Newsletter: January 2025



Hello Dear Readers!
In France we are allowed to wish others Happy New Year up to the last day of January. It cannot be said before New Year’s Day and then only through the month of Jan. So, I am just in time. Happy New Year! For 2025, I pray for Peace on Earth, an end to violence and ghastly troubles. And, as we were very much reminded recently, let us show compassion to the less fortunate. A Gentler, Kinder 2025.
I have news to share. Finally! My latest novel ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCEÂ will be published in paperback and e-book in UK and various territories on 3rd July. Here, below, is the jacket which, has been under wraps as it were until this week.

For those of you who prefer audio, it should be released on the same date but I can confirm that in another Newsletter once I have recorded it.
If you would like to pre-order, that would be a huge bonus for me. It makes a difference to us authors, so thank you. If you are in Ireland or the UK, you can order from your local indie bookshop or from Waterstones and other regular bookshops. On line, of course through Amazon and others. If you are in the States or other territories such as Australia, South Africa or New Zealand, I have discovered through loyal readers that Blackwells UK are taking orders on their website for One Summer in Provence now and they ship worldwide for FREE.
I wrote the novel post-Covid, after I had finished shooting Carol Drinkwater’s Secret Provence for Channel 5 UK (available on Britbox etc etc), when I felt that we all needed a huge shot of joy and good living. It is a love story, of Betrayal and Belonging, of finding love in the most unexpected places and fully embracing it. I hope that you will be uplifted by it.
I am also hoping that there will be several bookshop events where I can meet up with some of you. These I will post as and when they are confirmed. There is a box on the front page of this website for Events. Please keep an eye there.
Otherwise, I am hard at work on my next novel – 66,000 words in – rough draft only but there is a small sense of achievement beginning to seed as the story unfolds, develops, becomes more complex and the characters take on their own lives (and start telling me what to do!). It is set in Marseille; a city which some of you know I adore. I am making short trips there every five weeks or so to research various aspects of the story. It is a wonderful excuse to spend time in a city I thought I knew quite well, where I am discovering so many new aspects of the place and its history, revelations on each trip. Research is one of the joys of being a novelist.
I am currently writing this from our Mad Old Chateau east of Paris where it is FREEZING but, at least, so far, we have escaped some of the storms that are hitting Britain and Ireland. I spoke to one of my family yesterday in County Laois; she said it was pretty scary there. My cousin’s bees were safe though, which was good news.
Michel and I spent five weeks over Christmas and well into mid-January down at the Olive Farm and we will be back there again in a week or so. During our trip we managed to harvest and press some olives for delicious oil and gather the first crop of sweet oranges as well as a huge basket of lemons. These we are juicing or eating at breakfast as a great Vitamin C boost against these cold northern temperatures. Their golden hues keep the sun and bluer skies in my mind, which we both miss.
What have you all been reading? I do enjoy it when you send me through your latest favourite films and books. My friend and sister scribe, Kate Lord Brown, has a new novel out in April, The Golden Hour. It is set in Egypt and pre-civil war Lebanon. Passion at the pyramids, it is a live story with a secret of Greek tragedy proportions at its heart. Do look our for it.
I have been back with more of Georges Simenon’s non-Maigret titles, which I think are marvellous. They also give me insights into France in the middle of the twentieth century which I pick at like a magpie for my own scribblings. Currently, Simenon’s The Strangers in the House, (Les Inconnus dans la Maison), which was made into a film (1942) starring the southern French actor and comedian, Raimu. I watched the film as I began the book. His central performance is arresting, to say the least. If you don’t know his work, Raimu
Is probably most famous for the films he shot with the award-winning writer/filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. The Baker’s Wife, for example. (If you don’t know this film, it’s a masterpiece.)
Pre- and post-WWII is a glorious period in French cinema. I am currently indulging myself in quite a few titles from that period. I found a 1936 Marseillais film, Justin de Marseille, which I will watch this weekend. It was banned at the time by the municipalities of the region because, they claimed, it painted the great port-city in a dangerous and unfavourable light. The scenes are exaggerated, they concluded.
While we are talking films, the Japanese documentary, Black Box Diaries, has been nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar. I saw it last November at IDFA, the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival. Michel will be screening it as an avant-premiere in Paris on 3rd February at Les 7 Parnassiens, 98 Boulevard du Montparnasse, Paris 14. If you are In Paris on that evening, please come along. The film is a courageous telling of a modern Japanese me-too story by a young female journalist who also directs the film, Shiori Ito. Madame Ito will be present at the screening and the post-film debate. If you cannot catch this Feb screening, it will open Michel’s Japanese Film Festival in Paris in early April.
While talking Oscars 2025, fingers crossed for Ralph Fiennes who has received his first nomination in a long and outstanding career for Conclave. And hats off to fabulous Isabella Rossellini also receiving her first Oscar nomination, Best Supporting Actress, also for Conclave. Here’s to the power of older women!
And have you seen Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown? I grew up with Dylan and I am a little bit in love with young Timothée. I loved the movie.
On that note I will sign off, put another log on the roaring fire and return to my desk. I am thrilled One Summer in Provence is finally on its way and I sincerely hope you enjoy it.
Stay healthy and warm. Keep reading. I look forward to hearing fro you soon.
Kindest wishes,
Carol
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