Rae of Light

Gift voucher! Gift voucher! Gleaming bright Spent at emporiums day or night, Thanks to Amazon and eBay Could there be any other way? I apologise to Blake for the flagrant abuse of the first verse of one of his most famous poems. If you're turning in your grave Bill, you can stop now because I promise it stops here. As you may have gathered, the main reason I'm writing this month's blog is to laud the virtues of the humble gift voucher. It may also have something to do with the fact that my birthday is imminent and I'm considering writing a definitive birthday present list for my friends and family. High on this list is the gift voucher. I'm one of the odd minority who relish receiving them as gifts. Yes, I know some of you think they're boring. But here's the thing – they mean I can get WHATEVER I like, WHENEVER I like, WHERE EVER I like. What's not to like about that? When I reached the age of 10 or 11 my gra...

I don't do presents at Christmas so a lot of people assume that means I'm a bit of a Scrooge about the whole season. But they couldn't be more wrong. Christmas for me is all about time spent with family and friends I love to pieces. I've been feeling pretty nostalgic this December and put my tree up on the 1 st when usually I put it up when I finish teaching round about the 18 th or 19 th . My lovely friend Chantal and I had a mini tree decorating party. Just her and me. The festivities involved: good food Christmasish music quite a bit of mulled wine and the inevitable set of lights which didn't work, The result was this shining example of a Christmas tree you see before you. It's always a fake tree because being South African I don't know any other kind. My strongest childhood memories are of lengthy journeys in our Hillman  (later a bright yellow VW Beetle) to friends and family on C...

For as long as I can remember, reading has been a part of my life. As a child I remember walking to the bus stop with a book in my hand because I was so engrossed in the world within those pages. And by some miracle of auto steering I managed to manoeuvre around obstacles in my path. Even now, as an adult, I go everywhere with a book in my bag, sometimes two. When I'm not driving I like to take every opportunity to get engrossed in the plot of a novel, live the lives of the characters and marvel at the author's choice of language.  An ex boyfriend gave me a Kobo for Christmas last year and since then my bag has been a whole lot lighter. But whether in paperback or encased inside the gubbins of an e-reader, books are always with me.  I can't imagine a time in my life  without them or when they didn't give me the most immense pleasure ever.  Books have seen me through every major event in my life.  When I've felt that I couldn't rely on peo...

          Cole Beauchamp writes for a living and fits in writing fiction when she can.  She longs for the day when energy is green, sauvignon blanc is cheap and her children pick up their bathroom towels. Yesterday I sat with four children, two boys, two girls, helping them write an ending to a story. Their questions came thick and fast: “How do you spell ‘immediately’?” vs “What would happen if a bomb fell on an electricity pylon?” vs *silence and staring at paper* vs “I want to write about a haunted house”. We had 20 minutes to finish a story we’d started an hour earlier. And we did it. But not by me “teaching”. The premise of the session is to tease out the children’s ideas, to ask open-ended questions like “What do you want to happen next?” or “How do you think they’re feeling?” or “Can you imagine what that looked like?” And to encourage them to put pencil to paper and write it down. It was hard at times, balancing the n...

#I believe the children are our future Teach them well and let them lead the way Show them all the beauty they possess inside Give them a sense of pride to make it easier # Yes, the lyrics of that Whitney Houston song are completely smaltzy. But you have to admit that there's a certain something to them, particularly the second and third line of the chorus. Now I truly believe those words. I'm not going to be around in about 70 years but my cousin's kids will be. And all those kids I chained to their desks when I was a full time teacher will be too. If obesity and all its related illnesses doesn't get them first, but that's a whole other blog. So these kids, they're a kind of legacy. Right?! And childless though I am, I still have this weird maternal instinct to do right by them. Crazy – I know. With this in mind, my dream job has always been to combine my passion for writing with my desire to pass on knowledge.  Even bette...

Tucked away in the village of Hassocks, near Brighton is my ideal writing retreat. you won't find it in the ads at the back of any writing magazines you won't find it online you won't hear about it at a writing group It's top secret and only open on specific holidays to a limited clientèle. To find your way on to this exclusive list mainly involves being friends with the owner of the property and the owner's cousin. Luckily I fall into both these categories. I then create various cock-a-maymy excuses for visiting this idyll as often as possible. I think the owner sees through my plot but as yet has not objected too much. And why exactly do I love this spot so much? Firstly It involves spending time with one of my favourite people, Bev Cross , who I met on a writing holiday in Greece. Her fabulousness is so vast it cannot be contained in one blog post.  As with all things wonderful, she's particularly shy so I'm only authori...

My blogging benefactress , Sydnee Blake is about to publish her first collection of short stories, Finding Words in Whitechapel and start blogging herself. The blog, due to commence on 23 rd July, will give you tantalising snippets of the short stories in her anthology. I first met Sydnee in a splendid writing group which runs in the members bar of the Royal Festival Hall. Our initial contact was through email as we were setting up the dates and times of meeting up and I assumed (because of her name) that she would be a man- a rare beast in most writing groups unless you live near Telegraph Hill.  I was thrilled to discover that not only was she a woman but also one with a wealth of experience and good sense. I am delighted that a member of our writing group is about to publish and can't wait to see Sydnee's book in print. I am proud to announce that I am a Sydnee Groupie and I know my other writing buddy Emma (RFH writing group member and collabora...