About this blog

This is a window into the weird world of Anglicanism, as experienced on a Cathedral Close. Has anything much happened since Trollope's Barchester Chronicles? You will still see the 'canon in residence' hurrying across to choral Evensong, robes flapping, as the late bell chimes. But look carefully and you will notice he is checking the football score on his iPhone as he runs. This is also a writer's blog. It charts the agony and ecstasy of the novelist's life. And it's a fighter's blog. It charts the agony and ecstasy of the judo mat. Well, the agony, anyway.

Sunday 28 April 2013

CHAPTER 17

Men and Women in Marriage.  What they made of the Faith and Order Commission's report in the Diocese of Lindchester.  And a spot of creative lawn-mowing.  http://catherine-fox-novel.blogspot.co.uk/

Sunday 14 April 2013

CHAPTER 15

This week's chapter was partly crowd-sourced.  I'd like to record my gratitude to those people on Twitter who told me whether the celandines were out in their part of the country, whether they'd heard any chiffchaffs or willow warblers yet, or if the larks were singing round their way.  This is really helpful, because I'm not routinely walking past Lindchester-style English hedgerows here in Liverpool.

The other thing I canvassed opinion about was what type of tattoos Freddie May has.  Obviously, I had my own ideas already, but I wanted them endorsed.  One person told me he'd have 'Celtic circlet around the bicep' and that she wasn't guessing, she knew.  I found that rather gratifying.  It means that Freddie has become a 'real person' to that reader.  (Ha, bet you'd care if I threw him off the palace roof, now, wouldn't you?)  In this process I also learnt a very rude German word for 'lower back tattoo' ('Arschgeweih': 'arse antlers').  You can read what I decided on for Freddie here (she was nearly right with the Celtic tattoo): http://catherine-fox-novel.blogspot.co.uk/

In the past Twitter told me what kind of vestments Father Wendy would wear when I enquired, which was also extremely welcome.  What is much less welcome is nitpicking feedback after I've uploaded a chapter.  I'm inclined to flounce, and mutter Write it yourself then, if you're so clever.  But then I go back and make corrections in the dead of night, and never once admit I was wrong.  So I am grateful, really.