This post is the fifth in a series which starts here (although they do not need to be read in order). (March 1999) My six month old baby is wailing in her father’s arms in Tunis airport. He jiggles her and kisses her head, and she quietens. She’s been fractious all morning; perhaps she senses the tension in the…
This post is the fourth in a series which starts HERE. (October 2014) My mum, daughter and I are slumped on a seat at Tunis airport. We’ve been on a whirlwind three day visit for my daughter to meet her deceased father’s family for the first time since she was a baby. It’s been emotional; she is drained…
This post is the third in a series which starts HERE (November 1996) I am sitting on a wooden bench in the back of an ancient van that is veering from side to side to avoid potholes. The catch on the rear door is broken so it flaps back and forth and the dust cloud swirling behind the…
This post is the second in a series which starts HERE (October 2014) The graveyard is littered with plastic bottles. They are piled around the inside of the low wall. My sixteen year old daughter is crying at her father’s grave as she watches her uncle pour water from his plastic bottle onto the tomb stone. ‘The water…
Trouble in Tunisia is a serial blog about time spent from 1996-1999 running a water-sports base on the beach at Port El Kantaoui, near Sousse, and about returning there in 2014 to introduce my sixteen-year old daughter to her blood relatives. This blog series touches on life for a Westerner in an Islamic country and…
I keep getting achy neck muscles and a slight headache, and think I’m coming down with something. Then I remember it’s because I’ve been walking (sometimes running) the streets of Inverness with a rucksack full of books on my back. It’s practice for solo-trekking the 65-mile Speyside Way from Buckie to Aviemore as soon as…
There are heaps of articles about the pain of literary agent rejection. I identify with many of them: been there, done that. The first traumatic part of the process is the time-consuming business of identifying appropriate agents and preparing the specific submission they want. Agent One wants a 567 word synopsis (single spaced, Ariel 10 point),…
The worst thing about insomnia is the boredom. I wake at 2.30am, and I’m feeling kind of cosy and snuggly in my bed. I go for a pee (should have done those pelvic floor exercises like my midwife said) but when I get back to bed I’m still only half awake, and there’s a chance…
Blogging for the last month has been tremendous fun. I’ve got a lot off my chest and I’m delighted at the lovely feedback I’ve had. It’s motivated me so much. Getting to grips with Twitter has been interesting – once I got over my stranger-fear. Highlights were being retweeted – twice – by Saira Khan,…
I tell people I’m currently writing the plan for my third novel (I’ve no idea why, it just blurts out of my mouth). They say something like: ‘That’s fantastic. You’ve written two novels! Where can I buy them?’ (I’m not suggesting they intended purchasing it, but people are generally polite). ‘Well, that’s the problem. You…
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