Lancashire

Lancashire

Anyone wanting to come to meet me in Lancashire at The County Hall in Preston on 8th March. Ticket £5. Event is 6.30pm for 7pm talk. Ticket price goes against cost of book, I believe. Book here elaine@silverwoodevents.co.uk

A little interview

Dear readers, I hope you have enjoyed getting to know me better and learning more about THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER over the past week. To finish we have one more exclusive for you – a little interview I recorded when I was in London visiting my publisher a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy! x

25 days to publication

25 days to publication

As I  write this, we are 25 days from the official publication date of THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER – 11th February – and I am suffering a little bit from what the French call le traque or  in actors’ speak: stage fright. That moment as you step out onto the stage or in front of the…

Rome at Christmas

I am in Rome. I usually make the ‘pilgrimage’ at some point during the run-up to Christmas. The street illuminations are magnificent, the shopping is deliciously decadent and hectic and the Irish Catholic child in me thrills at St Peter’s Church and Square decked out in all its Nativity glory. Except that this year the…

The ways of Olive picking

We are olive harvesting at present. It is one of the farm activities that I find the most relaxing, particularly during the glorious November days we are experiencing. The leaves of the olive tree, dried, steeped in hot water and drunk as a tisane, are supposed to be a very efficient remedy for high blood…

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The Deluge

Some of you may have read about or seen on the news the appalling floods that hit my homeland of Cannes and its environs in the south of France at the beginning of this month. We were there; we had driven down the day before to spend a quiet week together, olive harvesting and writing….

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Mourning Palmyra

The destruction of our ancient history, of magnificent sites that are, or were, jewels in our cultural heritage and are now nothing but rubble, makes my blood boil. We are all of us reading the news and staring at photographs that are breaking our hearts. And we are so impotent, or so it feels to…

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Scorched Earth

A few days ago I headed north, driving from our home on the French Côte d’Azur to our home in the Brie, mid-centre between Paris and Reims, fifteen minutes from the Champagne district. I love these long trajectories penetrating and discovering France. In the years I have lived here I have driven in every season,…

Suffragette

A quick update to let you know that Scholastic have republished another of my books in the My Story series, Suffragette. Here is a photo of the new cover above, which is lovely and all silvery. I am very pleased with it. For my adult novel, we have a title. Hooray! I am not allowed…

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Celebrating Film

By the time you read this, the 68th Cannes Film Festival will have packed up its wares and the pantechnicons will be back on the road. The awards will have been handed out and celebrated at illustrious parties, Elton John will have hosted his annual Aids event, and the stars will be on planes flying…

Palmyra

Palmyra in Syria is a UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The news is reporting that ISIS has massacred children in this ancient capital. It brought back this memory that I felt compelled to share… Palmyra. What can one say? The despair I feel is overwhelming. I spent several days alone there when I was writing, researching…