When a frustration becomes a solution

Everyone has their ‘thing’.

It’s that frustration when you know how something should be done, but you see people doing it wrong. Why don’t they get it? What’s stopping them from understanding where they’re going off track?

When I worked in marketing many years ago, my bugbear used to be seeing businesses advertising the things their customers didn’t really care about, and neglecting what they did. My husband grew used to me muttering to myself as we walked past our corner cafe. This had a sign outside pronouncing their ‘hot and cold food’ offering, rather than their friendly service and delicious pies. 

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10 reasons to start writing a book in January

If you’ve had a book hanging around in your head for a while now, the New Year is a brilliant time to put it into action. Why so? Here are 10 excellent reasons.

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What’s on your bookshelf?

‘Good writers have one thing in common,’ said my English teacher at school. ‘They’re all big readers.’

That gem of advice make an impact on me then and has followed me ever since. Not that I needed much encouragement to read – I’ve always been a bookworm – but it was inspiring to know that my hobby wasn’t only enjoyable in its own right, but also helping me to express myself in writing.

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How to cook the perfect book

Imagine a friend asks you round for dinner. You arrive with your bottle of wine, looking forward to the evening ahead, but when you enter the kitchen you see a pile of raw ingredients piled up on the table.

‘Maybe they’re running late,’ you think, as you secretly resign yourself to filling up on breadsticks.

But no.

‘Dig in!’ your friend says. ‘I thought I’d skip the cooking bit and just give you these. It’s only what we’d have been eating anyway.’

Um, well, kind of. But it’s not exactly what you had in mind, is it?

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The three rules of business books

Rules, rules, rules. It seems there’s a lot of them around at the moment.

Where do we have to wear a mask? What countries can we travel to? And how many tests do we need to take when we get there?

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