charles barrow's writing

I was looking for an excuse to post this photo. How could I post it and make it seem relevant to anything? November. It's the first day of November, it's grey, dreary and very wet outside. A day to hurry down the street, ignoring everything around you in a rush to get home. Autumn is often like this, but it can be warm and sunny and if you slow down and look around then you might spot a mushroom village like this one. Writing. A few posts ago I wrote about Agatha Christie's penchant for poisoning her fictional victims. I was talking about digitalis, in particular, that time but now I'm wondering if the Queen of Murder (a new nickname that probably won't catch on), if Christie ever used mushrooms to kill off a rich old relative and prompt Miss Marple to get snooping.* Sure, some fungi are delicious in a risotto (with parmesan) but others cause the most hideous, lingering deaths. I'm certain she would have known which was which. I've no idea what kind of...

I was out walking and the sight of this beautifully elegant stand of foxgloves stopped me dead in my tracks. Not literally, luckily, but it could have done. Every part of the foxglove plant is poisonous. A fatal dose would stop your heart in, well, a heartbeat. Handy to know if you want to bump someone off, in a story of course. Look no further for evidence than crime queen Agatha Christie who used this method to kill victims in several of her stories. Elegant but deadly, then. The foxgloves too. Photo is the author's own

Further to my p.s. post below, in which I discuss extra author content at the back of novels. I just finished reading The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz. It's a Sherlock Holmes novel. Brave writer, Horowitz, to step into Conan Doyle's big shoes and take on the iconic and much loved detective. There seems to be a vogue for bringing dead authors' most famous characters back to life, hasn't Sophie Hannah just done it with Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot? Fans of Sherlock (legion and rabid) needn't have worried, Horowitz has written a cracking tale from start to finish and after it has finished he treats us to some detailed notes on how he went about approaching his task, in ten rules he set himself at the outset. Interesting stuff. And while I'm back on this topic... I heard a brilliant Aaron Sorkin interview on Radio 4's Front Row recently. Sorkin is a master of his craft, The West Wing and The Social Network amongst many others, and it was fascina...

Where the hell am I? I've lost my way, geographically speaking. I know my story takes place in the south of England, it had to because that is the landscape I know, can visualise and can describe, but where exactly are my characters?  I've name checked two real world towns but otherwise I haven't been specific. The action visits several small villages and I certainly didn't want to name and pinpoint those. I have invented one town name and I think I might get away with that but I don't want to have to keep doing it. Nothing sounds as bad as an unconvincing place name. Check out Agatha Christie's books for the least convincing place names ever - how about Southshire, Middleshire and Dilmouth for starters? A good friend read a draft of my story and immediately picked up on this place name issue 'Get rid.' she cautioned. While her partner says people like to see real place names in post-apocalyptic fiction. They like to see places they know ...

Where the hell am I? I've lost my way, geographically speaking. I know my story takes place in the south of England, it had to because that is the landscape I know, can visualise and can describe, but where exactly are my characters?  I've name checked two real world towns but otherwise I haven't been specific. The action visits several small villages and I certainly didn't want to name and pinpoint those. I have invented one town name and I think I might get away with that but I don't want to have to keep doing it. Nothing sounds as bad as an unconvincing place name. Check out Agatha Christie's books for the least convincing place names ever - how about Southshire, Middleshire and Dilmouth for starters? A good friend read a draft of my story and immediately picked up on this place name issue 'Get rid.' she cautioned. While her partner says people like to see real place names in post-apocalyptic fiction. They like to see places they know ...

Where the hell am I? I've lost my way, geographically speaking. I know my story takes place in the south of England, it had to because that is the landscape I know, can visualise and can describe, but where exactly are my characters?  I've name checked two real world towns but otherwise I haven't been specific. The action visits several small villages and I certainly didn't want to name and pinpoint those. I have invented one town name and I think I might get away with that but I don't want to have to keep doing it. Nothing sounds as bad as an unconvincing place name. Check out Agatha Christie's books for the least convincing place names ever - how about Southshire, Middleshire and Dilmouth for starters? A good friend read a draft of my story and immediately picked up on this place name issue 'Get rid.' she cautioned. While her partner says people like to see real place names in post-apocalyptic fiction. They like to see places they know ...