Lady Agnew, Christie and holidays

Morning from the winter wonderland of Warwickshire, the snow has been falling all night and I already know, I won’t be venturing anywhere.

My spring holiday of two weeks has begun, woohoo! The plan for the two weeks is to write as much as is humanly possible on TFD. I have a self imposed goal of 20,000 words - you know how goals motivate me to work. This piece is my Romantic Novelists’ Associations New Writers’ Scheme so I need to complete a.s.a.p. – the deadline is August but I don’t want to take it to the wire, like I did last year.

An interesting programme I saw this week was ‘Perspectives: David Suchet’, who has played Christie’s Poirot for twenty five years, getting to know the Queen of crime through her family heirlooms. Suchet was given access to items and footage previously unseen by the public – he used the material to give an insight into the real woman rather than the persona. I could have cried when it finished, it was wonderful, I just wanted it to go on and on – though I admit, I’m bias towards her works.  

I had to cancel my attendance at the writing group due to a heavy cold – it wouldn’t have been fair to share it with the other members. So, I stayed at home and sketched the images for a picture book instead. I have had another little idea regards a picture book so will sketch that idea over the coming weeks. I have begun planning a short story, as part of a group exercise - my inspiration is John Singer Sargent’s ‘Lady Agnew of Lochnaw’. The portrait hangs in Edinburgh’s Scottish National gallery, which I viewed a couple of years ago, and yes, her ‘look’ quite literally takes your breath away. I’d previously seen an art programme where John Myatt reproduced the image with a celebrity’s face, but to see the original piece was awesome. It’ll be interesting to see which portraits the other group members choose.

I now need to love and leave you; I have a desk that needs tidying before the magic can begin. Please check out my TFD word count, there will be serious writing over the coming weeks.

Remember you can follow me on Twitter @odwyer_author - so join the party and accompany my journey. Enjoy!