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Continue reading →: Book Review: Welcome to the Universe – An Astrophysical Tour by Neil deGrasse Tyson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars Everything you could want to know about astrophysics – and way, way more…(no, really) It is difficult to go wrong with a book on this subject written by these three authors, all at the top of their respective trees. Tyson et al do a…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Why Balloons Rise and Apples Fall – The Laws That Make the World Work by Jeff Stewart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars Bought on a whim while at the British Museum, I picked up this little gem in the hope that I might glean some useful simple analogies and explanations to use with my science students. I wasn’t disappointed. Jeff Stewart is as funny as he…
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A Brief Guide to Writing: 4 – Budgeting income as a writer
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Continue reading →: A Brief Guide to Writing: 4 – Budgeting income as a writerWell, so far in my journey to put you off writing, I’ve told you why you shouldn’t be a writer and then went on to tell you there’s no money in it. If you’re still here, well done. Clearly optimism in the face of reality is strong in you –…
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A Brief Guide to Writing: 3 – Thinking like a writer
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Continue reading →: A Brief Guide to Writing: 3 – Thinking like a writerIn my previous article I did my best to put you off any fantasy of making a living from writing. If you’re still here, I take it you’ve engaged with that and you’re ready to find out what you can do as a writer (and if you missed it, read…
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A Brief Guide to Writing: 2 – Why you shouldn’t be a writer
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Continue reading →: A Brief Guide to Writing: 2 – Why you shouldn’t be a writerMy brain is wired a little differently to most other brains of around my age. When thinking of writing a series to help and encourage writers, my first thought was ‘what can I say to really scare them off?’ So here I am starting my series of short guides by…
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Continue reading →: A Brief Guide to Writing: 1 – Introduction
I felt it was about time to put down in writing the various things I’ve learned, or found helpful, about this game we call ‘being a writer’. I remember, when I first started to train as a writer, that many of the writers I followed boasted of their credentials that…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
My rating: 4 of 5 stars With the final book in the quadrilogy that is The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, I was surprised just how this got to me considering I wasn’t convinced at first. ‘Talking to Dragons’ presents very differently to the previous three books; not a surprise in some…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
My rating: 4 of 5 stars If children’s/YA fiction isn’t your thing, bear with me a little longer. One more review to go after this and then I’m done with this wonderful series of books. A meatier classic will come soon! For everyone else who has an inner child like…
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Continue reading →: Review: The Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Patrick N. Allitt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars Patrick N. Allitt comes across, in this series of audio lectures, as a very pleasant, easy-going and genial academic. His voice absolutely sounds like it belongs to a British comedian though I can’t, for the life of me, think who he makes me think…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
My rating: 5 of 5 stars Continuing on from enjoying the ‘Enchanted Forest Chronicles’ which began with ‘Dealing with Dragons‘, returning to the series thirteen years after first reading them to my young children, I was delighted to find that the second book was every bit as entertaining as the…


