Suzy Henderson

The life that I have Is all that I have And the life that I have Is yours The love that I have Of the life that I have Is yours and yours and yours. A sleep I shall have A rest I shall have Yet death will be but a pause For the peace of my years In the long green grass Will be yours and yours and yours. (Leo Marks) Leo Marks (1920-2001) Chief Cryptographer of SOE in World War 2. Born of Jewish parents, it was Leo's responsibility to provide agents with ciphers with which they could send information to London by radio. Often, these were based upon well known poems or prose. However, he argued that as the enemy may well know these literary works, originals should be used. He often composed his own poems for the ciphers, and the above poem was one he wrote for his girlfriend, Ruth Hambro (killed in an air crash in Canada). He later gave this one to Violette Szabo, for her mission to France in WW2.

It's a joke. Some people have a summer house built just for their writing space -a place to escape and write in uninterrupted. Some lucky souls have their own study /office. I have a space in my kitchen -either that or the dining table, overlooking the garden. I can't complain. I can't lock myself away, but when the house is quiet, early mornings and evenings, that is my writing time - everyone else in the household tucked up in bed - no interruptions. There's something special about that time and I love it. Sometimes, because I'm a bit of a night owl, I find I'm wide awake by 2am, and I get up then and work on my writing. Mind you, I only last about an hour. I wouldn't recommend it -probably bad for the health. I read one of those insightful pieces of health research recently, and apparently, we should all be aiming for at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night - any less can lead to an increased risk of heart attack. How morbid -where's the sl

A363 results -passed and very pleased. My eyes have been opened to the world of script writing and what a land of possibilities there lies. It's brilliant and I never thought it would be something I could do. That's the brilliance of A363 -Creative Writing (Open University) -it opens up all sorts of possibilities and it shows you how. There are some who claim implicitly that writing can not be taught. You either have 'it' or you don't. I strongly disagree -some of us might be 'dark horses' and I believe that such creative writing courses help us to discover our inner author and to unlock our creativity. There are published writers out there who claim they wouldn't have achieved their goals if it were not for the good old writing courses -many usually attend the Arvon writing weeks. Why do they do this? Simple - to improve their skills. So, if you want to write, just write. Get on with it and produce something. You never know what you can do until you try