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Here are author Sue Williams’ top four writing tips: 1. Start The hardest thing is getting started. I’m a great believer in just picking up a pen, or firing up the computer, and making a start. Get yourself going, and write a couple of thousand words quickly to warm up. You can always go back […]

Exclusive extract from Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman. In the Olivia books, it still doesn’t matter if the little white pig is not at all sleepy. She still has to take a nap. William, however, is under no such compulsion. His mother has decreed that since William’s imagination is so “activated,” since […]

She appears fragile, yet Naomi Watts has the grit to overcome the pain of her father’s death, the will to be known as more than “Nicole Kidman’s best friend” and the talent to be a star. In this candid interview, she talks to Ginny Dougary about her life, her career challenges and the devastation of […]

You can’t just tell the reader the emotion your character is experiencing, you have to show them. You do this by creating images using bricks of significant detail. God and the devil are in the detail. As Strunk and White wrote in The Elements Of Style, “if those who have studied the art of writing […]

Today we are going to explore one of the x factors in writing fiction, faith. Writing, like any creative endeavour, involves uncertainty and requires an act of faith. Faith in our imagination, faith in ourselves, faith in the creative process and faith in the stories we want to tell. When you sit down in front […]

Exclusive extract from Social Crimes (Allen and Unwin) written by Jane Stanton Hitchcock. Murder was never my goal in life. I’m a very sentimental person at heart. I cry in old movies. I love animals and children. I’m a pushover for a beggar in the street. So if anyone had told me five years ago […]

IN THE CHILLY, early hours of October 15, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and her husband, Crown Prince Frederik, offered their joyous country not only a new heir to the throne, but the promise of a fresh approach to royal baby raising. The couple’s intention to be hands-on parents was underlined within seconds of their […]

From migrants’ child to leading television journalist, Jana Wendt surveys her career and speculates for Michael Sheather on what lies ahead. JANA WENDT HAS a gift for understatement. What she finds “uncomfortable”, most people would find terrifying. What she defines as “a moment”, others might describe as heart-stopping. During a career spanning more than 26 […]

If you’ve always thought that fancy folds in napery were too difficult to attempt, think again. Start off with the simple and elegant pocket design. Step 1 Fold the napkin in half and in half again, to form a square a quarter the size of the original. Fold the top right corner (A) down so […]

Exclusive extract from One Sunday (Macmillan), written by Joy Dettman. Tom heard that hammering and he didn’t want to wake up and hear it took it into his dream. It was the young Ronnie, in uniform. In his dream, he reached for his oldest boy, then he saw he had no face, no arms, and […]