Maddie’s journal

Stories of rural life, folklore and moments in between

  • A quirky charity shop find and rising Facebook ‘likes’

    I have writer profiles on both Facebook and Instagram. I used to have Twitter but evacuated that platform after You-Know-Who took it over and it became a hate-filled place. It’s a shame because I’d had some very pleasant years when I actually met really nice people in actual person at local ‘Tweet-ups’. I toyed with…

  • Apple Day

    There are Apple Days being advertised here in West Dorset and, of course, just over the border in Somerset. The tradition dates to 21 October 21 1990 when the first Apple Day was held in the old Apple Market in London’s Covent Garden, bringing fruit back there for the first time in 17 years. The…

  • Plashy Fen is launched

    Thank you, thank you, thank you to all you lovely people who turned up for the launch of Plashy Fen last Saturday at Washingpool Farm Shop, Bridport. There were lots of familiar faces as well as people I’d never met before. To be honest, it was all a bit overwhelming. First through the doors was…

  • Fiction, snobbery and a book launch

    I’m busy practising my signature for the launch of my new novel, Plashy Fen, which happens this coming Saturday at Washingpool Farm Shop, on the north western outskirts of Bridport. As I write fiction under my pen name, my signature can be anything I want it to be – but I do need to make…

  • Paperback publication day

    Plashy Fen is now available in paperback today. Publication coincides with Michaelmas Day, one of the quarter days I write about in the novel: Today, Maurice’s ghost is taking in the autumn sunshine. It is 29th September, Michaelmas Day, the Feast of Michael and All Angels, a day that sits on the edge of winter,…

  • Mary Anning at Lyme Regis

    This bronze statue of palaeontologist Mary Anning strides off towards the cliffs she once explored with great success at Lyme Regis, Dorset. It was created by sculptor Denise Dutton and unveiled in 2022 on the anniversary of Mary’s birth in Lyme in May 1799. The story behind the statue is very inspiring. It’s all down…