I Was A Rat!

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Wow, that was an experience! I'm just back from watching an adaptation of Philip Pullman's I Was A Rat at the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds - and I'm worn out! The cast were extraordinarily good - all of them playing multiple parts with impeccable timing and zero time to change.

The boy Roger - played by Fox Jackson-Keen who I wasn't in the least surprised to learn once played Billy Elliot - was fabulous. He had me aching with laughter one minute and all scrunched up ready to cry the next. I think the whole theatre breathed a sigh of relief when things came good for him at the end.

The colours, the lighting, the energy, the masks, the sheer cleverness - it was a fast-paced kaleidoscope of a production with some pertinant messages about society - and very well worth seeing indeed.

(But if you aren't keen on circuses - especially clown faces - you might want to choose that scene to nip out for a comfort break. Don't say I didn't warn you.)

I'm now drinking tea and returning to the real world. And reflecting.

[The show is on until Saturday 20th April, then off on its travels around the country. www.iwasarat.co.uk ]
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Fairlights - the final episode

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The fourth and final part of Fairlights is out now, in which the Fairlight once more comes into its own.

Before it can do so, however, Sorcha has to face every single one of her nightmares. And even then, it may not be quite enough to avert tragedy.

Happy reading...
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Fairlights - part three...

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Third part of Fairlights is in this week's issue of Woman's Weekly.

 In this episode, we find out some of what happened in the space where Sorcha's memory has gone missing. She also finds a set of accounts of the Fairlight (the beacon on top of the pele tower) which raise more questions than they solve.

Only one more episode to go now.
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Popped out for a chat

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I'm not here today, I've popped out for a chat with a splendid group of ladies known as The Romaniacs.

Do come on over and find out what they asked me.

I'm told there will be tea...
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Fairlights - part two

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Today's Woman's Weekly contains the second part of Fairlights (I know! Where did the week go?).

In this episode it becomes apparent that something is very, very wrong with Sorcha's memory.

Warning: contains open spiral staircase
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Fairlights!

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My new serial starts today in Woman's Weekly (12th February issue). It is set in a house on a cliff above a fishing village.

Sorcha Ravell's family has lived at Fairlights for generations - now Sorcha is moving back to turn it into a boutique hotel.

But when she gets there, all is not quite as she remembers...

My thanks go to artist Jane Human who has created Fairlights exactly as I imagined it. I was just SO thrilled when I opened my copy this morning and saw the artwork for the first time.
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'Fairlights' teaser

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Where does the time go? I've been struggling with a cold, but even so...

This is just a small teaser for next month's serial, to start in Woman's Weekly in the February 12th issue. It is the gatehouse at Roche Abbey and through that (mercifully locked) door is the most terrifying spiral staircase I've ever seen.

You can find out how I wove it into Fairlights next month...
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Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year!

Today I am over at the Historical and Regency Romance blog talking about Christmas reading material.

Wishing you all the very best of everything in 2013!
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Merry Christmas!

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This year's tree is up and decorated. It is about two foot shorter than in previous years (and that's without the foot I usually have to lop off to get it in the room), but we still managed to crowd all our tree ornaments on.

The decorations have been added to over the years. As well as the general ones, we each have 'our' special ornaments that we place - and woe betide anyone who tries to sneak them on first. Just one of the family traditions that binds Christmas together and keeps it working.

Some branches this year have several baubles dangling off them but we couldn't miss them out, now could we?

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE ! ! !
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Thinking back

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So, in between peeling potatoes and watching last night's Led Zeppelin concert on television, I wrote this poem...






Wishing by Jan Jones

Listening to Led Zep
And wishing I was that girl again
And thinking of decisions taken
Or not taken

And wishing

Watching them grown up
Golden
Head of an irascible angel
And feeling the weight of the years
(but still fancying them, even now)

Old rockers...
Are just like me

And now they have experience in their voices
and richness in their movements
and a thousand different paths
and a thousand different lives
flash before me

And though I would never, never unwant my children...

I’m still thinking

And wishing

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Remembering...

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Flanders meets the High Street
by Jan Jones
 
Standing in Waitrose at eleven o’clock
All life suddenly suspended
 
A woman reaching for cereal
An old man gripping his wire basket
Me with my trolley as
Thousands of cheerful, too fast soldiers
March before my eyes in jerky shades of grey
 
PALs
Joining up together
Fighting together
Dying together
A village wiped out. A community blasted.
So wrong.
 
The cashiers sit down
People move
 
Two minutes of life, gone in the blink of an eye.
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The Lion

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And here it is...

My quirky, lively story about a pampered cat, a put-upon niece, lack of amenities, artists' block ... oh, and a lion.

It is in the new Woman's Weekly Fiction Special (6 Nov-5 Dec), and I had enormous fun writing it.

This isn't a lion, by the way, it's Archer. And he isn't pampered at all, oh no.
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