France as my Inspiration
I am deep in work at present, lost in the brambly mire of editorial notes on my still untitled novel due for publication in 2017. As well, I am also preparing or rather allowing to gestate the novel I am about to begin writing. I am not a Plotter. I start with grainy images of characters and places. Once I have a first instinct about what these people, this particular character – usually a woman – wants, I begin to trail her, as it were. What period am I traversing? Where are we? What is at stake for HER? The questions are endless. It goes back to my drama school days when I was taught to build the inner life of my character, the role I was rehearsing. “Get to know everything about her”.
Agents and publishers like material they can sell, they can establish you with. In my case, in one broad word, it is FRANCE.
My six memoirs set on our Olive Farm in the South of France became international best sellers. They established me, as it were, as one of those Brits who had upped sticks and moved abroad, to France. A rather simplified summation of the facts, but never mind.
My agent is happy that he can sell the combination of moi and France.

The famous green boxes used by the Parisian bouquinistes. They have been designated a World Heritage Site status
But no one wants to write the same book over and over so I am always looking for new approaches, different angles for stories. And this is great fun.
My latest novel, published this year, THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER, is set on a vineyard overlooking the Mediterranean somewhere not far from Cannes or St Raphael. There are also several scenes set in Paris. But at the heart of the book, where its dark family secret lies, I take the reader back to the last days of the Algerian War of Independence in 1962. The fallout when war is in its dying throes. The people who are affected by the retreat. Sometimes the characters might be victims, sometimes perpetrators. Right at the core of THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER is a choice, a decision taken when no other direction seemed possible.
The research involved a trip to Algeria – an expansive, varied and very beautiful country with many layers of…
- Writer's Forum Where I Write: Phil Barrington visits novelist Carol Drinkwater at her French olive farm 0
- Where are they now? Actress and author Carol Drinkwater. STAGE and screen actress Carol played Helen Herriot in the popular TV series All Creatures Great And Small (1978-1985) with Robert Hardy, Christopher Timothy and Peter Davison. 0
- Carol Drinkwater Lives the Good Life in France (and Writes About It Too) The Thin Reads Interview with Carol Drinkwater, Author of “Hotel Paradise” 0
- Interview with Carol Drinkwater, author of the Olive Series The Good Life France. 0
- A Python’s Paradise: Carol Drinkwater Interview A Clockwork Orange 50th anniversary exclusive! 0
- 'As a young actress, I would spend everything that I'd earn on travelling…' Irish Indpendent. Louisa McBride interviews Carol Drinkwater. 0
- Interview for WAMC's The Roundtable, Northeast Public Radio USA An award-winning, nationally recognized eclectic talk program. 0
- NAW Interview with Carol Drinkwater New Asian Writing Online Asian Literary Community interviews Carol following the publication of Hotel Paradise 0