Lady Killers

Long a genre dominated by men, thrillers are increasingly being written by – and about – women. Novelist Linda Davies reports on four such page-turners. Many people become squeamish when women conjure evil, as if it might rub off on them. Yet more and more, women are writing thrillers that feature female protagonists: characters whoContinue reading “Lady Killers”

Empowering girls. It’s not what you look like, it’s what you do!

Forging an independent identity is one of the biggest challenges many of our teens will face. It can be tough figuring out who you are, especially if the idealised identity on sale in our cultural bazaars requires a level of apparent perfection that is dispiriting rather than inspiring and relates to a static idea ofContinue reading “Empowering girls. It’s not what you look like, it’s what you do!”

What is an El Niño event and why should we care?

The last mega Niño in 1997 had powerful and catastrophic effects on global weather. It caused 22,000 deaths world-wide and cost $33 billion in flood and drought-related damage. What is El Niño? The Christ child they called it, the fishermen of Northern Peru, who noticed around Christmas-time in certain years, a warm counter current flowingContinue reading “What is an El Niño event and why should we care?”

Ark Storm letter to The Mail on Sunday

As I write this, California is suffering a life changing drought. Here’s a letter I wrote which The Mail on Sunday published last week. While it may amuse us that Cameron Diaz is not flushing the loo as regularly as she used to in order to conserve water in drought-stricken California, those wishing for rainContinue reading “Ark Storm letter to The Mail on Sunday”

Scientist fears CIA is attempting to weaponise the weather

What if you could control the weather? It’s a question that has exercised mankind for millennia. Now evidence has emerged that the US Intelligence community is funding climate research in what a leading climate scientist fears is a step towards controlling and weaponizing weather. Professor Alan Robock, a climate scientist at Rutgers University in NewContinue reading “Scientist fears CIA is attempting to weaponise the weather”

Greed and ‘Women Beware Women’

By Linda Davies Programme note for the 2010 revival of Women Beware Women by Thomas Middleton at the National Theatre, London, directed by Marianne Elliott “Three great forces rule the world; stupidity fear and greed.” Einstein could have been describing the murky urges underlying Middleton’s play nearly four hundred years ago, and equally the forcesContinue reading “Greed and ‘Women Beware Women’”

If Fiction comes true… Careful what you write

Written for The Aularian, The St Edmund Hall, Oxford alumni magazine, Spring 2009 Linda Davies I am familiar with the oft-quoted Confucian proverb: be careful what you wish for, the Gods might just grant it, but I had never thought that I would be able to amend it into a stricture of my own: beContinue reading “If Fiction comes true… Careful what you write”

Fraud: A Class Act

By Linda Davies Programme note for the 2006 revival of The Voysey Inheritance by Harley Granville Barker at the National Theatre, London, directed by Peter Gill “If dishonesty can live in a gorgeous palace with pictures on all its walls, and gems in all its cupboards, with marble and ivory in all its corners, andContinue reading “Fraud: A Class Act”

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