One of the remarkable things about putting together ‘The Glad Giver’ was the way in which creative people came forward to offer their work in support of it. Even before I had auditioned the actors, a writer friend had introduced me to her recorder group, called (and I love the Scots wordplay) Thistle Doo. The leader of the group, Jacqueline Fitzgibbon, read the script I sent and the next day offered to compose a piece of music especially for it.
Read More‘The Glad Giver’ is, again, a story that has been playing in the very back of my mind for a long time. Like many people, I am fascinated by the figure of Julian of Norwich whose real name we don’t know. A medieval anchoress, confined in a single stone room attached to St Julian’s Church, she wrote the first book we have in English by a woman.
Read MoreThis is a story of friendship and loyalty, part of the fascinating history of the Craufurds of Ayrshire, who date their title back two thousand years. Very little of this is in the public domain, and so I pored through boxes of letter and manuscripts to find the nuggets of information that could be translated into a dramatic piece.
Read MoreRobert Burns and Mrs Frances Dunlop were friends; their friendship, based on mutual respect, lasted a decade. This play is based on extracts from the many letters that passed between them.
Read MoreThe Isle of Donan is a fictional place, closely based on a real island off the west coast of Scotland. When it suits me, though, I ascribe customs and attributes to Donan from other real islands — such cavalier borrowings are the privilege of the fiction writer…
Read MoreThe grain of an idea — sometimes that’s all it takes to grow a story. In this case, it was planted on a grey and windy day on a Scottish island where distilleries abound.
Read MoreIt was still lockdown, but the power of the internet meant that I could chat to a fellow writer in Brisbane, and she had an idea for a detective series. It would be composed of stories by writers across the world and the common denominator would be the victim…
Read MoreThey’re dear friends, so they said: We love your plays. The evening wore on. Wine was taken. They said: But your stuff is very dark, very sad. Why don ‘t you write something happy? A love story? And because they’re dear friends, I decided I would.
Read MoreI’m envious and a little in awe of fellow audio dramatists that I meet online in various social media groups. Most of them do their own recording and production and I know that such technical skills may well be beyond me forever. Luckily for me, I’ve learnt long ago the value of other people’s skills and expertise.
Read MoreI am to be envied. Sitting under the trees in a garden in a village in the Vendée; the heat of the day has abated a little, and it's almost apéritif time. I have always loved the Vendée:
Read MoreThe Castle of Tiffauges stands at a bend in the busy D753 which runs west from Cholet, ancient town of weavers, to the salt marshes of Saint-Jean-de-Monts. It is known as Le Château de Barbe-Bleue: Bluebeard's Castle.
Read More'Confessional' deals with the relationship, factual and imagined, between Gilles de Rais, medieval serial murderer and France's warrior-saint, Joan of Arc.
Read MoreIn the old folk tales of the Vendée and beyond, the character of Bluebeard murdered successive wives in a gruesome chamber of his castle. Tiffauges, once the home of Gilles de Rais, is known widely as Bluebeard's castle, and the remains of a sinister double-walled keep are said to testify to his crimes of child murder.
Read MoreMy fascination with the voice and persona of the French singer, Edith Piaf, goes back a very long way. I can remember as a child hearing her on the BBC Light Programme and being captivated even then by its plaintive, husky swoops and dips.
Read MoreI started to write my play. A great deal has been written about Edith Piaf, and my aim was to bring forward some of the lesser known aspects of her life. She is known for her many affairs with men, but …
Read MoreAndrée Bigard (Dédée) became Edith’s secretary during World War 2 and used her work for the singer as a cover for her work with the French Resistance…
Read MoreThe folder was very thin. I sat at one of the long tables, the researcher’s lamp switched on to make reading and photography easy, and worked my way through the documents…
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