October’s writing life has probably been as ‘normal’ as it’s going to get in the foreseeable future. And so much so, it feels hectic; full of ends and beginnings.

Scroll back far enough and you'll find that this blog was originally set up when I was launching my travel memoir, A Blonde Bengali Wife, way back in 2010.  Several years before, my now-retired literary agent, Dinah Weiner, read the MS, went to Bangladesh herself and (very long story very short) by 2007 we'd set up the charity Bhola's Children. It's too long since I did an update, so, direct from Zakir, 'our man in Bhola', here it is:

On a sunny Monday morning at the Edinburgh Book Festival, I may have reached the pinnacle (so far) of my writing career.

And just like that, my Create Inclusion funded ‘year of being an author’ is over. I’m not going to stop writing, of course, it just means back to balancing my own writing with the freelance editing work that pays the bills and that I love because it’s not mine.

Adventure. History. A hero. Whether it’s a book or a film, there’s nothing better than being caught up in a world that’s not quite your own, but the writing is good enough to draw you in and make you feel part of the story.