If you need to find a tradesperson, the internet is there for you. Whether it’s a Google search, an online directory or one of the many ‘accredited tradesperson’ websites that have sprung up over the last few years, there’s no shortage of options. What there is, however, is a shortage of knowing which of the resulting names and phone numbers you can trust to do a good job.
Continue readingI don’t know about you, but while we’ve been ‘locked down’ over the past few months, I’ve made much more of an effort to catch up with people I know, whether they’re family members, friends, work clients or casual acquaintances. Not in person, of course (I’m not a monster), but with a mixture of phone, email and video calls.
Continue readingMy new favourite author, Michael Perry*, has a theory about making it as a writer. It is, he says, like shovelling horse manure. If you keep at it long enough, sooner or later you’ll have a pile so big that people can’t ignore it any more.
In my writing, as in life more generally, I have a tendency to forget this. I seem always to be aiming for the one big idea. The thing that will bring everything together. A towering monument to my own accomplishment.
This is, sadly, just as unlikely as it is pompous. Continue reading
Simon Perks 