More than Writers

'Spiritual journey' has long been one of my favourite themes as a writer. My two novels, my non-fiction books, and my current WIP novel, all carry this theme, which has, of course arisen from my own life. Brought up as a Christian, other spiritual outlooks took a hold on me after the age of 12 and thus I began a 25-year pilgrimage through a diverse range of philosophies, worldviews and faiths. The journey took me on a round journey between London and Australia, during which I certainly lived out the invitation to "taste and see." Ultimately the journey brought me back to my Christian heritage; as TS Eliot says in his poem 'Little Gidding': The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time. However, I brought back gifts from my journey, as classic story structure tells us the traveller must.  I feel empathy for those who follow a variety of spiritual paths: because I feel I know where they are coming from, ha...

Iconic Monument Valley - one of the film's locations (Pixabay)   One of my favourite films is Ridley Scott’s 1991 drama Thelma & Louise .   If you’ve never seen it, I recommend it.   Here’s the plot breakdown: Louise (Susan Sarandon) is a waitress in Arkansas. She is a warm, capable, sympathetic woman stuck in a dead-end job.   Her bubbly, somewhat ditzy friend Thelma is trapped in a loveless marriage with an oafish husband who treats her disrespectfully. They are attractive, good-natured women whose lives lack purpose and emotional substance.   Louise persuades Thelma to come away on a short mountain break, and off they drive in Louise’s green 1969 Thunderbird. Their merry little vacation takes an appalling turn.   Thelma, revelling in her freedom, gets a little tipsy while dancing with a stranger at a roadside bar.    When she repels his advances, he sexually assaults her.   When Louise comes to Thelma’s rescue – wielding the hand p...

Death of a princess - eclipsed by a precious letter I remember the August Bank Holiday weekend of 1997 for two reasons: firstly, Princess Diana died.   Secondly, that was the weekend when I got the most important letter I had ever received.    My birth mother had written to me.   This was our first contact since she gave me up for adoption when I was six weeks old (I was now thirty-five). A few days later – just before Princess Diana’s funeral – I phoned my birth mum.   A month later, we met. As an adoptee I have always been able to celebrate the ‘romantic’ side of adoption: it appeals to the writer in me.   Unsurprisingly, some of my favourite literary characters are orphans and/or adoptees: Sara Crewe, Anne Shirley, Frodo Baggins, Harry Potter, Jane Eyre.   Many famous orphaned characters go on some kind of quest either to find themselves and/or defeat evil in the process – and that’s another great literary trope, that of the Quest, wh...