First Impressions

In honour of Valentine’s Day I thought it would be fun to share some extracts of first meetings from my novels, thinking of the words of Dostoyevsky –  “We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight,...

Lurking in Graveyards with Literary Intent

Finding appropriate and memorable names for characters in my novels is a fun challenge. My favourite method – as I write historical fiction – is to have a wander round a graveyard. I’ve always had a weird fascination with cemeteries. I haunted Père Lachaise when I...