Author Archives: deansdiva

All you read is love

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summer reading

From fiction to flowers – there’ll be two guests in the studio for next week’s show, when June and Sue are joined by Cathy Bramley and Linda Clark…

If you’re looking for ideas for summer reading, Nottinghamshire-based Cathy’s books are guaranteed to fit the bill.

She’ll be joining the Girls Around Town in the first hour to talk about how she made the switch from a marketing career to writing romantic fiction and introducing some of her best-loved characters from books such as The Plumberry School of Comfort Food, The Lemon Tree Café and Appleby Farm.

You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you’ve lost a friend – Paul Sweeney

There’ll be news too of Cathy’s involvement in this year’s Newark Book Festival, when she joins fellow writers Jackie Buxton and Eve Makis from 1.45pm to 3pm on Saturday 15 July in the Council Chamber of Newark Town Hall to discuss romance, relationships and contemporary fiction.

Later in the show, the focus is on all things floral when Linda steps up to the microphone.

June’s been a busy month for Linda, with British Flowers Week and the Lincolnshire Show just two of the events on her calendar. Find out how they both went, how The Spotted Dog Flower Co got its name and how it’s grown into ‘a real business’ since it was first launched in the spring of 2014.

She’ll be sharing details of upcoming workshops and talks and, of course, how you can treat yourself or your friends to beautiful, freshly cut seasonal Flowers From The Farm too…

After women, flowers are the most lovely thing God has given the world – Christian Dior

Tune in or listen online between 10am and 12 noon; if all goes to plan in her kitchen this week, June will be baking Amaretto Almond Biscuits from one of Cathy’s own recipes for everyone to share and Linda’s promised to bring flowers as well.

So all in all the Girls Around Town studio will be even more fragrant than usual next Sunday morning!

By the book

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books

With just over three weeks to go to the Newark Book Festival, what else would the Girls Around Town be talking about on this week’s show but…books, of course!

From romantic, crime and contemporary fiction to workshops, street theatre and story telling, the festival brings authors and entertainers together across a wide range of venues including Newark Castle, the Market Place, the Town Hall, Newark Library and the National Civil War Centre to name just a few.

Building on the 2015 and 2016 Books in the Castle, this year’s event on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 July promises a programme that’s packed with activities for everyone. And June and Tina will be setting the scene on Sunday morning, as they chat to guests Luca Veste and Sara Bullimore…

Author of the Murphy and Rossi series, Luca says he writes ‘about bad things that will probably never happen to you’. In the first hour, he’ll be on the phone from his home in Liverpool talking about his books and about Crime By The Sea, in which he’ll be joined by David Mark, Harry Brett and Nick Quantrill to examine just why waterside locations are so compelling.

Then Sara Bullimore will be taking a short break from her hectic job as festival organiser to drop into the studio and share some of the details of the what, where and when. Find out how it all came together in just a few short months, why this year’s theme is Adventures and Heroes and what you, your friends and your families can expect to see, do and hear in Newark over the weekend.

Tune in or listen online between 10am and 12 noon for all the latest news. In the meantime, check out the programme,  put the dates in your diary now and be sure to make the Festival Office in the Market Place your first port of call to get your limited edition Festival Survival Bag so you can fill it to the brim with books!

The spice of life

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Think you’ve led a varied life? Listen to this week’s show and what you hear may make you think again…

Rosalyn Palmer’s story adds a whole new dimension to the phrase ‘been there, done that, got the t-shirt’ and she’ll be in the studio on Sunday to share a few of the highlights with the Girls Around Town.

After studying English Literature at university, in her own words she ‘fell into’ PR for a theatrical production company shortly after graduating. From there she moved to theatre publishing before landing a dream  job with leading London PR agency Lynne Franks PR – a job which saw her on the Orient Express on only her second day and, over the next two years, meeting The Rolling Stones and doing fundraising work with Daniel Day Lewis.

In 1991, Rosalyn set up her own PR company, working first from her spare bedroom but going on to build it into an award-winning business with a turnover of £1.3 million and 21 staff over the next nine years.

Since the start of the new millennium, she’s lived in the Bahamas for five years and on a 10-acre organic farm for two before returning to work for a training and development company in the UK.

And there’s more  – from seven years with the Leprosy Mission England and Wales, which included trips to Ethiopia and Mozambique, to training as a Clinical Hypnotherapist, Rapid Transformational Therapist, Weight Loss Practitioner and Maris Peer Master Therapist, then finally moving to Newark where she recently launched Slim Forever in partnership with Philippa Burnett and Susan Hart.

Tune in or listen online from 10am to 12 noon on Sunday as Rosalyn takes Tina and Sue on a whistle stop tour of of the highs (and some of the lows!) of her life…