• Tidbits - the written word

    Sail Boats and other such things…

    I just overheard an interesting snippet from a morning TV programme, “A research team has found that a 20 minute walk every day can add years to your life,” Leaving aside the fact that most people know this anyway or at least, suspect it, it was good to hear. Confirmation that something one enjoys is good for one, is always welcome. I have to ask though, was this research programme set up just to establish this fact or was it part of a larger programme and this gem just one of many conclusions reached? I should not mock. Where would we be without research? In caves, I daresay. After all,…

  • Living Between the Lines

    Pandora’s Box

      “Research is a waste of time – get on with the writing” ? I spotted the headline on the cover of ‘Writer’s Forum’. If you are like me, you will have read that line and bristled at the idea that all that precious research you have clocked up, might be classed as a waste of time. I read the article and of course, Jenny Colgan was not saying that all research is useless, rather, her argument was that we are all in danger of getting bogged down in the research at the expense of the writing at times. Never has this been more true than this week. In a…