It was T.H. White who recommended learning as an antidote to all the disappointments and griefs of this world. Learning is never wasted and lets you down and, as he pointed out, ‘look what a lot of things there are to learn.’ I try to take at least one course and a workshop every year; in October, I attended Ian Nettleton’s The Threshold of the Novel at the National Centre for Writing. It examined some of the imaginative processes by which people find ideas for a novel, how to introduce the first important ideas and establish your themes. Ian won the Bath Award for his novel Out of Nowhere in 2023 and is a very sympathetic and encouraging teacher. Writing fiction is a huge challenge which I’ve been attempting to get to grips with over the years. Since the spring, I’ve been sampling the Jericho Writers website, online sessions and podcasts. Their approach is very practical and always moving towards a goal of publication. During the Covid lockdown I returned to working on what I hope will be my debut novel Love-Knot at Knollecote Hall, a satirical ghost story, so I am keenly following the Jericho advice. One of the pro bono roles I undertake is helping the Norwich Society Publications Working Group. We have some super academic editors and we produce two illustrated booklets a year, called Aspects of Norwich, each of which presents six articles on a wide range of historical and cultural topics. In the next issue my old friend Natascha Scott-Stokes is contributing an article on Margaret Fountaine – the Norfolk butterfly collector - about whom she has written a biography called Wild and Fearless. For more about Natascha and her own fearless life in Chile see nataschascottstokes.com.  Aspects of Norwich is delivered free with membership of the Norwich Society – which in itself is enough reason to join - thenorwichsociety.org.uk – but the booklets are also available for purchase at City Books on Davy Place. Next time I’ll tell you about the Norwich Society Book Club and our explorations into deep history.
I’m delighted to announce that Poppyland has just published my latest book, Different Drums – One Family Two Wars. Based on family papers and original research, it tells the story of conscientious objection from religious non-conformity to humanitarianism during two wars with particular relation to Norwich. A big thank you to publishers Gareth and Janet Davies for taking it on. I hope it will prove its worth amongst the excellent selection of their new spring books.  The book is available in East Anglian bookshops and online through Poppyland Publishing or order though your local bookshop wherever you are (via Amazon, you will get an edition that is of lower quality paper).
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Victoria Manthorpeauthor and feature writer Blog
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