I’ve been invited by Chris Chalmers, author of the wonderful award-winning novel, Five to One (he blogs at www.chrischalmers.net ) to take the Next Big Thing questionnaire, where authors talk about what they’re publishing next.So here goes...What is the title of your next … [Read more...]
Writing again!
I've been notable by my absence on this blog lately, but I have an excellent excuse…well, I think so anyway.I'm writing again, or rather re-editing a manuscript which will become my next Kindle ebook. It will be out (hopefully, please keep all fingers and toes crossed) on 17th November and is called … [Read more...]
Final day of FREE ebook!
It's gone very quickly - but TODAY is the final day of the FREE promotion for The Englishman!So, if you want to read How I Came to Be in England in novel form for absolutely no money whatsoever hurry! With 5 star reviews on Amazon, pick of the month at The Alliance of … [Read more...]
Pappa’s Girl: Jävla Finnar
It was exactly four weeks after our move to Rinkeby in Sweden in the autumn of 1971, when Pappa took me to Stockholm Stadium to see Finland play Sweden. I’d not been to an ice-hockey match since Ilves played Tappara in the Jäähalli in Tampere the previous winter. My team lost to their local rivals. … [Read more...]
Pappa’s Girl Part 5
Stockholm 1971‘This part of town is called Rinkeby. It’s ten stops on the Tunnelbana from the centre of town,’ Pappa told us, ‘That’s what the underground train is called.’We were walking up the stairs to the second floor of a large block. Our flat was the fourth door along a covered walkway. I … [Read more...]
Pappa’s Girl – Part Four
It's 1971 and Lisa and her family are about to emigrate from a small town in Finland to the Swedish capital, Stockholm, where 'Everything is bigger and better,' as Pappa tells Lisa before they leave their home country. To find Parts 1-3 of this tale click here.We spent the night before going … [Read more...]
Pappa’s Girl – Part Three
My sister Anja turned fourteen the summer we moved to Stockholm. She was three and a half years older than me and always knew what she wanted, and usually got it. She was so beautiful everyone, including Pappa, found it difficult to refuse her. Besides, she had a way of speaking, of saying the right … [Read more...]
Pappa’s Girl – Part Two
When Pappa told us that he could earn lots of money in Sweden if we all moved to Stockholm, I was twelve and nearly as tall as him. I could touch his shoulders without being on tiptoe. Mamma worried about the future. I’d heard her say so to Grandmother Kaarina while standing in her kitchen. … [Read more...]
Pappa’s Girl
Tampere 1971Perhaps it was the violence, perhaps the unpredictability of the event, to me at least, that afterwards totally coloured my life. Before then, I had been Pappa’s girl, in a way that my sister wasn’t. She was so difficult that Mamma always worried about her. As soon as I was born Pappa … [Read more...]
