Ideas into action

Book reviews

  • Anthony Trollope

    Anthony Trollope wrote over sixty books whilst working for the General Post Office – famously introducing the post box to Britain. Since its publication in 1883 his autobiography has inspired writers and incited jealousy. I take a closer look at his awesome levels of output and his productivity tricks.

  • Eviatar Zerubavel believes that the key to gaining control over your writing is effective planning. His book The Clockwork Muse provides practical advice about scheduling in order to master the “temporal organization of our writing.”

  • Gretchen Rubin’s bestselling book ‘The Happiness Project’ describes her year-long happiness project. She took an approach inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s Virtues Chart where she identified areas of her life she wanted to work on and set concrete and measurable happiness-boosting resolutions.

  • For the three years I managed Lumb Bank, one of Arvon’s writing centres, where I worked with many hundreds of writers, from aspiring writers who attend courses to the famous and accomplished who tutor the week.