Newsletters
May 2025
An unexpected reconnection
Pottery is harder than it looks
The Seend Beer Festival
Grammar Rant
Scroll down to read the May Newsletter
June 2025
Writing Workshop at Devizes Art Festival
Warminster Book Festival
Crammer Watch Day
What to do in Totnes
To be published mid-June
July 2025
Devizes in Bloom Open Gardens
Further content to be decided
To be published mid-July
NEWSLETTER - MAY 2025
AN UNEXPECTED CONNECTION
AN UNEXPECTED CONNECTION
‘My heart skipped a beat when you mentioned Millie’s Folly in your acknowledgement and I was only a few pages into the story when I recognised the leading couple.’
Out of the blue I received this message via Facebook from a reader who recognised the characters in the story. It turns out she knew Jim and Isabella when she was a child. In fact, her family used to own a property next door in Bonttdu and she visited each year. It was during these visits that she got to know my husband, John, and his brother.
I’ve put the reader and John in contact and they’ve been happily reminiscing since. It feels good to know that my book has brought back fond memories of a place and people my reader enjoyed being with as a child.
The photo is John outside the house that used to belong to his grandparents in Bonttdu.
POTTERY IS HARDER THAN IT LOOKS
POTTERY IS HARDER THAN IT LOOKS
John and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary with a pottery lesson with a lovely teacher in our local indoor market, The Shambles. My main aim was to make a couple of pieces to give to my sons, the youngest of whom made me a dreadful bowl for Mother’s Day!
As you can see, we used an actual potters’ wheel but, to John’s disappointment, it was less Ghost, more mud-slinging!
Pottery involves a lot of intuitively feeling the clay and trying to work out what it wants to do. We eventually got the hang of it and created something resembling a bowl each. Watch this space for photos when we’ve collected them.
Helen Mills Functional Pottery space in the Shambles market. She also sells pieces she’s made (not ours thankfully) plus a selection of lotions and potions. You can follow her on Facebook.
Do you have any experience of making pottery? Please share your stories or photos with me.
SEEND BEER FESTIVAL WAS FUN
SEEND BEER FESTIVAL WAS FUN
We were lucky to get a pair of tickets to the increasingly popular Seend Beer Festival. The event is family friendly with music in the marquee tent, and a variety of food offerings. We sat outside in the garden area and enjoyed the music to the backdrop of the lovely Wiltshire countryside.
The first Seend Beer Festival was held in 2001. It was organised by a group of people who played skittles for Seend Cleeve Sailing Club and had a shared love of real ale. Nowadays, it’s a really popular event which invariably sells out.
Click here for more information: Seend Beer Festival
YOUR NEXT READ
Over the few months, I’ve been chatting to a few local authors, and as we like to support each other, I’d like to recommend their books to you. Whether you enjoy crime fiction or historical drama, one of these could be for you.
Death In Valletta by Lynne Marie Taylor. Find out more here
Her debut novel, Death in Valletta, follows Edinburgh Police Detective Inspector Sam McQueen as he investigates a case in Malta. She is currently writing the second novel in the Inspector Sam McQueen series.
Broken Shadows by Sorrel Pitts. Find out more here
Twenty-seven ago, eleven-year-old Callum was abducted. His body was found six months later by his older brother, Tom, near a Neolithic henge called the Shadowing Stones. It was the first in a series of events that would tear Tom’s family apart. Convinced his father was responsible for his brother’s death, Tom fled to Australia to start a new life.
Now, decades later, Tom learns that his father is dying of cancer. Knowing this may be his last chance to learn the truth, Tom returns to England
The Witchfinder’s Well by Jonathan Posner. Find out more here
What if you fell through a time travel portal and landed in Tudor England? How long before you say the wrong thing to the wrong person? Before you’re accused of being a witch?
For Justine Parker it’s almost immediate. She hardly has time to find her feet in a historical world that’s hostile for women, before she’s on the run from a ruthless witchfinder
GRAMMAR RANT
Comparative adjectives and adverbs
Please give me a moment to rant about a grammar error I’ve been noticing for some time now. Even on the BBC, would you believe it?
quick (adjective) quicker (comparative adjective)
quickly (adverb) more quickly (comparative adverb)
I’ve recently noticed that many people, more often than not, use a comparative adjective when they should use a comparative adverb.
“The economy is growing quicker than we expected.” WRONG
“The economy is growing more quickly than we expected.” CORRECT
As we all know, language evolves over time (or we’d still be talking like Chaucer), and this includes semantic shifts and spelling modifications. However, grammar is still important in order to make your meaning clear. I really wish those who should know this, such as journalists and reporters, would just get it right.
Is there a mistake, grammar or otherwise, that really annoys you? Please share it with me and we can moan about it together!
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