Yes I have been neglecting the blog recently. My excuse? A major writing project – the publication of my first novel “Ashes For Salmon” – How my mum’s mortal remains might have ended up inside the belly of a prize Scottish salmon and other tales of how we got where we got, why we are who we are and homespun philosophicalmusings on the subject of travel. –

If you like the writing style in my blog posts, then you’ll like the book – a bitter sweet and ironic account on how to get rid of the recently deceased and a biographical journey through life to try and come to terms with my dysfunctional family. the book contains all of the following:

• Personal hygiene
• Washing machines
• Smelly shirts
• Underwear
• Claggy relatives
• Ironing
• Thoughts on travel writing
• Directions for burial
• Blue skies
• Female undertakers
• Muscovite minicab drivers
• Old ladies at bus stops
• Canaletto
• Seurat (Bathing at Asnières)
• Turner
• Japanese art students
• Robert Doisneau
• Edgware road shisha smokers
• Double decker buses
• Andrews’ Liver salts
• Camp Coffee
• Tank tops
• Cyril the newsagent
• Threadbare lounge furniture
• Deep sea divers
• Suggestions on home improvement
• Outside loos
• Absent fathers
• DIY skills
• Philip Larkin
• The Bay City Rollers
• The Magna Carta
• The 13 times table
• Richard the Lionheart
• Izal medicated toilet paper
• A Datsun coupé
• German doctors
• Spanish Costas
• A Renault 17
• Camping holidays
• A Parisian brothel
• A WW2 tank driver
• Sacha Distel
• Chopper bikes
• Deauville in 1932
• Dettol
• Vomit
• Wax ear plugs
• M&S Cornish pasties
• Smelly Channel ferries
• Breton aircraft mechanics
• The Eurovision Song Contest
• A one night stand in Rouen
• Jean Gabin
• Denis Healey
• Advice for the recently-widowed in awkward social situations
• Instructions for British Servicemen
• Airfix model kits
• Cheap chocolate
• The Brownies
• A DC-47 Dakota
• Hook-a-duck
• Travel pills
• Paroxetine
• Omeprezole
• Valium
• Smarties
• Beermats
• Miniature jams
• Shower caps
• Viagra
• Surgical gloves
• A weekend in Wales
• Sex for the elderly
• Power tools
• Norfolk
• A Morris 1300
• Hammocks
• Nicotine
• Strange men in flasher macs
• Dogfight Dixon (WW1 Fighter Ace)
• Advice for primary school teachers on preparing art and craft lessons
• A spotty elf
• Rolf Harris
• Lesley Crowther
• Lego
• Salmon
• Advice on holidays
• Everything a woman should know
• Advice on packing
• Dysfunctional grannies
• Beatrix Potter
• Baby Elephants
• nursery school stink
• jigsaw puzzles
• dinner ladies
• Bears and Tigers
• Garden furniture

… and much more (including salmon).

Available now for $11.70 on your local Amazon website and (I hope at your local bookstore in a near future). Just go to http://www.amazon.com; types Ashes for Salmon in to the website search bar and hey presto.  Many thanks and happy reading.