Author | Writer | Photographer
simonwhaley Last Wednesday evening I attended a public meeting organised by the Support Group of my local library, and I was delighted to see so many people there. Over 200 people forced themselves into the hall to hear what was said. And emotions ran high. Whilst this isn’t always a good thing, because it detracts from the actual consultation process, it was an indication of the support that exists in the town for the library.
Ninety years ago Clough Williams-Ellis acquired the site that became Portmeirion. Simon Whaley discovers how Country Life came to influence the way it looks today.
If it wasn’t for COUNTRY LIFE magazine Portmeirion would look a little different today. Ninety years ago, Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis invested less than £5,000 acquiring the land where he would build Portmeirion, but in 1925 it was known as Aber Iâ. He wanted a more romantic name and decided that he could draw upon it’s coastal location, which had the air of a port about it, and use the Welsh name of the county in which is was located (Merioneth): hence Portmeirion. His architectural concept of creating a coastal village had begun, a concept that would take 51 years to evolve. Although he made plans for his village, which appeared in The Architects Journal in 1926, it’s construction was an evolutionary process, for his plans did not include the finds he would make amongst COUNTRY LIFE’s pages in the years ahead.
My latest article for Writer’s Wheel, the online magazine for writers, is entitled Course You Can and looks at how to make the most from a residential writing workshop. You …
Slow Journey County: Cumbria
Slow Journey Destination: Claife Heights
Slow Journey Distance Travelled: 0 Steps.
My immediate thought was of radioactivity. It was a series of unmistakable clicks. But where from? Standing on Claife Heights, overlooking Beatrix Potter’s favourite tarn (Moss Eccles), I was puzzled by this noise. The air was still, the tarn’s waters reflective, and a cold wintry sun sat low on the horizon, as if still trying to warm itself up, let alone anything else.
The Erewash Writers’ Short Story competition has just been launched for 2015, and they’ve kindly asked me to judge. Top prize is £100, and all profits from the competition go …
The Complete Article Writer has just been published and now brings my range of books written especially for writers to three.
After many months of work, I’m pleased to announce that the series of eight workshops I devised for the 2014 Writers’ Holiday at Fishguard has now been turned into book format: both print and eBook, and both are now available.
2015 has just got better for writers, with two of my books, dropping to 99p in eBook format (and the equivalent for foreign editions). That means both The Positively Productive Writer and Photography for Writers can be downloaded via Amazon, iTunes or Barnes and Noble for 99p (or their foreign equivalent).
It’s that time of year when people buy presents for their dog-loving friends and relatives, and what better present that my One Hundred Ways For A Dog To Train Its …
I’ve just caught up with the issues of The People’s Friend that contain the new monthly series of articles from Age UK. Whilst Age UK could supply the text, The …