French Revelations - a guest post from Lorna Fergusson
- Clare Flynn
- Apr 16
- 3 min read
I'm delighted to welcome my good friend, writer and creative writing teacher/coach/editor, Lorna Fergusson, to the blog to talk about the location of her new short story collection and why she chose to write about visitors to France and the unique perspective that offered her in writing the stories. Over to Lorna –
When we’re going on a trip abroad we often say we’re ‘getting away from it all’. New sights to see, new experiences to absorb: they’re great in themselves, but they also distract us from our daily work and worries.
When I wrote my novel The Chase, one of the strap lines I thought of using was ‘Get away
from it all – but what if you can’t?’ In that story my main characters are desperate to leave their traumatic past behind and start afresh in France. Only, they find the past can’t be shaken off like that, no matter how far they travel.
In my new collection of short stories, One Morning in Provence, I send various characters off to different regions of France. They’re there as tourists. They’re eager and open to new experiences but of course they are bound to be carrying some baggage with them. I didn’t know what that baggage would be until I transported them to specific locations. Then the magic happened. Each time, as the story unfolded I learned about what kinds of people they were and how the specific place they were in would affect them.
My characters range from the naïve thirteen-year-old who is on her very first trip abroad in the 1970s, to the old man who renounced his painting career long ago but returns to the gorgeous village near the Spanish border where as a young man he dreamed of success. There’s the daughter who is going to meet her father for the very first time. The divorced woman who has bought a fairytale château and is creating a whole new life for herself. The happy couple unsettled by life-changing news – news that nearly shipwrecks their happiness. There’s the unhappy husband and wife who encounter a French couple and start to imagine that they can grab the chance for a different life.
As the collection grew I realised that travel isn’t just about exploring new places. It is a powerful way of exploring yourself. When you are in a new environment, particularly one that stimulates the senses with new sights, smells, sounds and tastes, everything is heightened. My characters explore bright Provençal villages or lose themselves in the woods of the Dordogne or stroll the streets of Paris. They are inspired by ancient caves, the brilliance of Mediterranean blue, the enormous Dune du Pilat on the Atlantic coast, the stained glass windows of Chartres cathedral. They linger for hours over rich meals and glasses of wine
During these visits, the characters discover things about themselves. They have to face up to things they’ve run away from. They have to make decisions. They have to seek forgiveness from those they’ve wronged. They have to find their inner strength and rediscover or come to terms with what they’ve lost.
Most of all, they learn to celebrate life. Because, when you’re in the most beautiful locations in France, what else can you do?
I like to imagine that my characters all come away from France changed – in a good way. And they will never forget the sound of the breeze in the olive trees or the warmth of sunlight on russet tiled roofs and the scent of lavender in southern fields.
To. find out more about Lorna, her books and her creative writing services go to
I've read One Morning in Provence (and The Chase!) and loved the stories.I found them a captivating read and loved the way some of these stories had a clever sting in the tail.
Image credits: Lorna Fergusson
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