Life on Magrs
Latest posts
James and the Lovely Story Factory
More from Ms Sneider! Unbelievable!
Sorry about this! It seems she’s reading all your comments on my posts. Paula Sneider, Homoerotic Lady Author of Marseilles, seems quite riled up now. This is the latest, below… (It seems she stole the photo for her profile from someone else – a minister of culture somewhere? Seems a bit unfair. So, I replace it here with a cartoon.) “Psychophants and deluded followers of this Old Fool! You must…
Getting Trolled by Ms Sneider!
I thought I’d blocked her…! Actually, I’d assumed she was a false profile and some unseen foe was trolling me. But I really thought, after my page was briefly, dazzlingly hi-jacked by her yesterday that I had heard the last of Paula Sneider. However…! I have just received a further surprising message from Paula Sneider - Prize-winning married-lady-author of male-on-male lightly sensual Romantic…
'The Panda, the Cat and the Dreadful Teddy' is published this week!
Online Event for Publication Day
The Panda, the Cat and the Dreadful Teddy
My book of cartoons, 'The Panda, the Cat and the Dreadful Teddy' is published by Harper Collins in September 2021. It's available wherever books are sold. Please post a photo of yourself with your copy, tagging me and using hashtag #pandacatdreadfulteddy
'The Panda, the Cat and the Dreadful Teddy' - publishes in September
News is out about my book! It's my first composed entirely of cartoons, and it's out from Harper Collins in September!
Why We Started Our Little Free Library...
On Writing Tie-in Fiction...
This has become a kind of essay about writing tie-in fiction and Doctor Who stories...
Discovering 'The Great Gilly Hopkins' by Katherine Paterson
When a book reminds you of what you feel is important about writing stuff... The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson One of the best things I’ve read. All afternoon and evening taken up with this tiny novel from 1978: the story of a grumpy teen fobbed off onto foster homes and longing for her glamorous mother to ask her to join her in San Francisco. Gilly is stuck in a household of people…
My Terrance Dicks Poem
My Terrance Dicks Poem I took a spare copy of Planet of the Spiders for Terrance to sign for my friend who was too ill that day to come to the pub. I watched the hand of the man who’d typed almost every book of my childhood. His quashed red fingers pressing down hard in black felt tip, writing as he sat with a great big plate of meat pie and potatoes, swimming with gravy in the tiled and noisy…
Bookshopping in Darlington
I guess I'm really missing bookshops! Here's a short piece I just wrote about bookshopping in Darlington and Dressers Department Store when I was a kid... 1985 – Paper I think Mam must have enjoyed shopping in Dressers, the Edwardian department store on High Row in Darlington. My obsession with reading – always there, but reaching new heights in my mid-teens - brought her to their book department…
The Panda, the Cat and the Dreadful Teddy
I've spent the last few weeks obsessively drawing this series of cartoons about 'The Panda, the Cat and the Dreadful Teddy'. I've got a whole book's worth now, I reckon.
When the Sky Fell In
When the Sky Fell In Yesterday I read that folk tales have been used for a very long time for all kinds of reasons. One of their many uses has been for making fun of ‘mass hysteria’, ‘mayhem’ and ‘paranoia.’ Fancy that! This is where Chicken Licken comes in. (I much prefer our name to the American version. Henny Penny sounds unnecessarily fussy somehow.) Remember that story? The sky’s gonna come…
The Hill
The Hill Paul Magrs We’re all going over the hill! There was talk of going round it, so we could see what’s on the other side, but apparently that’s not do-able. (I’m not clear on why exactly, but anyway.) So – we’re all going over the hill! It’s quite a journey, by all accounts! A really arduous yomp! Various reports have come back from others over the years. Some have found themselves in real…
My Bowie Tribute
I had a lovely time over the weekend, playing all the old records... and making pictures to commemorate Bowie's birthday.
My Bowie Mixtape - many years in the making
Unsubbing
The Biscuit Factory Girls at War
Cover reveal! Here it is - 'The Biscuit Factory Girls at War' by my good friend Elsie Mason. It's the second in the series and it's out in April. You can pre-order here - bit.ly/BFGAW
'Silver Jubilee' and 'Christmassy Tales'
I've published a number of collections of short fiction over the years. My first was 'Playing Out' in 1997, and then there was 'Twelve Stories' in 2009. I've written a whole bunch of stories in the years since then, and some have come out in anthologies or been broadcast or published in this book or that website. Quite a number I've just put away to dwell on and go back to and keep on revising.…
My Pangolin Story
The opening lines of the Christmas story I wrote early this morning... "‘Cancelled..? Are you sure, Santa..?’ asked the pangolin. ‘I don’t think that can be right, can it..?’ The strange, sturdy little beast had clambered over the back of the sleigh’s passenger seat to come and sit beside the old man."
Blinovitch Birthday
"Ahh, but that's the Blinovitch Time Limitation Effect..." In 1986 my birthday present was the VHS tape of 'Day of the Daleks' (ordered from John Fitton's mail order Dr Who catalogue!) Last night I rewatched it with my drawing book open and all my colours ready..!
Looking forward to When
A year ago it was my 50th birthday party. I was determined to organise myself a do, with music and friends and food - and we did it! So many people came from all over the country to be there. As ever with these things, lots couldn't make it, and I was a bit sad because my mam and family couldn't be there. But there was such a lovely turnout - about as many people as the years I was celebrating!…
The Willows in Lockdown
The Willows in Lock Down MARCH SPRING! Spring is here! I dart out of my burrow and into the open air. It smells delicious out here. New life! New stuff! New hopes! Fresh air! Hurray! Hurray for another new year by the riverbank! I rush straight over to Ratty’s house, hoping for a good lunch and a catch-up of all I’ve missed during hibernation. Ratty’s sitting on his porch with a pot of tea and the…