Although I now call England my home and list the Brontë sisters and Jane Austen among my favourite authors, for the first twenty or so years of my life, I read almost exclusively French books. At my convent school, Notre Dame de Sion, the nuns gave me a thorough grounding in French classics, and so […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Although I spoke English at home with my parents, I was given a French education. I had a French/Italian governess, I went to a French convent school and I graduated from university with a BA in French Language and Literature. I think that the way I write has been much influenced by the very flowery […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Théophile Gautier was a great traveller, visiting places as diverse as Spain, Italy, Russia, Egypt and Algeria, and his writing based on the various places he visited are works of art. He has a knack of transporting you to the place and making you live the experience he is living. His descriptions are not only vivid, they are […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I recently ran a poll to discover people’s ‘Most romantics’, and in the book category, Pride and Prejudice was the hands-down winner, with 57% of the vote (the runner up, The Notebook, received 24%). It is of course one of the most loved books in English literature of all time, and according to calculations in […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Mary Margaret ‘Mollie’ Kaye (1908–2004) has been one of my favourite writers since I read her worldwide best-seller The Far Pavilions in the early 1980s. She has been an inspiration to me in my writing, because, like me, she was a traveller at heart and she wrote wonderfully descriptive stories set in exotic locations that […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It’s Christmas! Time for a break from work, filled with plenty of moments with family, delicious food, Christmas movies and perhaps the odd glass of mulled wine. But amid the buzz and bustle, I do hope there’s some time for you, too. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll enjoy curling up in an armchair, […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Today I’m participating in The Romance Reviews’ Romance Madness Hop, in which bloggers come together to showcase favourite romance novels. I so love romance books, and have done my whole life, so choosing just one to feature today proved too hard a task. Therefore, I’m sharing with you five of my favourite romance reads: The […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I love poetry. It’s a true art form; every word carefully selected; each stanza meticulously crafted. A poem has a unique ability to capture a moment, a mood, an interpretation that touches a reader’s thoughts and feelings. For me, a powerful poem can resonate with the soul, and echo in your mind for the rest […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The beauty of writing as both a passion and a career is that you only get better with time, and you need never stop, so long as you have ideas and the will to write. Did you know that the oldest romance novelist in the world lives in Cornwall, England; is 105; has been writing […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
