Our first glimpse behind the curtain of movie magic at the Warner Brothers’ Studio Tour was a decade ago. Meandering from the Gryffindor common room to Hagrid's hut and from Dumbledore's office to the Ministry of Magic, I was bowled over by the craftsmanship of the sets, costumes, models and props.

For Zechariah, seeing is not believing.

In a contest for the most enigmatic characters of the New Testament, my money would be on the Wise Men of the Christmas story, whom we commemorate today, January 6th.

Etymonline, the trusty site for all things wordnerdy, tells me that ‘epiphany’ entered English in the early 14th century,

Tracy Chevalier is my favourite historical novelist, and of all her books, my favourite is The Last Runaway, which tells the story of a young Quaker woman who emigrates to America and becomes involved with the Underground Railroad. This complex network of people and infrastructure helped hundreds of thousands of runaway slaves to escape their servitude.

I always get jittery at this time of year. Suddenly there's a lot more to do and no more hours in the day or fuel in the tank.

Every September, my inner child relishes collecting conkers

We hear a lot in the media about mansplaining but in our household, I confess I’m just as likely to be guilty as David

In August, I managed to grab a writing retreat in Whitstable to advance my current work-in-progress

The abrupt change from summery to autumnal weather in late August prompted me to research the name of the season. This revealed several surprises.

Last weekend saw the 80th birthday of Sir Van Morrison, a Northern Irish singer/song-writer and musician beloved of 3 generations of my family.

Our holiday in Devon developed an Agatha Christie theme, as we visited her birthplace, Torquay; Burgh Island, where she wrote and set two of her novels and Greenway, her beautiful holiday home on the banks of the River Dart.

On holiday in Devon we snorkelled at 3 different locations and despite imperfect conditions and my slow progress in technique, we enjoyed our glimpses into the otherworldly life beneath the surface

Our local section of the River Roding runs adjacent to the M11, a stone’s throw away up an embankment, so from a human perspective, it’s hardly an oasis of calm. Nevertheless, it’s a relatively thriving wildlife corridor.

One of the great things about belonging to a book club is broadening your horizons; reading books you’d never select yourself.

It’s butterfly time of year and that got me thinking about how the word butterfly is pretty-sounding but distinct in the Romance languages

Watching wildlife along the river this month has brought to mind the river of life metaphor in the Scriptures.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.

Essex Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve, Fingringhoe Wick, is above all a place to listen.

Researching this blog, I stumbled on a quotation from Shelley’s Defence of Poetry, which encapsulates the age-long fascination of poets with the elusive bird of the night.

“A Poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds;

Our birdwatching, or rather bird-listening, at Fingringhoe Wick left us hungry and we made our way to the nearby ‘Donkey and Buskins’ at Layer de la Haye,