Blog

Travel tips – long haul flights.

  This is not going to be the all-too-obvious tips.  Any parent worth calling a parent knows they need things to keep the children quiet and all humans realize that loose clothing is best.   These are tips, which may or may not suit you. This is what I do –      Wear shoes that are easy […]

Posted 12 years ago

Montmatre, Paris. (the Americans would add “France” !)

I saw a lovely photo on Facebook today, taken in Montmatre.  It made me remember an incident when Bruce and I were young and we spent a long week-end in Paris.  We had an amazing bit of luck because, wanting to spoil ourselves, we checked in to the Hotel George V.  We found it disappointing, […]

Posted 12 years ago

Why the French move to Britain.

Over 400 000 French people live in London alone.  Just as the British flocked to France to find peace and tranquillity and a slower pace of life, so the French, for the large part young professionals, flock to the UK to find opportunities, career openings and freedom from French bureaucracy. In Britain they may change […]

Posted 12 years ago

The British who move to France, and the French who move to Britain.

The huge surge of British families pulling up roots and moving lock stock and barrel to France, has largely petered out.  During the 1980s thousands of families re-located to France, mostly because property was so cheap – sometimes incredibly cheap – and the bargains seemed too good to miss.  By the 1990s numbers started to […]

Posted 12 years ago

Skiing with the children.

This is a sketch our son Jake did of me when he was about ten.  We were away skiing in the Alps.  He copied my snow boots carefully.  I showed the sketch to a friend who commented “ah yes, he has managed to capture that pissed-off look” !!!! Catherine Broughton is a novelist, a poet […]

Posted 13 years ago

Oradour-sur-Glane, WWII, part 2.

I have had such a huge response following yesterday’s item on Ordaour-sur-Glane that I feel I should try to answer a few of the questions you have asked.  I don’t know much more about it except the following. In 1953 there were 65 of the 200 German soldiers still alive and 21 of them were […]

Posted 13 years ago

Oradour-sur-Glane WWII. Part 1.

Oradour-sur-Glane is a village towards the centre of France, about 3 hours’ drive north-east of where we live.  It is surprising how few people, other than the local French, have heard of it, and it is one of those places that everybody should visit – or somewhere similar – at least once in their lives, […]

Posted 13 years ago

One of my favourite things – flamingos

First and foremost thank you so much to all of you for all your lovely messages asking “where are your blogs?!”   True, unlike me, I haven’t blogged for a few days.  I suppose I’ve had writer’s block or something.  Anyway, here I am again and today’s blog is a continuation of “My Favourite Things”, in […]

Posted 13 years ago

One of my favourite things – flamingos.

First and foremost thank you so much to all of you for all your lovely messages asking “where are your blogs?!”   True, unlike me, I haven’t blogged for a few days.  I suppose I’ve had writer’s block or something.  Anyway, here I am again and today’s blog is a continuation of “My Favourite Things”, in […]

Posted 13 years ago

Getting your book published/self-published.

People often ask me how to set about getting a book published.  Readers in general do not have any idea how difficult it is.  It is amazingly difficult, and one agent even wrote to me saying that getting a successful book out there is as unlikely as winning the lottery. This was very disheartening to […]

Posted 13 years ago

Books now available on Amazon:

A Call From France
French Sand
Kefani: An African Childhood
The Man With Green Fingers
Saying Nothing