John Baker’s Blog

Seven myths about writing and writers:
Learning to write is difficult, but many people make it more difficult than it is and get discouraged for the wrong reasons. It is not going to help if we fall into the trap of believing things about writing that aren’t true.
1. Real writers get it right the first time.
Most [...]

We were due to go to Newcastle on the train yesterday, to have a look at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Tempest. So we got the tickets at York Railway Station and made our way over to platform 10 where we boarded the train.
We took our coats off and put them in the rack, got [...]

We were in Newcastle today to see The Tempest, a Royal Shakespeare Company production with Patrick Stewart as Prospero, directed by Rupert Goold at Newcastle Theatre Royal.
Rupert Goold directed Speaking Like Magpies (scroll to 2nd December) in 2005, which was a disappointment. But this production is a triumph and Goold together with the set designer, [...]

In this 1992 novel Carol Shields sets up two separate people, living in the same Canadian town, Winnipeg, and, although we know that they’re going to meet and get together, we don’t know how.
Fay Mcleod is thirty-five and is writing a book about mermaids, she has never fully committed to a man before . Tom [...]