I love those moments in any fiction where a character stands out. They say or do something which has resonance and, if at the same time, this can provide a laugh, even better.
Image My Mother’s Diaries by Andy Vining 2026
Andy Vining shares his mother’s diaries in his new podcast. Listen to these beautiful stories on Spotify.
Andy Vining’s parents were John and Peggy (later known as Be Be).
November 1948
November opened in foul weather — rain sweeping across the fields from morning to night — and the children home for half term filled the house with noise despite the gloom.
I went into Winchester for new shoes while John attended Lodge, and there was uneasy talk of foot and mouth in Salisbury — never pleasant news when one keeps cattle.
There were brighter interludes. I went dancing at The Richie Hall, though the gramophone misbehaved and caused some disruption. [Read more…] about Andy Vining’s Podcast: My Mother’s Diaries 1948 – 1976: Episode 7 — November and December 1948
I was delighted to have another story, Out With The Old, recently broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM recently. It was also a joy to hear the other tales too, especially since another was from a dear friend of mine from the Association of Christian Writers.
https://www.mixcloud.com/Hannahs_Bookshelf/hannahs-bookshelf-spring-equinox-special-21032026/
Image My Mother’s Diaries by Andy Vining 2026
Andy Vining shares his mother’s diaries in his new podcast. Listen to these beautiful stories on Spotify.
Andy Vining’s parents were John and Peggy (later known as Be Be).
September 1948
September opened with the Romsey Show. Betty and I set off early on the first, taking our lunch with us, and met John later among the livestock and produce stands. It was a jolly good show. There is something about the Show — polished cattle, prize vegetables, farmers inspecting each other’s stock — that feels like the summing up of a year’s labour. John still went to football that evening, never missing if he can help it. [Read more…] about Andy Vining’s Podcast: My Mother’s Diaries 1948 -1976: Episode 6 — September and October 1948
April arrives with a flourish! One minute we’re admiring frothy cherry blossom against bright blue skies, the next we’re reaching for a fleece to protect tender shoots from a sharp overnight frost. It is a month of promise — and unpredictability — but also one of the most exciting times to be in the garden. Sweet peas can be sown outside now. Prune penstemons and other slightly tender plants, divide herbaceous perennials.
Every writer has hopes – hopes of being published, being read, receiving good reviews, being published again and again, winning the Booker or any other respected writing prizes (I refuse to believe that is just me!), and many more thoughts besides.
But our characters should have hopes too. It will be hopes which will be the driving force behind them wanting to achieve their overall goal and this applies equally to villains as well as the goodies.
Image My Mother’s Diaries by Andy Vining 2026
Andy Vining shares his mother’s diaries in his new podcast. Listen to these beautiful stories on Spotify.
Andy Vining’s parents were John and Peggy (later known as Be Be).
July 1948
July began unsettled, though full of movement as always. John went off to cricket on the first, while I went to Mrs St Johns for some dancing lessons for the children.
Jane and Margaret came to tea later, and I tried to do a little gardening, though the midges drove me indoors before long.
Jennifer was quite beside herself begging for a ride on Lister’s pony, who had been brought over to the farm again and so she had a ride. She was really happy.
On the 2nd July John was busy cutting vetches with the big Mower. the great green swathes falling in neat rows.
I went to tea at Beechcroft and washed Janet’s hair, I do hope we get the water laid in soon.
Ann Lister brought the pony right onto the back lawn — much excitement. Mrs Manning took John and I to look at bees going into the hive, and I was stung for my trouble. One forgets how sharp it feels.
The third brought a fine success — thirteen bantams hatched out from the eggs I thought might have been spoilt last month. A good strong number, and always satisfying to lift the broody hen gently and count them.
I’ve always thought a story works or fails based on how well the character grips a reader’s imagination. If you don’t care about the characters you read about, why should you read about what happens to them? For this reason, I’m firmly on the side of character in the character versus plot debate.
A great character can do a lot to help save a weak plot but a weak character will only let a great plot line down. So this is why I do like to outline my characters before I write my stories. I need to know enough about them to know I am interested in them (and then a reader is more likely to be too).
Image My Mother’s Diaries by Andy Vining 2026
Andy Vining shares his mother’s diaries in his new podcast. Listen to these beautiful stories on Spotify.
Andy Vining’s parents were John and Peggy (later known as Be Be).
May 1948
May began with the yard still lively from the puppies. All had been sold, though we kept Jesse, Ruffles and Mr Leggs for another week or two before they too would leave. There is always a bustle when pups are about — feeding bowls, straw, sharp little claws on stone — and though one is glad when good homes are found, the yard seems strangely empty once they go.
Margaret Haskell stayed the first night of the month, and there were callers — Marge and Doug, Norah and her family. Bet and Fred had secured their job at last, which was heartening news.
John turned his attention to the front lawn, turfing a worn patch that had suffered through the winter. He went over to Norman Cooper’s in Hursley while I wrote letters indoors and telephoned the Sinclairs, inviting them for Whitsun. There is always something to plan ahead for.
On the Monday we went into Winchester. A calf was taken to market — never an easy sight, watching it loaded and driven away, though such comings and goings are the rhythm of farming life. The heifers were turned into the Sanitorium field, where the grass was coming on steadily. They took to it well enough, heads down almost at once, testing the new pasture. The land was improving with the season. Rain fell in the night, which would freshen the grazing and help the vegetable rows along.
[Read more…] about Andy Vining’s Podcast: My Mother’s Diaries 1948 -1976: Episode 4 — May 1948
Congratulations to Gopi Chandroth on his brilliant book, INDISHMAN.
Author Gopi Chandroth lives in Chandler’s Ford. He is a marine engineer with over four decades of experience in the maritime industry, including 15 as a marine accident investigator for the UK Department for Transport. [Read more…] about Good Book to Read – INDISHMAN – Reflections from India, Britain and the Sea by Gopi Chandroth
The writing journey can throw up plenty of surprises. I remember going to my first writing event, many moons ago, and feeling terrified at being set my first writing prompt by someone else. I was sure I wouldn’t be able to do it. I did by the way. You do just get on with it. But there was no way on this earth I was sharing that first effort with anyone! I also had no idea what a variety of writing exercises there are. I have found out since!
Image My Mother’s Diaries by Andy Vining 2026
Andy Vining shares his mother’s diaries in his new podcast. Listen to these beautiful stories on Spotify.
Andy Vining’s parents were John and Peggy (later known as Be Be).
Episode 3 — March and April 1948
March opened with sunlight.
On Monday the first, the weather was beautiful and all the washing dried by lunchtime — a small triumph after the long damp of winter. And it was such a lovely day that I went for a walk with Heather in her pram over to Flexford. It was a long walk a long walk down the Farm drive then up Hursley Road and left at The Baddesley Crossroads. I posted a letter there on the corner and walked along past the cricket field on the left and down the hill, over Monks Brook bridge and past The Hatley Sawmills on the right pp the hill and over the Railway bridge past Richardsons, Bridge House on the left and the farm cottages on the right where our cowman, Bill Wren, lives and then right, just before Mr and Mrs Trenfields house into the Flexford Yard where we had picked all the Snowdrops last month but now there are beautiful daffodils in abundance. [Read more…] about Andy Vining’s Podcast: My Mother’s Diaries 1948 -1976: Episode 3 — March and April 1948
Hooks are crucial for holding a reader’s interest, regardless of whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction.
They can also be placed in varying places within a piece to give maximum effect. The idea here is an opening hook draws readers in, one somewhere in the middle will keep their interest going, and then another one at the end brings in a satisfying conclusion to the piece.
This mirrors the Three Act structure though the hook in itself isn’t enough to keep things going. The golden rule, if there could be said to be one, is there should be no boring bits, nothing readers might be tempted to skip.
Andy Vining shares his mother’s diaries in his new podcast. Listen to these beautiful stories on Spotify.
Andy Vining’s parents were John and Peggy (later known as Be Be).
In this episode, the name of Be Be’s father was Herbert Miller, originally Muller as he was German and became a naturalised Englishman before the First World War.
January 1948
My Father (Dad) has been quite poorly that week, and the worry of it sat quietly with me as I went about the ordinary business of the days. Still, life had to be kept moving. I went into Winchester with Betty my sister. Grateful for the small distraction of the trip.
While there we had Heather’s Polyphotos taken — she looked such a picture, bright-eyed and beautifully turned out. I bought new shoes for the children too, which cost £3 and 4d, (£160.00 Today), a sum that made me catch my breath, though it couldn’t be helped. Later, Eric and Phillip came by and we let them have the goose. It felt like one of those days full of little errands and bigger concerns, all jumbled together.
The next morning brought a small measure of relief: Dad seemed a little brighter. The white bougainvilla in the kitchen had opened fully and filled the house with a sweet, unexpected fragrance, lifting my spirits despite the dreadful weather. Rain fell endlessly, outside drumming on the windows as if it had no intention of stopping. [Read more…] about Andy Vining’s Podcast: My Mother’s Diaries 1948 -1976: Episode 2 – January to February 1948
It is with great pleasure I welcome back Wendy H Jones to Chandler’s Ford Today. As part of a book tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog, I quiz Wendy about the latest book to come from Wendy’s publishing company, Scott and Lawson – A Right Cozy Historical Crime. This volume is part of a series of Right Cozy crime books (the others so far are A Right Cozy Christmas Crime and A Right Cozy Culinary Crime).
[Read more…] about Author Interview – Wendy H Jones – A Right Cozy Historical Crime
Andy Vining shares his mother’s diaries in his new podcast.
Listen to these beautiful stories on Spotify.
Podcast Title: My Mother’s Diaries 1948 -1976
Episode 1 — Introduction
Hello… and welcome to this podcast.
My name is Andy Vining.
I’m eighty-two years old and as I record this, I I’m sitting quietly at home in Chandler’s Ford in Hampshire thinking about the past, and about the voices, people and places that shaped my life.
This podcast is not about me. It’s about our family. Memories, places, and the quiet, everyday moments that would normally be lost to time.
Most of all, it’s about my mother. And the diaries she wrote about her everyday life being a farmer’s wife and mother of five children while we were all growing up in on Hiltonbury Farm in Chandler’s Ford.
My mother was Peggy “Peg” Vining Nee Miller. Then when my brother Simon was born in 1958 she became BeBe because that’s what Simon called her.
But before I begin to read those diaries, I think it’s only right that I tell you a little about where this story truly starts… and how I come to be here, speaking to you today. [Read more…] about Andy Vining’s Podcast: My Mother’s Diaries 1948 – 1976: Episode 1 — Introduction
March is the month to get seeds and plants going. Sow lettuce, rocket, carrots, peas and broad beans outside as soon as the soil is workable. Early potatoes that have been chitted can go out and onion and shallot sets can be planted. Undercover/indoors sow your tomatoes, peppers, aubergines. Prune Gooseberries and currants now as the sap is beginning to rise, and cuts will heal faster.
Do you like the prospect of catching up? I guess it depends on context. I’m not fond of those times when I’m catching up with the housework, say. But when it comes to catching up with my reading and writing, that’s different. I have no problems with either of those.
I thought I’d use this post as a “catch up” one with my writing matters. A few things have been going on since I last wrote this kind of post.
Hopefully later this year, I will be off once more to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick and I expect to take in a couple of other writing events. It took me ages as a new writer to pluck up the courage to go to my first writing event where, ironically, I ended up meeting the lady who would become my publisher. Neither of us could have known at the time.
Why go to writing events at all? What benefits are there for writers? Does it pay to work out what it is you would like to achieve by going to a specific writing event? I hope the following helps.
Themes crop up all the time in creative writing. Many story and article competitions set a theme. Many writers have a theme in the back of their minds when creating a story or piece of non-fiction writing. Indeed, my theme here is to share tips about writing to themes.
For Writers’ Narrative magazine (which can now be found via Substack), there is a monthly theme the core contributors, including me, write around.
