Welcome! This page is to help you find your way around the 300+ posts on robertpimm.com via seven pleasure paths. Links in bold italics are to other posts on this site.
Path 1: Original fiction
- Pick up my Berlin thriller Blood Summit and you won’t put it down. If you read the novel in a book group, you may find Blood Summit: reading group questions helpful.
- My seven (so far) famous Seven Hotel Stories feature the world’s most homicidal hotel manager, Ms N; her beautiful but naive ally, Tatiana; and Ms N’s unique methods of dealing with awkward hotel guests. Read a complete Hotel Story free here. All my books are available on my Amazon page.
A couple of other complete short stories on this site include:
You can read more about my novels and my short stories at the links.
Path 2: Writing tips
Do you want to improve your writing technique? You can see tips about writing under Writing about Writing. Examples include:
- 2 sets of brilliant tips on “how to write”
- How to write: Orhan Pamuk
- my thoughts on How to write
- Marilyn Monroe and 5 ways to turn experience into fiction
- Writing fiction: 7 ways to deal with rejection
- Seven ways to improve your manuscript
- 5 ways to get in the habit of writing
- How to write a novel: plan in advance, or not?
- How to write a novel: edit as you go along, or not?
- How to write gripping fiction: scenes, sequels and cliff-hangers
- How to sign up for “Robert Pimm’s Writing News”
- How to write: paper or computer?
- How to write: 5 places ideas come from
I review writing courses:
- Pure writing inspiration: Loutro, Crete
- Arvon residential writing courses: review
- Cunard Literary Cruise 10/10
- Skyros writing courses
I set out tips about journalism here:
- 7 tips for writing the perfect article (part 1 of 3)
- The 4 elements of the perfect article: Nut-grafs & Cosmic Kickers (part 2 of 3) and
- How to write great Nut-grafs and Cosmic Kickers: part 3.
Path 3: Existential and women
Reflections on happiness, the meaning of life, and women, e.g.:
- Coronavirus Vienna
- Middlemarch is the book for Coronavirus: 25 epigrams
- “Vintage Season”: a story for a Coronavirus outbreak
- How to be happy
- Are “The Hotel Stories” feminist?
- Middlemarch: 26 quotes on gender and relationships
- Sex, alcohol, people: what makes you happy?
- Being happy: Paranoid and Bachelor Boy
- How to stay sane: never take yourself too seriously
- How to be happy: 11 simple tools
- The one with the links to happiness
- Women in fiction: Atomic Blonde and Blood Summit
- Tuchman’s Law (or “Always look on the bright side”?): 9/10
- Happiness and small victories
- Things are getting worse, right? Wrong. Here’s why
- Want to smartphone detox? Here’s how
- The Simpsons – existential, circular fantasy
- Spectre: another reason to miss it? Women. 4/10
- How to work better: 10 rules? Or not?
- My piece for the Financial Times, “Behind every great woman…” – on the challenges facing male partners of successful women
- A thoughtful and moving piece for the Financial Times: “Rag’n’bones to riches” about the 80th birthday of Mary, from Arsenal, and how she brought up four brilliant daughters
- A piece for the German newspaper Die Welt, in German: “Im Dienst Ihrer Majestät”: how a female officer who joined the British Foreign Service at a junior level enjoyed a strong career.
- Wonder Woman and Wartime Moral Confusion (WMC)
Path 4: Reviews
I was prompted to start writing reviews by so enjoying the awesome Anthony Trollope that I felt I had to share him. I received a strong response, so thought I would try a few others. You can see them all or sample the list below:
- Which Vienna cafes are the best (one of my most popular reviews, regularly updated)
- Should you read W Somerset Maugham?
- Ten reasons to like Austria
- Ten reasons to like Lesotho
- Ten reasons to like Turkey
- Great bars: Aurora at Andaz Vienna
- John Connolly’s Charlie Parker novels: the best bits
- From Russia with love: sexist, homophobic cold war time capsule
- Diamonds are forever: civil servants and “shills”
- Austria: the best footpaths in the world?
- Appreciating the Cloud Appreciation Society
- 14 Plums of Wodehouse
- East West street: genocide? Or crimes against humanity?
- The health benefits of Martinis
- Eight reasons “I am Pilgrim” will grip you where it hurts
- 50 Shades: 5 reasons it’s a masterpiece, 5 reasons I hate it
- Why sequels suck
- DON’T PANIC: a communications masterclass 10/10
- The Wave: 5 reasons to miss it & 7 reasons you must see it 9/10
- Spectre: 5 reasons to miss it & 5 reasons you’ll see it 4/10
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 6 reasons I was surprised 8/10
- Making fun of the English? The great George Mikes 10/10
- Independence Day 2: Oh, my God! 1/10
- Football: how to fix FIFA and World Cup corruption
- How to find your way (maps and navigation)
- “Lion” – the film. The real India?
- Fine Austrian movies: Toni Erdmann vs Wilde Maus
- Fine Austrian movies: Toni Erdman vs Wilde Maus
- How to read P G Wodehouse: a practical guide
- The Third Man. Movie magic – 10/10
- Get Out – an instant classic? 9/10
- Zombeavers? Yes! Prometheus? Yes! A girl walks home alone at night? Not yet… and Tokyo Tribes 9/10
- Museum of Innocence: how men think? 8/10
- 6 reasons “The Neon Demon” makes “Showgirls” look like Shakespeare 2/10
- The Internet. 7 reasons why it will destroy civilisation
- Nine questions about the Alan Clark Diaries: 0/10? or 10/10?
Path 5: The latest thing
If you’re a regular visit, you can browse my latest blogs in the column on the right (“LATEST POSTS”). Recent pieces include: Sex, alcohol, people: what makes you happy?; John Connolly’s Charlie Parker Novels: Read them; Trollope on the Sexes – and the “Railway Sandwich”; and Literature Festival at Sea: 10/10. Look down the right hand column to see what’s new.
Top thriller writer John Connolly buying a copy of my Berlin thriller “Blood Summit“
Path 6: Videos
Since I introduced my “5 pleasure paths” I have also set up a Video Page where you can see recordings of some of my readings. Excellent entertainment.
P.S. If you enjoy fresh, original writing, feel free to friend me on Facebook or sign up for e-mail updates when I publish my weekly posts (top right – the “click here” blue button). If you would prefer a monthly update, join my mailing list.
Path 7: Hard to categorise
OK. Too many paths. But I can’t leave out these:
- The Americans
- The Americans: Return to California
- Lunch in the Chernobyl canteen: 25 pictures
- The Russians: Vladivostok
Enjoy robertpimm.com!