A day or so ago I watched, for the first time in many years, Louis Malle’s wonderful film, Lacombe, Lucien. I don’t think I have seen it since it was first released in 1974, when I was a young actress living in London. I would have been audience at the Hampstead Everyman or that wonderful…
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 the UK and the Commonwealth, on this second Sunday in November, Remembrance Sunday, wreaths of…
Cornwall Council has decided to ban bee-harming neonicotinoid pesticides from all of its parks, gardens and verges. Big chunks of the South West – including Devon and Dorset – will be much safer for our buzzing friends. Sign the Friends of the Earth petition for a nationwide ban. For those of you who speak French…
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…
A MESSAGE FROM GREENPEACE Big news: Greenpeace investigators have discovered unpublished pesticide-company studies showing that their controversial ‘neonic’ pesticides can seriously harm bees. [1]Now more than ever, we need to ban these bee-harming pesticides for good. Can you help? The research was designed to find a ‘safe level’ for the pesticides, and although the companies…
It is that time of year again. Late September. The season of ‘mellow fruitfulness’. There are no mists here at this time of year in the south of France but there is a great deal of mature sunlight oozing its warm beams for long hour after long hour. I love this time of year and…
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 competition. Here are the details: Winner along with a partner or friend is invited to…
I feel impotent and distressed when I watch this video and read the news of other such acts. Such indiscriminate spraying of any chemical poison is irresponsible. The results of these bee deaths will take years to rebalance, if they every can be re-established. If you are in the US please speak out against such…
So exciting that the paperback edition of THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER is hitting the shelves today! If you haven’t already, you can order your copy here: http://hyperurl.co/TheForgottenSummerPB
It’s only one week to go until THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER is out in the UK in paperback!! You can pre-order your copy here: http://hyperurl.co/TheForgottenSummerPB
I am very late with this Newsletter. It should have gone out at least a month ago, but this has been a very demanding year and time has given me no slack! The good news is that this morning I have delivered the first draft of my new novel to Penguin. This will release a…
This is very important news http://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-bees-neonicotinoids-idUSKCN10R1M5
SPECIAL GUEST #2 Multi award-winning actress and best-selling author Carol Drinkwater will be attending the #Herriot100 Gala Dinner. Carol will also be signing copies of her new novel #TheForgottenSummer at the White Rose Books & Coffee Bar before our Gala. The Kindle version is also available for just £1.99. https://www.amazon.co.uk/
I have just returned from a memorable trip to Ireland – my semi-adopted homeland because I was actually born in London. My recently-departed mother and all her family were born and bred in County Laios, set in the Midlands of Ireland. The farm her parents spent their hardworking lives running is still in the family…
THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER – Top Summer Reading, Woman and Home mag.
FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY – AHEAD OF THE PAPERBACK – ‘THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER’ IS A SUMMER SPECIAL FOR AMAZON. £1.99, PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THE LINK BELOW. https://www.amazon.co.uk/
Many of my colleagues are writing glorious posts inspired by recent holidays. How envious I feel as I stay locked to my desk, moving inexorably towards my upcoming deadline. However, I did make a short trip to Krakow two weeks ago, for five days, taking all my work with me. I wrote all day in…
This is a very inspiring story. Do read. This is a worry but I am glad it is being highlighted Another fact of natural wonder
What is in a street? It was my husband, Michel’s, birthday last week. We were in Paris. I decided that aside from taking him for a delicious dinner it was time for us to stay up late and go to a jazz club. We haven’t done that in a while. Instead of choosing one of…
I love properties and the excitement of property renovations, as those of you who have read my Olive Farm series of books will know, but rarely have I suffered from House Restoration Envy or indeed House Envy, pure and simple, until I was travelling through the midlands of the Emerald Isle where as Fate would…