Weatherfield on the Wireless

BBC Radio Newcastle interviewed me this week to talk all things Coronation Street as the  ITV official Deirdre Barlow tribute book has now been published. 

The book has been hailed as a "must-have stocking filler for fans" and as a Christmas bestseller too.

It is available in all good book shops and online.

If you would like to listen to the BBC Radio Newcastle interview. I start speaking at 8mins and 20 seconds in on the Anna Foster show. It aired on Tuesday 27 October 2015.
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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

A drop in the ocean

Inspired by someone I follow on twitter but have never met, I went to the beach today.

Now then, I go to the beach often as I live just four streets away from the sea-front and walking on the beach is one of my most favourite things to do, in the world, ever.

But today, inspired by Beach Buoy I took a carrier bag with me for my walk on the beach.  Beach Buoy also lives by the sea, a little further down the coast from where I live. He tweets pictures of his walks showing things he's found. And he's found some amazing things - a message in a bottle, for instance, old pottery, broken shards of history.   He blogs his finds here.

He also carries out a 15 minute beach clean and that was my inspiration today.  On my beach walk I took a bag and without deliberately looking for plastic on the sand, if I came across any I picked it up and popped it in my bag. Our local beaches are more or less clean, so when I started my walk (which lasted an hour, 30 mins to the rocks and 30 mins back) I didn't pick up anything as there was nothing to find.  But on the walk back, my steps took me along the line where the seaweed tangled with all kinds of plastic.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get near the plastic on this bit of the beach as the seaweed was covered with and jumping with flies. I mean, I'm all for helping save the planet and all that, but you know, flies. Millions of them. Eww.

So I walked back on the edge of the seaweed and the flies, where the plastic had been thrown against the sea wall. I picked up what I could as I wandered back home and I ended with a plastic carrier bag full of other people's crap.  Crap that won't disappear. Crap that floats around the oceans of the world and creates plastic islands, killing fish and sea life.

I know taking just one bag of plastic from the beach isn't going to change much, but it's a drop in the ocean, a start.

Beach Buoy once said there was no better sound than the noise of the plastic he'd picked up off the beach as it rattled its way into his recycling bin.  I know the joy of that noise now. 

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Suffragette: My film review

To the flicks this afternoon to see Suffragette.  I had put off going to see this film because I thought a) it would be worthy, b) it would be dull and c) it contains Helena Bonham-Carter of whom I'm not fond as she tends to play posh dotty women (of whom I'm not fond).  But when the film turned up in The Guardian Guide this weekend as the No. 1 film to see, I had a rethink and took myself to the pictures today.

The film is stunning.  Right from the very first moment to the last, it's superb.  The acting, the costumes, the locations, everything is, well I can't keep saying stunning and superb but that's exactly what it was.  Even Helena Bonham-Carter played her part of a posh (but not dotty this time) woman to perfection and Meryl Streep made a too-brief appearance as Emmeline Pankhurst.

Anne-Marie Duff and Carey Mulligan are the stars of the film, their performances outstanding.

We know the history, of course, that Emily Davison died in the fight for the vote for women by throwing herself in front of the King's horse at the Derby in 1913.  This event takes us to the film's end and to Emily's funeral which is where the film turns from cinema to historic news reel, none of its power lost more than a century on.

When the credits rolled, I couldn't move. I was in tears and I had to wait until they subsided before I left the cinema. No one else moved either. The cinema was half full, and no one moved. We all sat together, shocked, stunned, in tears, watching the credits roll and pulling ourselves together before we re-entered the world.

I came out of the cinema upset but fired up. I wanted to throw stones, break things, fight for the cause. It's a film that has to be seen and I urge you to watch it.
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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Corrie weekly update - the black and gold jazzy dress

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week on Corrie, there were donkeys.
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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Deirdre Barlow tribute book

Today, Thursday October 22 2015 is publication day of my book Deirdre: A  Life on Coronation Street.  I feel incredibly honoured, privilieged and proud to have written this affectionate tribute to one of the best soap characters of all time.

The book is available in all good bookshops and online too.


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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Corrie weekly update - Tinky Winky and a violin

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week on Corrie, there was a giant Tinky Winky.
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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

A is for Apples

 

Having fruit trees in the garden is quite wonderful. We get beautiful blossom in the spring from three apple trees and two pear trees.  That's followed by wonderful foliage in the summer and then fruit in the autumn. The only problem is, neither himself nor I like pears and we're not that fond of apples either. 

We tend to give a lot of the fruit away to those who want it and this year we've got pear wine on the go.  While I'm not keen on eating apples raw, I do like apples cooked and in cakes. So when I saw this recipe in The Guardian for apple curd tart I thought I'd give it a go.

 

Here's the final thing, fresh from the oven.  And here, below, is how it should look (on the left) and how mine looks (on the right).  The difference in colour can be explained by the fact that I ran out of sugar so I used half white sugar and half demerara sugar. This never happens in Great British Bake Off, does it?  My tart also appears to look less 'set' than the one in the recipe but I can assure you that it tastes absolutely wonderful.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Corrie weekly update - Mr & Mrs Metcalfe and son

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week on Corrie,  there was a Weatherfield wedding.
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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Corrie weekly update - if you build it, he will come

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week on Corrie,  Field of Dreams met Weatherfield.
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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora