As previous guests will know, our property in Corwen was operated as a guest house by the previous owners. Part of what attracted us to it was the potential for it to be transformed into a retreat centre - and the journey towards that end is one we have been travelling since we arrived! To explain, when we first took over we had little choice but to operate primarily as a guest house. It was the middle of the tourist season (not a great time to move into a hospitality business) and there was...

This week, and long overdue, I am reading Mary Karr's The Art of Memoir. And yet again the link between acting and writing is at the forefront of the text - although I'm not sure how much Karr herself realises this (maybe it will become clear in due course). I had read to page 32 when I had to stop and turn my attention, briefly, to this post. So here goes... Karr makes clear that one of the most challenging and dangerous parts of memoir writing is the event/memory that elicits the most fear...

N.B. The following blog was drafted, coincidentally, just one day before I read page 114 of Bernadine Evaristo's autobiography, in which she confirms the influence of acting on her writing. A link to the book on Waterstones' website is provided at the end of the blog and I have added a couple of quotations from it to demonstrate Evaristo's view of the kind of things I am saying. The power of the connection is as strong as ever! I have been reading Bernadine Evaristo's memoir this week and...