HEALD REPORTS 2008
Return to Homepage
Jan:
6th
"The past is important..."
13th
"It made me feel like a real noble savage..."
20th
"I have no commission but will write as usual..."
27th
So this, like most of my life, is a mixture of business and pleasure . . .
Feb:
3rd
The Restaurant Car had the wrong sort of food . . .
11th
I am on the side of the flowers . . .
17th
I wanted nothing more than to have half a pork pie on my own . . .
Mar:
9th
Not a dry eye in our house . . .
25th
Most of the instructions seemed to be in Chinese . . .
Apr:
6th
A purist might say that it’s a form of fabrication or fiction anyway . . .
May:
There’s nothing like clearing out one’s filing cabinets . . .
Jun:
Where did the years all go? . . .
HEALD REPORTS 2007
Return to Homepage
Jan:
"But, you don't need to do this..."
Feb:
At least people at the far end of the room laughed . . .
Mar:
I was greeted by a twenty-something Scillonianne from the Island of Bryher . . .
Apr:
They just told me to move away from their desks . . .
May:
Oh, did I mention that the bank manager has vanished unexpectedly . . .
Jun:
A rather frantic need to make every moment count . . .
Jul:
Rump steak and King George Whiting were no longer on the menu . . .
Aug:
Oh what the hell, we’re in profit...
Sep:
I view the news that Oxford is teaching creative writing with the same scepticism...
Oct:
There is a limit to the amount of Noel Coward and Gershwin you can take...
Nov:
I’m going to end these more-or-less-monthly ruminations . . .
Dec:
22nd
I’m not vanishing from the screen – just assuming a slightly different guise . . .
Dec:
30th
Public events impinged as usual . . .
HEALD REPORTS 2006
Return to Homepage
Jan:
The news has tended to be pretty bloody . . .
Feb:
Much droning has taken place . . .
Mar:
I’ve had e-mails from a webmaster in Cracow . . .
Apr:
I really enjoyed the frivolities . . .
May:
I've already opened up a great pasty debate . . .
Jun:
Decency’s not a bad thing to be remembered for . . .
Jul:
Mauve! Honestly!...
Aug:
I’m either very lucky or very stoic...
Sep:
Actually," said the Canadian cabbie, "It’s really pronounced ‘Balliol’....
Sep:
(2)
Portugal, Spain and Italy in successive days does make one start sounding like Anita Eckberg...
Oct:
Mad really, but it’s a curiously sustaining belief . . .
Nov:
The advance is tiny and print run will be infinitesimal...
Dec:
It seemed crazy to spend twenty minutes fussing over a single word . . .
Xmas:
If there is a God I expect to be struck by lightning on entering His house . . .
Dec:
(2)
If you want to do it take a deep breath and ‘Write it, write it’...
HEALD REPORTS 2005
Jan:
Life wasn’t meant to be easy . . .
Feb:
Kicking dogs and innocent children . . .
Mar:
Meeting wonderful people doing wonderful things . . .
Apr:
Everybody stayed a decently long time . . .
May:
My books were picked up by the local undertaker . . .
Jun:
We adjourned to a Belgo-bar in the old Ponsonby post office . . .
Jul:
(1)
A hooped cap and an elegant deflectionary style of batting . . .
Jul:
(2)
Getting back to normal was the only proper response . . .
Aug:
Otherwise it's been Cornwall and the keyboard . . .
Sep:
I sometimes feel like going out with a megaphone . . .
Oct:
If you don’t produce publishable words you don’t get paid . . .
Nov:
God’s way of paying me back for Boodles and the QE2 . . .
Dec:
There was an incredulous sucking of teeth . . .
Xmas:
I shall try to send a few old-fashioned cards . . .
Return to Homepage
HEALD REPORTS 2004
Jan:
I suppose New Year should be a time of maximum optimism . . .
Feb:
If this a “blog” and am I a “blogger”? . . .
Mar:
Another busy month ! . . .
Apr:
The last few weeks have been even more than usually frantic . . .
May:
The du Maurier Festival: in its eighth year and the best yet . . .
Jun:
Post-publication blues are as real as the male menopause or stage-fright . . .
Jul:
Nowadays I don’t have a friendly local bank manager . . .
Aug:
Kelly started out at almost precisely the moment . . .
Sep:
Forget Boris, I thought. His old man is in a hurry . . .
Oct:
The aftermath was very Irish . . .
Nov:
An exciting not to say exotic few weeks . . .
Dec:
"But," I protested, "I am in Bucharest not Budapest" . . .
Xmas:
He made his dry martinis without martini . . .
Return to Homepage
HEALD REPORTS 2003
May:
The Heald Report No 1
Just back from a few days in Lancashire...
Jun:
The Heald Report No 2
I am writing this from Australia...
Jun (2):
The Heald Report No 3
Australia was beautiful as always...
Jul:
The Heald Report No 4
Living in a particularly beautiful part of Cornwall...
Aug
:
The Heald Report No 5
What it is to have a proper agent again...
Sep:
The Heald Report No 6
Major Rodney's XI lost the great cricket match...
Oct:
The Heald Report No 7
Just back to desk after three weeks away...
Nov:
The Heald Report No 8
The Cheltenham Festival was fun...
Dec
:
The Heald Report No 9
Just back from a week as "celebrity lecturer"...
Return to Homepage
