Welcome! This page is to help you find your way around the 400+ posts on this site via seven pleasure paths.
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 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.
My speculative comedy thriller Eternal Life explores what might happen if it became possible to sell your life expectancy for a pot of cash. Sounds like a winner all-round, right? Wrong.
You can read more about all my books at my book archive.
Path 2: Writing tips
Do you want to improve your writing technique? You can see tips about writing under my Writing Tips category. 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?
- Why “Ulysses” matters – and you can read it
- 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 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. I write a new post every week or two. Do have a browse! Recent pieces include: John Connolly’s Charlie Parker Novels: Read them, written after I interviewed this outstanding thriller write in Vienna.
Top thriller writer John Connolly generously 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 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
I hope you enjoy the site!