Latest Posts

• Writing tips: self-publishing: how many books can you sell?

  How many books should a self-published author aim to sell?  If you are writing a book, how much money are you likely to make from…

• What will happen after coronavirus? My new novel CORONATIME

  What if the cure for coronavirus is worse than the disease?  What if after COVID-19 we have COVID-21, COVID-35 and COVID-42?  How will coronavirus change society,…

• Difficult English pronunciation

  A famous poem highlights the challenges of English spelling and pronunciation.  Many readers of this blog use English as their second or even third language.…

• What is the Overton window? Part 2

  The Overton window is a way of describing the acceptable range of political culture at any given moment.  Wikipedia defines it as “the range of…

• Tips for writers: how to start writing

  Many people writing a book are looking for writing prompts or ideas for stories.  A couple of simple writing tips may help, including: start writing!…

• Coronavirus: how to cope with uncertainty

  The coronavirus crisis shows us a number of ways to deal with uncertainty.  But dealing with uncertainty is easier with practice and a bit of…

• Barbara Kingsolver: Unsheltered: 9 reasons (not) to despair

  A review of “Unsheltered” by Barbara Kingsolver, with quotations, reflecting on what it says about the mood of contemporary America. Barbara Kingsolver is a great…

• 10 reasons to like Austria – and 30 pictures

  As the coronavirus crisis continues, I’m writing upbeat posts to celebrate countries I’ve lived in. Here are ten reasons to like Austria, where I lived…

• Four extremes of passion, three nations

  The Finnish ambassador turned to me. ‘It’s not true that Finns have no sense of humour,’ he said.  ‘Or that we lack passion.’ ‘For example,’…

• Should you read W Somerset Maugham?

  To say W Somerset Maugham is unfashionable is like saying that J K Rowling has sold a few books. Yet he remains popular.  My post about…

• Robert Pimm videos

  You can now see a selection of videos of Robert Pimm in action on my new YouTube channel. Who knows?  Perhaps one or two of…

• Ten reasons to like Lesotho

  Let’s celebrate.  We’re going through a ghastly coronavirus crisis.  But we should not forget that the world is wonderful.  I thought I would write in…

• New readings in Berlin – and Vienna

  In February, before Coronavirus, I did three readings.  Two were in Berlin, from my Berlin thriller Blood Summit.  The other was in Vienna, from my feminist…

• Sixty Seconds with Robert Pimm

  Someone did an interview with me the other day using the “60 Seconds” format.  I found the questions searching, and had to invest a little…

• Ten reasons to like Turkey

  Let’s celebrate.  We’re going through a ghastly coronavirus crisis.  But we should not forget that the world is wonderful.  I thought I would write in…

• Coronavirus Vienna (with pictures)

  When I lived in Istanbul from 2012-16, people often asked me whether I was concerned about terrorist attacks, crime or civil disturbance. At the end…

• Middlemarch is the book for Coronavirus: 25 epigrams

  What to do, when you are stuck at home because of the #coronavirus outbreak? Read Middlemarch, by George Eliot. George Eliot’s real name was Mary…

• “Vintage Season” – a story for a coronavirus outbreak

  “Three people came up the walk to the old mansion just at dawn on a perfect May morning.  Oliver Wilson in his pajamas watched them…

• How to be happy

  In these coronavirus days, it’s worth recalling how to be happy.  I’m going out to dinner tonight, so this might be my last chance. I’m…

• From Herr to Maternity

  By Robert Pimm Financial Times, May 9, 2003 I’m picking up the kids from school here in Berlin when a teacher accosts me. “Started being a…

• Great Vienna bars: Aurora at Andaz Belvedere

  Which rooftop bar in Vienna has: outstanding cocktails the best view in Vienna total coolness? Here’s a clue: Here are some reasons I like the…

• Are “The Hotel Stories” feminist?

  At a recent reading from my blackly comic “Seven Hotel Stories” in Vienna, a man asked me: ‘These stories seem explicitly feminist. Is that intentional?’…

• “Blood Summit” live readings in Berlin 21-22 February

  My two live readings in Berlin are coming up. I shall be reading from my thriller Blood Summit in Berlin on 21 and 22 February.  I…

• The Americans

  How a convicted killer introduced me to his girlfriend – who loathed him.  What I thought about love aged 21.  The lawyer who took me back to…

• Middlemarch: 26 quotes on gender and relationships

  I am listening to literary folk on the Queen Mary Literary Festival at Sea (links in bold italics are to other posts on this site).  After a…

• Seven Ukrainian Girls – now available on Amazon!

  Welcome to a brand new “Hotel Story”. Seven Ukrainian Girls is the eighth story in the series, and follows on from the tales collected in my…

• “Blood Summit” readings in Berlin 21-22 February

  It is time to plan your weekend in Berlin. I shall be doing two readings from my thriller Blood Summit in Berlin on 21 and 22…

• Vienna’s best cafés: the ultimate guide

  What are the Top 10 Vienna cafes?  How can you find the best Viennese cafe for you?  Start here with Robert Pimm’s fun, objective and…

• Blood Summit – a Berlin thriller

  Welcome to the opening chapters of my Berlin thriller, Blood Summit.   I wrote Blood Summit from my personal experience, after years of working with real terrorist…

• Sex, alcohol, people: what makes you happy?

  I’m sitting on a high-speed train, next to the window, with an empty paper cup.  How best can I make myself happier? One of my…

• 10 rules on how to work better: my father’s list, part 2

  My blog of January 2016 recorded the discovery of a handwritten list of ten rules of behaviour amongst my father’s papers, two years after his death in…

• John Connolly’s Charlie Parker novels: why you should read them

  What are the John Connolly “Charlie Parker” novels about?  Should you read them, and where should you start?  My answer, based on reading four novels…

• Vienna unfriendly? San Francisco a hell-hole?

  Respectable Austrian news service APA has published a report saying, and I quote, “according to employees sent abroad by companies, Vienna is the third-most unfriendly…

• Writing tips: “He knew he was right”: Trollope on the sexes

  Trollope is an outstanding writer on relationships between the sexes.  Lessons on gender from 1869 are still 100% relevant. How men think, how women think…

• Cunard literary cruise 2020: a Cheltenham Literary Festival at Sea

  How was the Cunard Literary Cruise 2020?  Would I go on the 2021 version?  Would I bite your hand off to have another chance?  What about…

• Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger: “Oddjob: the Pressure Room”

  Review of Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger, including James Bond’s sexism.  Not one of the best books of all time, but a time capsule of 1950s homophobia…

• A complete short story: “Taxi to London”

  I wrote the following story as flash fiction at a writing course I attended recently at Loutro on Crete (links in bold italics are to other posts…

• Writing tips: story ideas and 5 ways to turn experience into fiction

  Five great ways you can turn your own experience – whatever it is – into compelling storylines, story ideas and writing prompts. I have finished…

• 4 astonishing facts about “The Third Man”

  Have you seen the classic 1949 British thriller The Third Man (links in bold italics are to other posts on this site)?  If not, watch it immediately!  Either way,…

• Pictures from my reading in Innsbruck

  What do you think a reading with Robert Pimm looks like? I was delighted on 18 October to read from my Berlin thriller Blood Summit in…