Handywoman – preorder!
We are now preparing for the publication of my new book, Handywoman! I’ve been working on this book (in between my other projects) for a couple of years now. I am more proud of, and happy about,...
View Articlemaking Handywoman
I initially decided to write Handywoman after being interviewed on BBC Woman’s Hour, which led to a discussion with a literary agent. This agent was really smart, interesting, incredibly professional...
View ArticleHandywoman is published!
Just thought I’d drop in to let you know that Handywoman has now been published and that all pre-ordered copies have been shipped. Handywoman was expertly printed at Bell and Bain Glasgow . . . from...
View ArticleEtac and me
One of Handywoman’s central themes is the importance of tools and made-things in everyday life. I have a different, and much more nuanced, understanding of well-designed tools and objects post-stroke...
View Articleto err is human
I’m really looking forward to our new knitting-related releases, but wanted to say a few quick words before they begin (yes, it’s tomorrow!) about Handywoman. I’ve had so many wonderful responses to...
View Articleheid haiku
A chance exchange on twitter last week (with a poet who shares my name) got me thinking about possible associations between hats and poetry – between heids and haiku. Couldn’t a heid be something like...
View ArticleCollective journaling
As we approach the start of Knitting Season, I thought I’d write a few posts about how I use (and have used) journals. I imagine many of us think about journals as deeply personal spaces, and yet my...
View Articlewheesht
Wheesht is published! You can now buy the book in the KDD shop, find out more about it at its dedicated website and we’ve even produced a set of 12 jolly postcards featuring the wonderful illustrations...
View Articlewalking words
Good morning, everyone. Today I thought I’d share with you one of the poems I recently read at Write by the Sea. I’m someone who loves walking, and since my stroke in 2010, I’m also someone who has a...
View Articletalking to myself
Good morning! Over the past few days, the air has really come alive with warblers, as more and more migrant birds reach our part of Scotland, and yesterday morning, skylarks began adding their voices...
View ArticleFabrication
Good morning! A poem today. Earlier this week saw the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Wordsworth – a poet who has, for the past couple of centuries, often set the ideological terms of the...
View ArticleIn search of Miss Lenton
(1. Suffragette, chained to railings.) What a feast of images and words today! As you know, I’m a writer with a background in archival research and women’s history, and today I’ve persuaded fellow...
View Articlea reading week
Eric Ravilious, Cuckmere Haven (1939) Thinking about what I might write about here yesterday, it occurred to me that, despite the fact that reading takes up a fairly large proportion of my time, I’d...
View Articleover again
When do you read something over again? There are crime novels to which I frequently return (those of Josephine Tey and Marjorie Allingham are particular favourites) and, when I’m ill or low, I often...
View Articledressing up . . . 1970s style
I’ve been suffering with a migraine, and am still feeling very ropey, so thought I’d just follow on from yesterday’s post about masks and performance, with a few images (and words) about my childhood –...
View Articlethis oak is
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been really struck by how colourful the oak trees I see on my morning walks are at this time of year, with their wild orangey-red foliage so different to the surrounding...
View Articlefour writing tips
I’m in full-on, heads down, focused writing mode right now, completing our People Make Glasgow book. Someone sent me an email a couple of days ago asking about my approach to writing, and it occurred...
View ArticleGlasgow’s atelier economy: then and now
Today I thought I’d share with you the introductory words I wrote for People MAKE Glasgow . For me – a former eighteenth-century specialist – the connections between Glasgow’s eighteenth-century past...
View Articleworking through winter
It is that time of year in Scotland when the clocks are about to “go back” (when our time reverts to GMT, rather than BST). My bipolar has always had seasonal triggers (generally in very early spring,...
View Articlethe closing year
As the first copies of our 10 Years in the Making book arrived in the KDD warehouse yesterday, I thought (not for the first time) about what a very weird year it has been. We published four brand new...
View Articleserendipity
A few of you asked about the changes KDD has made to the way we use big tech and social media – and about where to begin when considering making similar changes. As a starting point, I would suggest...
View Articlemend
We celebrate the new edition of Wheesht with this essay exploring the creative work of mending and Celia Pym's inspiring practice
View Articleother people’s stories
On time, memory, and what it means to tell someone else's story.
View Articlehistorical memory
what do we call to mind about a place? Which local narratives deserve commemoration?
View Articleknitting through change
Lisa Payne shares the story of how knitting became a lifeline for her body and sense of self.
View ArticleColour at Work
a challenging, inspiring, thought-provoking and truly in-the-round celebration of that most unruly of creative concepts – COLOUR
View Articlesunday links
a documentary, an exhibition, an EP, and 49,000 pairs of early nineteenth-century stockings
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More Pages to Explore .....