Welcome to House With No Name. I write about everything from books and films to education, family and France.
We were walking along St Giles when the first snowflakes fell. With temperatures below zero and our feet turning to blocks of ice, the snow had been threatening to arrive all day – and finally it had. With a vengeance. My teenage son took one look and immediately walked faster, keen to get back to the warmth of home and the excitement of his Xbox. I felt a bit sad. ...keep reading
The first Joanna Trollope book I ever read was The Rector’s Wife. I was so captivated by her 90s tale of a vicar’s wife who shocks everyone by taking a job at a supermarket to make ends meet that I was desperate to read her earlier books. The instant I’d finished that one I rushed out to buy another, feverishly working my way through her backlist in the way I used ...keep reading
The best news of the week is that the brilliant Marian Keyes has written a new book – and it’s out this month. For the past two and a quarter years the bestselling Irish novelist has suffered from debilitating depression, unable, as she writes in her latest (and very moving) blog, “to get out of bed or concentrate on a sentence or motivate myself to do anything.” But on her ...keep reading
It’s not just the weather that’s chilly right now. The economic climate is bleak too, and shopkeepers are struggling to make a living. But there’s one bright spot on the horizon – and that’s nail bars. Apparently we can’t get enough of them. Up and down the country they’re among the fastest-growing businesses on the high street. Sales of nail varnish soared to a staggering £179 million in 2010, while ...keep reading
Snow is on my mind. The far north is blanketed in the stuff and there’s a cold weather alert for the next couple of days, with temperatures predicted to drop to minus ten degrees. Brrrr. Further south there have only been a few flakes, but I saw loads of snow yesterday when my son asked me to drive him to Milton Keynes for a snowboarding session. SNO!zone (above) boasts an indoor ski ...keep reading
My serial moving habit is something I’ve written about before. We’ve moved house (take a deep breath here) an embarrassing 12 times in the last 25 years and I’ve got a sneaking feeling that we might do it again one day. But one of the places we lived when my children were small was Yorkshire, in a sweet redbrick cottage with horses that popped their heads over next door’s fence ...keep reading
The queue of expectant customers snaked out of the shop, along the pavement and right round the corner. The occasion was the opening of The Hummingbird Bakery’s fifth London shop and they were giving free cupcakes to the first 1,000 customers to visit. News had spread fast via Twitter and Facebook and the mood was very party-like for a chilly Friday morning in January. I had a meeting near Angel ...keep reading
My husband’s the only person I know who didn’t cry at War Horse. Everyone else wept buckets – during the play, during Steven Spielberg’s lavish, Oscar-nominated movie or (in my case) both. Actually, I think the Times reviewer who reported on the New York film premiere got it just about right when he said: “If you don’t cry in War Horse, it’s because you have no tear ducts.” But up ...keep reading
Realising that one of my favourite books is one of this year’s 25 World Book Night titles has made me rush to read it all over again. World Book Night takes place in the UK and Ireland on April 23 (the same day as Unesco’s International Day of the Book and Shakespeare’s birthday) and will see one million books being handed out across the country in a bid to boost ...keep reading
A star-studded party, buckets of champagne and some of the most talented writers in the business vying for the prestigious Costa book of the year prize. The presentation ceremony for the 2011 Costa Book Awards was never going to be any old bash. Held at Quaglino’s, the chic London restaurant, hosted by TV presenter Penny Smith (looking resplendent in a long silver dress) and with guests including Maureen Lipman, Esther Rantzen, Natasha ...keep reading