Alongside the humour in my novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, Matty’s story tugs at the heartstrings. But readers differ in what they find particularly poignant. One early reader told me, I was all right until I got to the nuns. The most tragic part for me came when I was researching ballroom dancing for…
My previous post was about the female friendship at the heart of my novella, Stolen Summers. This is about my character Matilda’s short-lived friendship with a male patient and the surprising discovery I made when I was researching his background. I made Eustace a Black World War I veteran, partly to do my small bit…
It’s often said that we choose our friends – but we have to find them first. We make friends from the people we cross paths with, from our schoolmates, neighbours, co-workers and people who share our leisure pursuits. We might choose friends who have similar interests and outlooks to our own. But not always. Sometimes…
The history of mental health care is littered with discarded treatments revealing the practitioners to be barely more rational than the patients. One fad that seduced me for a short time when I worked as a clinical psychologist was ‘earplug therapy’ for people who heard unwanted voices. Wacky as it seems, there was solid research…
For some, history means kings, queens and political intrigue. For others, it’s a litany of colonisation and war. At my school, history leapt from Roman Britain to the industrial revolution, where history meant innovation, manufacturing and machines. Now I enjoy fiction that honours the lives of those the history books have often neglected: working-class people;…
I’m truly honoured by this fabulous review from Judith Barrow, an author whose novels about the challenges facing families I very much admire. Here are just a few of her kind words – pop along to her blog to read the full account. “I admire this author’s writing style and her ability to draw the…
With two books featuring female friendships, I thought it would be fun to showcase them in the only month beginning with the letter F. Both books celebrate the women’s mutual support despite major differences in outlook and background.
