Flaming Nora: Researching, Cake Baking, Dead Meat

Friday, January 23, 2026

Researching, Cake Baking, Dead Meat - My Writing Week

This week I've a new competition for you to win a signed book. Enter here.

And I've been very busy researching for my novel The Bakery Girls. I've been looking at plans of old bakeries and this week have been to the Tyne and Wear archives in the Discovery Museum in Newcastle. The gorgeous building was once the home of the NE HQ of the Co-op.

I've also been going further back in the history of Sunderland pink slice cake and baked this from a 1923 Bero baking book. Was it pink slice as we know it? Find out here where I blogged all about it.

More research this week at Sunderland University library. As an alumni member of the University, I get free access to the library. What a wonderful view from my research desk.

And I visited The Story in Durham, another fantastic place, to investigate women who owned bakeries.

And I'm overjoyed to announce that I have a short story called Dead Meat chosen to be included in the Crime Writers Association anthology of short stories this year! It's out in July.

I crafted another episode of my weekly soap opera Riverside for The People's Friend magazine. I've been writing Riverside weekly since 2016 and you can find out all about it here.