The Newcomer’s Guide to Competition Fencing available now
The Newcomer’s Guide to Competition Fencing by Robin Catling is available on Amazon now in e-book and paperback editions.
The Art of the Good Cover: Rules for good covers
Earlier this year we revamped The Art of Foil Fencing with a new cover because the original was, well, terrible. So what are the ‘rules’ for good covers?
Understanding the ISBN (re-post)
Let’s start with the basics: ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It’s an international system of identifying books by assigning a unique identifier to each separate edition of a book. This not only identifies the publication, but also the different formats in which it is available.
The First Draft
There are many ways to start writing a book, both fiction and non-fiction. Without a first draft, you don’t have a book, just an idea. But a completed first draft is just that – a beginning and not an end.
Tips from a Screenwriter
TV and movie screen-writer Jeremy Brock (co-creator of BBC’s Casualty, writer of Last King of Scotland, Mrs Brown and Brideshead Revisited) could be heard on BBC World Service Radio this morning (Sat 24th Sept, 2011) to talk about screen adaptations. Brock discussed adapting novels and fact-based projects for film.
Not Out
Frankly its a humiliation when you’re a good middle-order batsman pushed down the order behind the bowlers and the keeper. That’s where I found myself for that one-day game. The recurring knee injury that would eventually put me out of the game had twanged in the field in the morning session, so I got pushed…
Grandfathers
Two grandfathers. One tall, straight, cheerful. Always sunny. One, short, slumped, slightly mournful, slightly sad. They had both been through the War. The tall one pulled his comrades out of the water when the landing craft beached at Normandy, dragged a few of the drowning and wounded up the beach at Normandy through a hail…
An Early Memory
The trouble with earliest memories is knowing where they begin. What is actual memory, something concrete, real, beyond just disconnected images and impressions. One of my earliest memories dates from… perhaps three years old. Pushed along in a buggy, along a hilly, grey London street near where we lived then. The buggy’s rain hood pulled…
What’s in a name?
If you have anything less common than a Smith, Jones or Williams, looking into the origin of your family name can take you to some fascinating and unexpected places.
