CLARE FLYNN

I’ve only visited Canada once – a road trip in 1999 to the Canadian Rockies. Memorably, I decided early one morning to leave the main...

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

Last month I spent a wonderful week in the Loire Valley on a writing retreat with six of my writer friends. We rented a huge gite –...

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 love writing retreats. Surely you can write just as easily in your own home, or in a library or coffee...

I’d 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....

Next March I will be heading to France to the Loire Valley with several of my writing friends for a week-long writers’ retreat.  We’re...

I’ve visited Istanbul several times – once in the mid 90s on holiday and several times on business with the odd weekend tagged on.  I...

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...

Recently I visited Ireland for a family wedding. Whilst there, enjoying an evening in a local pub, I was reminded of one of the inspirations behind part of my book Storms Gather Between Us - an inspiration I'd entirely forgotten about until now!

I was afraid my upset stomach would prevent me visiting – but I had no trouble on that score. Never one to cope well in heat I found the...