I think I have begun every letter I have sent out this year by saying how tough these last months have been since the loss of my mother in February. And it continues with the recent loss of several friends… Continue reading →

Today, midway through November, as winter begins to set in hard here in northern France – I am at our home outside Paris, not down on the Olive Farm – it is a day of mourning, of remembrance.

All across… Continue reading →

I am writing this in-between note because, as many of you may know, THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER was published in paperback on 8th September.

To celebrate its publication Penguin, along with the magazine Top Santé, has come up with a splendid… Continue reading →

I wrote my last Newsletter on 2nd February this year. It was upbeat after a successful France Show at Olympia and I was looking forward to the publication of my novel THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER on 11th February. The New Year… Continue reading →

Dear Friends,

This is an exciting autumn moment for me.

My new novel to be published by Penguin early next year has disappeared off to the copy editor; we are preparing for this year’s olive harvest which looks set to… Continue reading →

Hello from a very hot South of France. (currently 34C)

The announcement of the news announced today in The Bookseller (link below) has been such a LONG time coming – I have been busting for three months to tell you.… Continue reading →

Hello!

Are you glad Easter is behind you? Ours has been wet although yesterday morning it cleared up and the sun is now shining and promises to remain with us for at least another week. Fortunately, the two days of… Continue reading →

Dear friend,

This will be the briefest of Newsletters and will not contain a great deal of news!

I am intending to deliver my new novel later today or tomorrow so I am DEEP in the world of my ‘lost… Continue reading →

I am writing this from Biarritz, a seaside town originally put on the map as a holiday resort by Napoléon III when he built his beloved Spanish wife, Eugénie de Montijo, a two-storey villa set high on a windy bluff… Continue reading →

I am sending this from Rome where I have disappeared to for a few days to escape dogs, sheep (yes!), olive trees and all commitments other than writing. I have found myself a perfectly airy studio in the eaves of… Continue reading →

It is a special day today. A Publication Day. Hotel Paradise, my latest story for the Kindle Single store on Amazon, goes live.  Hooray. We are all very excited about it.

As with The Girl in Room Fourteen… Continue reading →

It is almost Christmas although I have not yet begun to do very much about it. We are both still hard at work, attempting to complete all our commitments before everyone shuts up shop for two weeks.

There is a… Continue reading →

These last few blisteringly hot months have been packed with work. A few journeys undertaken but mostly I have been at my desk at the farm, scribbling away. These are the days when I appreciate how very privileged my life… Continue reading →

We are at home and the Olive Farm is gearing up for my mother’s 89th birthday this week. I am going out later this morning to order the cake. We have a young couple from the States staying with us. They are on holiday from Morocco. Deep down in the south and close to the Algerian border is where they are based, working a two-year appointment for the US Peace Corps. Their stories of life in such a remote community are fascinating. Coincidentally, he has the same birthday as my mother so I will be ordering a double cake. One cake shaped like the number 8 lying on its side, I think. Continue reading →

Around the world in eighty days… well, perhaps not quite around the world but it certainly feel as though I have not stopped travelling since I last wrote a Newsletter in December.

Where to begin?

Let me start with the US Tour because it has certainly been a highlight of this year so far. I began in Texas and from there flew to LA, on to San Francisco with several neighbouring stops including the Sonoma Wine Valley. From there, I crossed the continent to New York, upstate New York, then to Detroit, to Ohio where I was thrown an unforgettable birthday party, and then last stop Chicago – a city I have never visited before but one that won my heart.

And the good news is that I have received several invitations to return next year spring and to visit other states, other cities that were not on the itinerary this time. So, if you have an event early next year in the States or you would like me to visit your bookshop or garden centre or botanical gardens or even front yard, now is the time to put in the request… Continue reading →