Blog
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Cornwall…
…is the setting for my second novel. Which, as of today, is also my seventh novel… The Cold Cold Sea was re-released today with a fab new cover by The Cover Collection – I love it! I have lovely memories of Cornwall, especially the north coast around Newquay, so here are a few pics of…
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Swiss Mountains…
Scenic blog post alert… The past several weeks have been HOT here in N.E. Switzerland. 33-34°C every afternoon is a bit too much of a good thing – I wished several times I was halfway up a mountain, enjoying the snow squeaking under my feet. On the left we have our local mountain, the Säntis,…
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Visiting Yorkshire and – new book!
After the fraught journey to get to Leeds, I settled down in my hotel and started the week’s busy programme of book and family events. First up was meeting writer Carmen Radtke, who was on the blog a few months ago with a post about Australia and missing brides. We spent the afternoon on the…
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Train travel in middle England…
My journey from N.E. Switzerland to sunny Leeds didn’t start well. I arrived at Zürich Airport well on time, only to see DELAYED in large letters beside my flight. Ah, well. I’d allowed two and a half hours between landing at Luton and catching the first of three trains – where I had reserved seats,…
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Statues (and things) in Switzerland…
On Friday and Saturday I spent a few hours in Zug, Central Switzerland, on the way to and from Louise Mangos’ Strangers on a Bridge launch do. There’s a lot to like in Zug – a beautiful lake, a lovely historic old town – and some artwork. The old town first – above is the…
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The Cold Cold Sea – a book with many covers…
During the writing process, I’m not sure what I was expecting to see on the cover of my second book. It had various working titles along the way, until The Cold Cold Sea came to mind while I was looking at photos of Cornwall one day. I suppose I thought my book would look something…
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Wild Orchids in Switzerland
A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I went out in search of orchids… wild ones. Close to the Switzerland-Germany border, there’s a tiny place called Bargen. It’s known for being the most northerly village in the country, and also for its nearby woodland orchid trail. I have to confess I’d never heard of…
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A Fractured Winter… with Alison Baillie
It’s lovely having guests on my blog, and even better when I know them in person as well as on social media. Alison Baillie lives a short train journey away from me, so she’s a ‘close’ friend in more ways than one, and here she is to tell us about her new book. Thank you,…
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The Half-Bunny Pub…
It happened years ago, somewhere in England. I was visiting friends; we’d been out for the day and were driving home again when someone suggested stopping for a drink. A hotel sign in the middle of the countryside presented itself, so we drove a hundred metres or so up a narrow lane to the the…
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Places in – pictures? Or words??
When I was seven or eight, our next-door neighbour – an elderly lady – had an ash tree in her garden, right on the border with ours. Her garden was half-wild, and to my great joy there was no fence between the two properties. Under – and halfway up – that tree became my special…
Got any book recommendations?
