Finally managed to get a copy of this extract of Virginia Woolf’s diary in which she lets rip ( to put in kindly ) about my grandparents.
My grandmother Doris, who I never met, had a book of poetry published by the Woolf’s Hogarth Press and despite being “an ironmongers daughter” flitted on the fringes of the Bloomsbury group.
But the might Woolf clearly did not think much of her or my lovely ‘Grampa Ralph’
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I tried v hard when writing Finish Your Book to be honest about the writing experience. Often, when you see a writer speak at a festival or other event, they appear to have the process under control, to make writing a book appear effortless and easy. But it is not. It’s hard work and all writers spend a lot of time agonising about whether their work is any good and trying to work out where and why they have gone wrong. As well as trying to help with the latter I also wanted to share my own and other writers’ experiences of the former…
These early reviews suggest I have achieved some of that
Finish Your Book by Lizzie Enfield
Finish Your Book by Lizzie Enfield – A very personal response!!
One of the best jobs I have as a freelance journalist is writing for Psychologies Magazine. It’s a magazine I love reading and writing for it allows great freedom of thought around a subject.
So it was a job to be interviewed by the editor Suzy Greaves on Psychologies new Facebook TV channel about writing and in particular how to complete that half-written novel.
It seems I have a new writer to mentor now too…
I know a lot of people who have started novels, began brilliantly and worked up an impressive word count but have run out of steam or encountered problems they have not known how to get around. Some are journalist colleagues, or former students who have attended creative writing course, others are simply people who always wanted to write a book and made a start.
Finishing a novel is hard for everyone including published authors and seasoned writers. We all encounter the same problems – the seasoned writers just know the tips and techniques for getting over them and writing to the end of their book.
This book is for those writers. Out on 30th July.
Goldsboro Books is a unique and rare store. Housed in a quiet pedestrianised street just of Shaftesbury Avenue, it sells only hardback and mainly contemporary first editions – although scour shelves and glass cabinets and you’ll also find a treasure trove of bookish gems. Stepping inside is what visiting a bookstore should be, entering another world, a world lined with books where you have time and space to browse and the staff are motivated by a genuine love of books.
Owner David Headley is one of the greatest champions of books and authors and I’ve been saying I am honoured to be included in this collection of short stories to mark the store’s 21st anniversary but that’s downplaying it really. I’m absolutely thrilled to be between the covers with such range of illustrious writers. It makes me smile every tie I catch sight of this lovely cover.
Out on 30th September, signed, numbered limited editions can be pre-ordered here
V pleased to have been nominated for this prize and, in one of the alternate realities which Ivy and Abe inhabit, so many readers click the link here and vote that it wins!
This is the question at the heart of Ivy and Abe, a love story told a across a lifetime and series of different possible meeting times.
More thoughts on the Penguin website here
In the week when Ivy and Abe came out, the marketing and I came up with a thing – to spot things that matched the arresting cover…
These are some of mine! 
As only an alliterative writer can! In this month’s Psychologies Magazine…
