CLARE FLYNN

Novelist Clare Flynn discusses how good, supportive mothers actually undermine dramatic tension in storytelling—protagonists need challenges and setbacks, not loving parents ready to solve their problems.

Clare Flynn discusses the research she undertook when writing her novel The Star of Ceylon, and gives her tips for historical research

Clare Flynn stays at Galle Face Hotel, a key location in two of her Penang Series novels.

Clare Flynn takes readers through the process of editing a book and getting it published.

Sadly, I never met either of my grandfathers – they both died in the 1930s when my parents were still children. My paternal grandfather,...

Evening at the beach When I was in Sri Lanka recently, I started writing what would have been my seventeenth novel. At that stage, I...

People sometimes ask me why I enjoy writing retreats. Surely you can write just as easily at home, or in a library or coffee shop? Isn’t it an unnecessary indulgence to travel somewhere else simply to sit with your imagination and put words on a page? Perhaps it is. But in my experience, a change of place can open creative floodgates that had previously been firmly closed. I’m writing this beside a palm‑fringed beach in Sri Lanka. I’ve been working all morning. On palm‑fringe

I had a writing drought for three months. Not what I’d expected when I set off to sail around the world in one hundred and thirty days, hoping to get my next book written.  With all that time and having finished my previous book I was certain I would have the next one complete by the time I landed back in Britain. But despite (or because of!) visiting so many wonderful places, I didn’t feel inspired and my laptop gathered dust as I whiled away sea days knitting, reading, draw

I’ve been doing writing retreats for ten years. Not the sort with tutors but ones where you can hunker down and do some serious writing...

I love writing retreats. Not organised ones with tutors, but small gatherings with other authors in attractive or new surroundings to...