Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Encircling Wild

By Nicola | Published: February 27, 2013

How many books did you read, or have read to you, as a child that featured lions or elephants? How many have you read to your own kids or grandkids? I would guess that for most children growing up with English as their first, or even second language, ‘lu’ is for Lion and ‘e’ is […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

On Inspiration

By Nicola | Published: February 1, 2013

One of the questions that children always ask all authors is ‘where do you get your ideas from?’ I’m always tempted to say, ‘In aisle six at Tescos, just above the fair trade coffee.’ or something similarly daft. What  I actually do say is something like ‘From the natural world’, and then I cringe because […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Animals As Individuals

By Nicola | Published: January 22, 2013

One of the presents I got at Christmas was a Jonathan Franzen novel ‘Freedom’. It was the literary equivalent of a highly addictive drug and I couldn’t leave it alone. It’s a brick of a book, heavy enough to hold open a well sprung fire door, but I finished it in four bites. Apart from […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

De-Mob Happy and Communities First

By Nicola | Published: December 20, 2012

I am in shock. I have finished my writing marathon. All year I’ve had a timetable pinned to the wall beside my desk with weeks blocked out for each book and deadlines marked with ominous dark rings. All year I’ve been holding off the panic that threatened to take over whenever I thought about exactly […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Big Ears and Fluffy Tail: So Prove it’s Not A Penguin

By Nicola | Published: December 17, 2012

I’ve been writing a lot of fiction this year and while I’m writing it I don’t read it much, as it might travel down my arm and into my fingers as I type. So it’s been a non fiction year (mostly – apart from the two TOTALLY AMAZING Hilary Mantels about Cromwell, deep, deep reading […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Make Your Christmas Gift Count

By Nicola | Published: December 7, 2012

  I’ve just been writing the post script to Whale Boy, giving a bit of factual back ground about sperm whales – possibly the weirdest animals on the planet, which is of course why I love ‘em. So yesterday I reread parts of my mate Hal Whitehead’s great book ‘ Sperm Whales, Social Evolution In […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The White Hare

By Nicola | Published: November 19, 2012

I wanted to write a story to tell the young people I was working with at the weekend. As it happened the telling didn’t go that well – my fault really, I didn’t ramp up the energy enough or set out my story telling stall clearly. Anyway, here is the story in written form. It […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Perils Of The Default Setting

By Nicola | Published: November 14, 2012

  There is a point in the middle of a book where I always feel very alone. I’m too far from either the end or the beginning to hear any voices of encouragement. I’m in the middle of a featureless plain with no real clue about where to go, not certain if I’ve come the […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Surreal shrimps and pangolin pie

By Nicola | Published: October 30, 2012

Save habitat and you save species. It’s pretty simple really, and its the basic message of the World Land Trust and why I have supported them with my PLR’s for years. There are however, little wrinkles and knots in the smooth skin of that argument that sometimes make the job of ‘saving habitat’ more complicated […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Teddy Bears Picnic?

By Nicola | Published: October 17, 2012

  There’s something about bears: their rounded furry shape, their forward facing eyes, their ability to stand up just like we do, seems to switch on the ‘cute-appreciation-gene’. And that’s just the adults, when it comes to cubs, almost anyone can turn to goo. We put them  in myths and stories and further imbue them with human personality […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Responses