The Mayor of Barking and Dagenham – Councillor Peter Chand

I am delighted that the Mayor of Barking and Dagenham, The Worshipful Councillor Peter Chand is my guest today.

ES: Mr Mayor, I am most grateful that you have taken the time from your busy schedule to talk to us.  Apart from being the Mayor, what is your connection to Dagenham?

PC: My parents immigrated to the UK from India in 1954 and moved to a

house in Ballards Road, Dagenham. I was born in 1966 and still live in that

same very road! I went to local schools and the Adult College where I

studied Health & Social care, … Read the rest »

Sharon Borthwick

Today’s interview is with the dynamic Sharon Borthwick of Borthwick Performing Arts and Borthwick Casting.  Sharon spoke to me from her smart studios at the Business and Technical Park in Rainham Road South.  For those of you who are old enough to remember that’s the old Rhone-Poulenc site – or if you’re even older like me May and Baker’s!  Borthwick Casting is a talent agency for children and supporting artists and Borthwick Performing Arts trains young people in all the theatre disciplines.  The studios are smart and airy and Sharon’s office is beautifully decorated with the headshots of all the … Read the rest »

Danny Fenn – The Boleyn Poet

The Banjo Book Two comes out in just a week’s time and it’s all getting rather exciting! To celebrate I am going to post a series of guest interviews I did with prominent Dagenham people who share their memories and thoughts about the place that’s dear to all our hearts.

My first guest is the Danny Fenn, the Boleyn Poet who first of all tells us a bit about himself and then talk with great fondness about Dagenham.

I have been writing poems and songs for a number of years  and tend to put them on Facebook as I have … Read the rest »

A Dispatch From The Front – #IbizaIsOpen

I am one of the people Angry from Accrington complains about in the comments section of the twice-daily scare-mongering articles in the Mail Online and other electronic papers: a selfish, ignorant, virus-spreading moron who can’t go without their holiday for even one year. People have a myriad of reasons for travelling and quite frankly why I have chosen to come here to Ibiza is nobody else’s business. I do not have to defend my actions and so I won’t.

But I do want to set the record straight on the situation here on the White Island and I’ll start off … Read the rest »

One Month Today!!!

Woo hoo! Just one month to go! Thirty-one short, passing-very-fast days away. How exciting!

What?

“A month to go until what?” I hear you asking.

You mean you haven’t heard?

The Banjo Book Two is out on Kindle on 21st August. And you can pre-order your copy on this link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Banjo-Book-Two-Elaine-Spires-ebook/dp/B08CDVT7BQ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+Banjo+Book+Two&qid=1595322154&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

And I am very happy about that, I can tell you. After taking four years to write the sequel to The Banjo Book One – it was supposed to only take eighteen months but life got in the way – will finally be available.

Please look for news of … Read the rest »

Decisions!

It’s been a very judgmental, decision-making time lately. And a most enjoyable one.

Last Sunday I had the great pleasure of adjudicating the North Wales Speech and Drama Festival 2020. It was done via Zoom, of course, as everything is at the moment. But I had great fun.

The standard of work was absolutely amazing and I was blown away by the talent of the young candidates who were aged 6-16. And it was so HARD making the judgments – we had several ties! Well done to everyone concerned and a huge THANK YOU to Jennie Kennedy of Kingfisher Events … Read the rest »

Like the No 5 Bus

Yes, dear readers, just like the No 5 bus you wait months for one of my articles then two come along (almost) at once!

On Friday I shared the article I had written for Write On. Here is the Q&A interview I gave them on my writing. I hope, as always, you will enjoy it. An look forward to your comments. Please feel free to share it on your social media pages.

Read the rest »

All About Eve

The Single Best Thing is OUT NOW!  It came out on Kindle on Valentine’s Day and it’s the finale to the Singles’ Series, and it’s a look into the future, telling us what did become of Eve and her life after leaving Travel Together at the end of Singles, Set and Match. Did she and Melv have their Happy Ever After?  You’ll have to read it and see!  It will also be out in paperback next month.

To accompany the blog tour, so wonderfully organised by Rachel Gilbey I wrote some articles for various bloggers.  I will be putting them … Read the rest »

Dagenham People

There’s been a bit of a flurry in sales of The Banjo lately.  This was helped by the talk I gave at Dagenham Library on 6th December – and greatly enjoyed! – followed by a posting on the Memories of Dagenham Facebook Page by someone who’d got a copy for Christmas. Long story short – a rise in sales of Kindle copies and also paperbacks.

Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I encountered huge difficulties in trying to sell paperback copies of my books through Amazon.  We now think it’s because I work from an iPad and it distorts the cover … Read the rest »