If I ask you to think of a portal fantasy – a story in which a character falls through some sort of portal to a magical realm – chances are you will first think... Read More...
When I moved to a little cottage in Devon a few years ago, I adopted the blacksmith’s forge in the garden as my writing office. Being even a few yards away from... Read More...
I’m a sucker for fine fashion. I have roamed endless designer boutiques in London, New York, Milan, Tokyo and Paris in search of the perfect dress. When I was i... Read More...
In 2006, when I started researching my grandmother’s life in Italy, I knew almost nothing about Benito Mussolini. Fascism was a dusty word that never made it in... Read More...
I was brought up on the idea that there was an alpha male spy, James Bond, and then there were his accessories, the Bond girls, usually decorative nobodies. Tha... Read More...
Sometimes, a book subject comes to you serendipitously, out of the blue. The wartime story embodied in SAS Band of Brothers is one of those.
About two years ... Read More...
Hands up if you’ve heard of Ray Kurzweil.
If you haven’t heard of him, you’re in good company. I recently asked a conference of forty or so American Studies ... Read More...
The idea for the story, a woman who thinks she might be married to the Ripper, came from an adult education class. We were given real newspapers about the murde... Read More...
For many people, especially in England, where I now live, Halloween is just another commercial holiday, imported from America. The idea of kids on a sugar high,... Read More...
In March 2016 I’d just finished writing the first draft of The Familiars. With an afternoon to myself in London, I decided to tick off one of the things I’d mea... Read More...
For me inspiration for a story always arrives at a very specific moment when I see a place that literally makes my hairs stand on end. It’s quite useful to have... Read More...
There’s something timeless about a good romantic comedy – they cheer us when we’re down, their worldview is generally optimistic, and they make us believe in lo... Read More...
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