If you are reading this on the day I am publishing, it is Saint Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day). In many Catholic countries, Saint Stephen’s Day is a public holiday. In Ireland, certainly. As well in Catalonia. I single out Catalonia because below is a link to a very beautiful Christmas carol and lullaby from Catalonia. A song…
Dearest Friends and Readers, This will be a brief Newsletter because I am up against several deadlines and I haven’t even thought about Christmas and New Year yet! I have been in Marseille for the last three days doing a little research, checking a few details for my novel in progress. The sun has shone…
Hello from the Olive Farm where autumn is beginning to display its remarkable colours and offer us its many fruits. Aside from a few very windy days and one heavy overnight rain storm, our stay here has been upbeat, enjoyed beneath endless days of cloudless blue skies. I have managed to be outside as much…
I am a week away from publication of my latest novel, ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE. 3rd July 2025. It is always an exciting as well as a nerve-racking time. A broad synopsis of what the novel is about: a British couple, Celia and Dominic, are living on a vineyard in the south of France. A…
We are moving towards the longest days of the year, choruses of birdsong, glorious scents wafting from the flowers. However, over these last few weeks I have had little or no time to sit back and enjoy the arrival of full-blown summer. We are three weeks away from publication of ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE and…
Below, I am in the company of: (left) Alan Wolven in the chair. Alan is a pianist. Now in his nineties, he is still playing. He was entertaining troops from the age of fourteen; (to my right) Suzie Cliff was marching for her Mum, Doreen Thompson. See, she is wearing her mum’s badges. Doreen entertained with ENSA….
A few days ago, I set off from our Olive Farm overlooking the Bay of Cannes in the south of France on a nine-hour drive to our northern home east of Paris situated a few miles west of the border to the Champagne region. As I was travelling alone, I decided to take the timing…
Due to Covid and work restraints, I hadn’t been back home to Ireland since the beginning of the pandemic. It meant that my trip planned for late November of this year (2023) was intended to be a special one. I was excited about it. I was planning to spend a few days alone in the…
Above: Home-made vin d’orange from our farm. Hello dear Friends! My goodness, it has been a long hot summer. A time of waiting. Waiting for rain, waiting for news, waiting for inspiration! … I am happy to be back in touch with you all after a slightly longer than usual break. We have been struggling…
Recently, I had lunch under a thunder-grey sky in Paris. It was a Sunday and the cafés and bars were spilling onto the streets with Parisians enjoying the pleasures of their weekend. I had just flown up from the warm south. Michel, my husband, collected me from the airport before he disappeared for an afternoon…
Small Things Like These by the Irish novelist Claire Keegan is my Book of the Year. There have been several books especially by women authors that have ‘spoken’ to me but this one hit a deep chord. I am late to the party in the sense that this novel, published in 2021, has already been…
Here we are (Me, Michel and François to the right) at the confluence, the conflux, of the Lot and Garonne Rivers. The sound of water crashing and engaging was rather spectacular. Three weeks ago, Michel and I crossed France to the new home of one of Michel’s daughters, Clarisse. She has moved to a region north…
May It is hard to believe that it is only three weeks ago we were celebrating my late-April birthday. Michel took me to La Colombe d’Or in St Paul de Vence, not simply for dinner but for an overnight stay. As a treat from time to time we have lunched there or dined in one…
“France is Josephine” 1906-1975 This is one of the photos I took of the facade of the Panthéon, snapped while I was queuing to pay my respects to Josephine Baker. Exceptionally, during that first weekend of December, entrance was free to everyone, thus offering citizens the opportunity to say farewell to a woman who had…
Dear friends, here is a short story. Please enjoy it. In these dark difficult days, I hope this story sent from the warmth of the French Riviera will bring a smile to your days. Happy Winter and stay safe, Carol x HARRY AND MELANIE Once Upon a Time, a little magic dropped into a troubled…
Today you can buy the Kindle edition of The Olive Farm for just 99p on Amazon.
Dear Friends and Readers, PLEASE tune to Channel 5 in on Sunday and join me in PROVENCE.
I have recently been on an excursion to Marseille. It is a little less than two hours west of our Olive Farm in the direction towards Spain. Marseille is an ancient harbour city set right in the middle of the stretch of Mediterranean that fringes the south of France. I have written at length in…
Dear Friends, Spring is coming – it really is. We’ve had some wild days here at the Olive Farm with winds blowing and trees creaking like ghosts opening doors in old houses. Here’s a visitor who came to cut three trees for the neighbour because they were threatening to fall on another neighbour’s house right…
How do we find the stories, the ideas for our novels or how do they find us? I am always on the lookout for ideas, for seeds that might grow like flowers into fully-realised stories. We writers are always digging about for nuggets. Magpies, we are, looking for what shines. Sometimes, the work involves weeks,…