I recently read a post on Twitter from a well-known writer in which she bemoaned the fact that after twenty or so novels, she was running out of names for heroines. I sympathise. Although, when it comes to choosing characters’ names, I’ve always felt there to be a larger pool of girls’ names than boys’, […]
Read moreSUMMER AT SEASTONE will be published in hardback and as an ebook in January 2023. The novel is about fresh starts and female creativity. The four central characters, Emma, Bea, Marissa and Tamar, weave in and out of each other’s lives, but the hamlet of Seastone on the Suffolk coast is the place where they […]
Read moreIt’s 1969, and I’m sixteen years old and standing in a small, bare room, attending a routine school medical at my school in Salisbury. I’m cold, and worse, I’m excruciatingly embarrassed because I’m in my bra and pants. The doctor glances at my back and brusquely tells me she’s going to refer me to my […]
Read moreThis question is often put by writers to fellow writers, and my answer is generally ‘yes’. I didn’t have a deadline – or a contract – for my first few novels, and wrote them on spec, but from THE SECRET YEARS on I’ve had both. Which means that I’ve been writing to a deadline for […]
Read moreYou’d think it would get easier. It doesn’t, though. I finished writing my twenty-first novel a month ago and only now feel I’ve recovered sufficiently to recall the process. Starting a novel is like standing on the summit of a mountain and looking down at the fascinating, colourful scenery below, spread out invitingly for you […]
Read moreThe cottage we’re renting for a week in June is on the Kingston Lacy estate in Dorset and is owned by the National Trust. Pink and thatched, it has low ceilings and doorways on which my husband whacks his head at frequent intervals. To one side of it is an overgrown orchard; behind, a patch […]
Read moreThe traffic’s busy, driving through Cambridge to pick up my sister Danielle from the village where she lives. By the time we return to my house, my husband is already welcoming early visitors to his studio. I hastily park the car and Dany rushes indoors to hang her prints, arrange tea-towels and cards. Phew – […]
Read moreAfter writing twenty novels, I’m running out of names for my heroes. Women aren’t a problem. There are plenty of lovely girls’ names and I don’t think I’ll ever be scrabbling round for a suitable name for a heroine. No, it’s the men. I’ve started to recycle them. I’ve had two Richards, two Joes, a […]
Read moreDuring the course of writing a book, I get to know my heroine. I find out about her. The jeweller’s wife is Juliet Winterton, and she is the central character of my latest novel, which will be published in paperback this September. Although there are other important female characters in the novel, Juliet is the […]
Read moreIt is the task of the writer to create a world for the reader to live in, to immerse herself in. It makes no difference whether that’s an imaginary world (Westeros in ‘Game Of Thrones’, Middle Earth in ‘Lord Of The Rings’) or a re-creation of a real one (the Tudor England of Hilary Mantel). […]
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