Easter goodies, you can't do better than visiting the Finnish Seamen's Mission in Rotherhithe., East London.This year's Spring Fair takes place next weekend 28 - 30 March 2014.I've written before about this excellent event here, but if you like Fazer chocolate, rye … [Read more...]
Learn Finnish with Finn-Guild in London
Ever wanted to learn Finnish or brush up your knowledge of the language?Finn-Guild is organising two Intensive Study Days this spring, where you can really get to grips with the language.The intensive days will be held on 29 March and 17 May 2014 at Finn-Guild … [Read more...]
Finn-Guild AGM and Turkish soul food at Green Lanes, North London
My first six weeks as head of Finn-Guild, the Finnish British cultural association have been - to say the least - hectic. This is partly due to my desire to run before I can walk, but also due to the timing our AGM, the biggest event in the Finn-Guild members and volunteers' calendar, which took … [Read more...]
New Year, New Challenge!
It's funny how life turns out sometimes.Just over a year ago, while trying to finance my writing endeavours, I took on a new accountancy job, at a Finnish Expat charity and its commercial arm, Guild Travel. Finn-Guild was meant to be just another client, but at the end of … [Read more...]
The Year That Was 2013
2013 has been quite a year for me. I'm not sure I can recall a time when so much happened in a mere twelve months.First of all, I finally took the plunge and published all of my novels on Kindle. After the success of The Englishman (over 2,000 downloads as we speak and counting), I was encouraged to … [Read more...]
The Englishman is now available in paperback!
The paperback copy of The Englishman is finally here! My copies of the novel arrived on Thursday and you may imagine this caused some jubilation in Halme Towers. I very nearly gave this lovely (though a little embarrassed) delivery man a kiss and hug... Signed copies of the book can now … [Read more...]
Lenny Henry in Fences
On Tuesday when I saw Lenny Henry talk about his latest play, Fences, on BBC London News, I immediately wanted to go and see it. I love him and I also love the post-war era of the Great American Play, though I'd never seen any of August Wilson's plays. Later that same afternoon something remarkable … [Read more...]
Is the e-book revolution passing Finland by?
Ulla-Leena Lundberg Picture: Teos.fiE-book sales have been sluggish in Finland, as displayed by the sales figures of the latest Finlandia Prize winning novel, Jää, by Ulla-Leena Lundberg.According to the Finnish newspaper, Uusi Suomi, Lundberg’s best selling book has sold over … [Read more...]
Finnish Easter shopping
Last weekend, during a Finn Guild friendship network event, I joined a group of Finnish ladies in Brighton to discuss multicultural marriage and the bringing up of bilingual (or in some cases trilingual) children. Whilst listening to an excellent talk by Maria Onuigbo on multicultural … [Read more...]