News and events

Wednesday 30th November 2022 at 6pm My next event is 'meet the author' at Bert's Books, a newish independent bookshop in the Old Town of Swindon. It's so good to have a bookshop again in this attractive part of town.

But before that on Tuesday 29th at 2.15pm I'll be chatting again to Graham Rogers on BBC Radio Wiltshire about the above event.

Next year I have another W.I talk booked (see below for the first one), and also an 'audition' talk for the Wiltshire Federation. If they like me, I could be whizzing all over the county!

Previously in my travel writing life:

In the year 2005 (AD) the idea of turning my research trip notes (holiday diaries) into a book was first suggested. Not long after (April 2021!) I signed a contract with Cranthorpe Millner cranthorpemillner.com 

Monday 25th April 2022 I 'appeared' on Graham Rogers' programme on BBC Radio Wiltshire. It was great fun - Graham is very easy to talk to.

Tuesday 26th April 2022 my book Travels with a Brompton in the Cévennes and other regions was published.  To mark the launch of my book we hosted a little party for friends at one of our local pubs (The Plough, Wanborough) which was great fun, especially for them when they saw us arrive by Brompton. David then demonstrated how to miss the train by not folding the cycle sufficiently quickly. (I am no help whatsoever.) Thanks to them all for joining us and buying a copy which this author duly signed. 

Tuesday 3rd May:  I appeared at the Swindon Festival of Literature, in the town's Central Library. There was much folding and unfolding of the Bromptons, which we had ridden in from home, and a guest Brompton joined in so that eventually we were able to display, simultaneously, all sorts of Brompton positions. We learned something ourselves - about pushing the cycles in stations etc with the seat up, and the front bags attached so that the whole thing becomes the luggage trolley that we can never find on stations nowadays because everyone has wheely suitcases.

In the audience was Adam Ruck, Telegraph travel writer. I have now read, and David is about to finish, Adam's book France on Two Wheels which is great fun. You can see his cycle routes on  france2wheels.com  - his blog has a review of Travels with a Brompton. One or two things I'd like to argue with him but any such discussion must be wine/beer-fuelled having met up by bicycle as he lives not too far from us.

Our next event (apart from concerts for my viola which doesn't have a name, apart from Viola Trying-to-get-the-notes-in-the-right-order) is our first long cycling trip since we were in the Basque country in June 2019. In midsummer or so, we are heading for the Cévennes again, rather by accident. The aim was to cycle from Valence to Le Puy-en-Velay in the Auvergne and we noticed that the Cévennes were on the way! So we hope to cross the path of Stevenson and Modestine and also visit Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a village where Jewish children were hidden in the war. Caroline Moorhead's book Village of Secrets is well worth reading, once you've finished Travels of course! Talking of which: 

The charming model is Rick Birley, brother and Best Man to Dahb (long time ago) and I assume it was taken by his wife Sally - another sbirley which can confuse people but we enjoy that. Rick is a composer and you can find out more about him on  rickbirley.com

July 4-15 2022 Had a wonderful holiday in Ardèche and Haute-Loire, on the south-east part of the Massif Central. Roasting hot but we were very high up (3-5000 feet most of the time) which made it quite comfortable. A lot of climbing! We did indeed stay in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a very pleasant small town, and visited the excellent museum about the protection of Jewish children in Vichy France. The market square had loads of bars and cafés - staying 2 nights we managed to get to most of them. Then we went to Le Monastier-sur-Gazeille, where Robert Louis Stevenson bought his donkey and began his walk. There's a Stevenson room in the municipal museum and a Bar Stevenson down the road where we had delicious ice-creams. We ended up in Le Puy-en-Velay, a really lovely and quite busy town which was something of a culture shock after the remote areas we'd been passing through. They get a lot of snow there - see the chains-on-tyre notice! All in all a lovely trip, all the more so for it having been so long since the last one.

   

Cévennes donkey and friend.

                                                                           Le Puy-en-Velay

 

                                            

  Time to put on the snow chains!

Tuesday 4th October 2022 I went to Chiseldon, a nearby village, to talk to the Women's Institute evening group. I had been asked by a friend, with no particular date in view, when a cancellation occurred and I was asked to step in. having indicated I was willing to do that. I only had myself and Modestine to consult, our car to book and a rehearsal to miss, so off I went. It was really good fun. They were a very nice bunch of ladies who laughed heartily at my completely impromptu 'This is not the way to fold and unfold a Brompton' act. I had been taking lessons (it's not normally my job - I have lots of luggage and tickets and passports and things to see to) and had written a crib sheet, so I did get there eventually. Bless them all, I sold quite a few books and the cakes were scrumptious!