Provence. Provence-Alpes-Maritimes is my home, and it has also become my work. I never fail to remind myself how fortunate I am. When I first came here to this southern coast of France I was looking for a ‘house by the sea’. I had circumnavigated the world several times over, both as an actress and…
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,…
Just in time for the holidays! My two bestselling Kindle Singles are now available as audio books!
I am suffering from Deadline-itis. Two deadlines glaring at me with fanged intentions. As always during these stressful moments, it seems that all the world apart from me is in holiday mode; either on holiday or about to depart. I go out so rarely at present due to the pressure of work that when I…
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…
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 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…
It is the time of the Cannes Film Festival and we are enjoying days that are as sunny and warm as midsummer. It makes for a great atmosphere down along the promenade and on the beaches at Cannes. No raincoats over evening dresses, so far this year. No umbrellas to try and keep the coiffed…
It has been reported in the press this week that a replica of the Grotte Chauvet has been created. It will be open to the public by the time you read this. The original, containing thousands of prehistoric animal and figure drawings, will no longer be accessible to visitors because our human presence is putting…
I am a little late to the table with this due to a heavy workload this week, so sincere apologies. However, better late than not at all because I think it is exceedingly important to mark this moment in our fight for the safekeeping of the honeybee, for all pollinators and for the natural order…
I have been focusing quite a bit on war recently so I thought for this month’s blog I would choose a subject that is closer to home and of a lighter aspect. A love story. This true story is set along the Côte d’Azur, the Blue Coast, but it began in the north of France…
It has been a while since I have written a blog for this page and I apologise. Life seems to have overtaken me these last few months. Aside from my days of writing, I have been travelling, but a little less than usual. I have just returned from a short trip to Thessaloniki in northern…
Last month I wrote a little about the events surrounding the Charlie Hebdo massacres in Paris along with my reflections, observations while travelling in Algeria seven years ago. I am continuing along a similar theme today: Algeria and a broad brushstroke of the events that led to the Algerian War of Independence. The French colonial…
I am writing this from the Eurostar on the way back to Paris. The France Show is over for another year, our Olive Farm lunch (anyone from the Olive Farm Facebook page who attends the France Show is welcome to join us for this annual event) is also behind us. Both were great fun. I…
I am writing this ahead of my regular blog date because I will be away on a work commitment and possibly without internet. Much could happen between today and the 26th… However… This month of January has been a tragic opening to the year of 2015. One of the murdered Charlie Hebdo team collaborated with…
On Christmas Eve 1914 in northern France a frost set in. It had been raining for weeks, filling the trenches to waist height with water, soaking spirits, drowning hope. So acute was this drop in temperature, that it froze solid the soldiers’ great coats and hardened their boots. The men themselves were “frozen to the…
This month, on 9th November, six weeks after Scotland voted to remain a part of Great Britain, ‘a self-determination referendum’ was held in Catalonia. The citizen participation process on Catalonia’s political future was originally the ‘Catalan Independence Referendum’ but was rebranded as a ‘popular consultation’ after the original was suspended by the Constitutional Court of…
I have just returned from a brief stay in Palermo and the western coast of Sicily. Autumn at the heart of the Mediterranean can hardly be bettered. The grape harvests have been completed, the olives are soon to picked and the weather is usually absolutely splendid. I first visited Sicily in 2005. This trip kept…
This post will talk a little about my recent travels rather than promoting anything new in my work field. It is another ‘while-I-write-my-novel’ post. It has been a busy month in terms of travelling. I spent a week in Sicily – I have written about this for my 26th October post for the History Girls…
Many years ago, in a period of my life that is almost history now, while I was filming the TV series All Creatures Great and Small, I was invited to take part in a Save the Whale rally which was to be held in Trafalgar Square. It was a Sunday. A high stage had been…