For protection

I’m no beautician as anyone will tell you, but I recently had to give my mother a much-needed manicure (long story).  The only quiet place we could find was a bench outside the hospital (very long story), slightly away from the busy path and surrounded by neglected perennials – no, the metaphor didn’t escape me.

May your enemy be happy

There was a time a few years back when the media was full of tales about how Mindfulness could change people’s lives.  “That’s so Kings Heath!” I remember scoffing to one of my friends as we sipped our skinny decaf americanos in a vegan-friendly café in, you guessed it, Kings Heath.  The irony didn’t escape

Goggle eyed

My New Year’s resolution is TV-related due to the many hours I’ve spent goggle-eyed in front of the box recently.  In fact, over the 43 weeks since the first lockdown, I’ve probably watched upwards of 1,500 hours of television. That’s an incredible 62 days!  For two whole months, I have squirmed around on my lumpy

Essential trips

Ugh, I hate lockdown.  Okay, for those of us already ‘home-working’, it’s not that different – I can still put on a wash or drop the forgotten PE kit/homework up to school (when it’s open), and the fridge still beckons every half hour.  But I keep hearing about other writers feeling “just SO inspired” (huh!),

See you in 2019 for ‘The Sentence’

It’s been quite a year for BOLDtext Playwrights with our first ever site-specific show Behind Bars: Ghosts of the Lock-Up selling out this autumn. Thank you to everyone who came and gave their support. Our fascination with crime and punishment continues with The Sentence, three new hard-hitting short plays from some of region’s foremost writers – Liz

7 hours at Astley Castle in pictures

Liz and Vanessa arrive at Astley Castle to set up for our ‘Write What You Know Workshop’. One of the grander workshop venues we have encountered so far. Fingers crossed that the weather holds… …because this is our view of the ceiling. At tea break we all retired to Astley Reading Rooms for tea/coffee (and

12 hours in Warwick

Coffee break @ Friends Meeting House After struggling through rush hour road works (!) and traffic chaos Nicola & Vanessa started the day off with our Write What You Know workshop which is where things immediately started to look up. Great, open, atmosphere to be able to express yourself in. Friendly open atmosphere. And prompting exercises

Selfies @ Warwick Words 1st October 2015

Four dramatic monologues, read by ourselves, exposing our working practices and influences, as well as exploring how our individual backgrounds have shaped the writers we are today. In Search of The Unhappy Ending by Liz John Dark Matters by Nicola Jones Lowering My Voice by Helen Kelly The Other Me by Vanessa Oakes 8 pm Lord Leycester Hospital