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  Autobiography -  Processing the fact and the fiction When embarking on writing your own autobiography, no doubt one of the most important questions you will ask yourself is "What shall I call it ?" There are a multitude of ways of deciding on a title, for an autobiography, from picking a catchphrase from your working life to a phrase relating to a particular talent - or lack of it - which relates to you. It was suggested to me by tutors while at University that the title should be left till last, but I have found that in practice, having something in mind keeps you focused and gives the reader an idea of whether they want to read the writing or not.  The list of 'famous' authors of biographies is endless.  A quick 'Google' gives us Prime Ministers (current and past) Ghandi, Mandela, most politicians present and past as well as writers as diverse as Agatha Christie, Anne Frank and Alan Bennett and so called 'celebrities' of the day,  some of whom I ha...

It was the last night of my four night visit to Rome. I 'd walked myself to the verge of exhaustion again and was having a final cup of tea in the bar/restaurant next to my hotel. Some new brick paving was being laid on the street and the bar was struggling to keep down the dust, even after the builders had finished for the day and the air conditioner was doing it's best to pump out some cool, moist air onto the tables and customers who were sitting outside with food and drinks. Emerging from the haze of cold air combined with concrete dust, came a woman, glasses hanging lopsidedly from their cord around her neck, speaking a  combination of English and Italian, from  which we customers surmised that she had something annoying in her eye.  She lurched across to my table and asked if she could "leave this here a moment", laying down an A4 notebook, whilst squinting and protesting about the "something" in her eye as she did so. "This stupid thing - it keep...

When embarking on writing your own autobiography, no doubt one of the most important questions you will ask yourself is "What shall I call it ?" There are a multitude of ways of deciding on a title, for an autobiography, from picking a catchphrase from your working life to a phrase relating to a particular talent - or lack of it - which relates to you. It was suggested to me by tutors while at University that the title should be left till last, but I have found that in practice, having something in mind keeps you focused and gives the reader an idea of whether they want to read the writing or not.  The list of 'famous' authors of biographies is endless.  A quick 'Google' gives us Prime Ministers (current and past) Ghandi, Mandela, most politicians present and past as well as writers as diverse as Agatha Christie, Anne Frank and Alan Bennett and so called 'celebrities' of the day,  some of whom I have heard of and many more that I haven't. The first...

Today is World Book Day. I had always thought that it was held on 23rd April - Shakespeare’s birthday, St. George’s day and no doubt many other things celebrated but it seems it’s a “moveable feast” in this country and varies. After weeks of reading, but little writing (apart from in my head) I promised myself that I would devote today to some serious writing on one of the many projects I have in process, specifically the follow up to “Crossing Borders”. But I am in a moral dilemma, which is this: When is it acceptable to publish autobiographically about situations and family life, and at which point does it become airing your dirty laundry in public ? Julie Myerson, a novelist and columnist has published a book which tells of her family life, and includes details of her son (allegedly) smoking a “spliff”. The debate about this is whether this is a mother betraying her family and making money in the process or is it perfectly feasible for anyone to tell their own story and that of ot...