Malta, playwriting and great aunts

A box full of copies of my latest guidebook – Malta & Gozo Day by Day published by Frommer’s has recently arrived. This book was a pleasure to research, enjoyable to write and Frommer’s, as ever, were great to work with.

On the playwriting front, I’m learning a tremendous amount about playwriting on a Traverse Theatre course with their Senior Playwriting Fellow Zinnie Harris. It’s like peeling back the layers of playwriting and discovering how to make a good idea into a great play.

However, without doubt the most inspirational writing related event this week was my great aunt in law’s 100th birthday party. This tiny, frail, incredible woman spent a long time telling me of her travels in the days before planes and package tours and mass tourism. Of the time she rode into Petra on horse back with four Catholic priests just after WW2 and her overnight bus rides to the south of France. Any regrets? Only that she had never written it down. And as the party moved on and others came to chat, she urged me to ‘see the world and write it down’. It feels only right to share her advice.