Once upon a time, books were books, only books. Then along came the motion picture, and books – for so long the foundation of culture – were the obvious source of inspiration for films. Frankenstein, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Rip van Winkle, The Assommoir, Uncle Tom’s
Last time I visited Venice, it was a research trip for my novel The Echoes of Love. I wanted to firm up descriptions of the setting, and so I walked in my characters’ footsteps, seeing the city through their eyes. But of course, I could not resist just a little
One of the many charms of the city of Venice, setting for my romantic novel The Echoes of Love, is its unique map: this is a city of waterways cutting among myriad winding streets that form something of a daunting labyrinth for the tourist. Not in Venice will you find
Please visit http://www.readingbetweenthewinesbookclub.com/2014/05/the-echoes-of-love-by-hannah-fielding.html and comment for your chance to win, and to read about The Three Crones.
I was sad to read this week of the passing of the great American writer and activist Maya Angelou. Readers of my novels and followers of my Twitter feed will know that I am something of a collector of quotations, and over the years several of Maya’s quotes have been
If there’s one shop, other than a bookshop, in which I can lose all track of time (and spend a near fortune!) it’s a stationer’s. Notebooks in all shapes and colours and sizes and designs, lined up on shelves, just waiting to be filled, to paraphrase William Wordsworth, with the
Recently, I’ve been thinking about dreams. To be a romantic is to be a dreamer. And so to write romance is to write of dreams. The dream is integral to the romance novel. No wonder, then, that a search for the word dream’ in my latest novel, The Echoes of
Please visit http://moonlightlacemayhem.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/blog-tour-echoes-of-love-by-hannah.html and comment for your chance to win, and to read about the romantic origins of jasmine.
No doubt you’ve heard of Sandro Botticelli, the Italian Renaissance painter whose works include The Birth of Venus. Certainly, his artistic style has long been admired and a point of reference in creative circles; in The Echoes of Love, for example, I write of a beautiful landscape: ‘Botticelli must have
From the blurb: Beneath bomb-filled skies, Head Radio Operator Lynne Cecil takes the safety of her RAF pilots seriously. They’re England’s last defense against the Luftwaffe. But too many pilots die on her watch. The top brass harass her for answers, but her team is giving their all. Devastated by
I confess, I have a real passion for book- and writing-related gifts. If I’m not giving the gift of a book itself, a gift that celebrates the love of the written book is the next best thing. So I quite often find myself on literary gift websites, looking for some
Please visit http://www.simplyali.com/2014/05/guest-post-giveaway-echoes-of-love-by.html and comment for your chance to win, and to read about Simonetta: Botticelli’s Venus.
Please visit http://www.thewindowseat13.com/2014/05/echoes-of-love-by-hannah-fielding-blog.html and comment for your chance to win, and to read about the legend of Ca Dario.
Bookshops, sadly, are in decline. According to an article published in the Guardian in February: ‘The number of independent bookshops gracing British high streets has fallen below 1,000 – a third fewer than nine years ago’ and ‘more than 500 independent outlets have shut since 2005’.Beyond the UK, the story
Please visit http://www.theflashlightreader.com/2014/05/echoes-of-love-blog-tour.html and comment for your chance to win, and to read about the origin of Burano lace.
Ah, Venice: setting of my latest novel, The Echoes of Love. Going to Venice and experiencing its beautiful architecture and inspiring culture? Wonderful – but out of reach for many due to the constraints of distance and expense. Going to Venice and experiencing first-hand its history, its days as the
Last week, I ran an ‘in his own words’ feature on Paolo, the hero of my novel The Echoes of Love, to see how he reveals aspects of his character in his speech. Today, I’m turning to the heroine, Venetia Aston-Montagu. ‘I am not someone to indulge in a casual
Please visit http://pagesofcomfort.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/guest-postbook-tour-echoes-of-love-by.html and comment for your chance to win, and to read about the legend of the Chianti rooster…
Please visit http://booksandotherspells.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/blog-tour-echoes-of-love-by-hannah.html and comment for your chance to win, and to read about the legend of Beauty and the Beast…
You’ll notice I don’t entitle this blog post ‘Italian recipe: The ultimate authentic spaghetti Bolognese’. Strange, you may think – surely the world-famous and popular dish is a meat-and-tomato sauce served with spaghetti? Indeed, that is how many Italian restaurants the world over serve the dish, and yet for Bolognese
Please visit http://www.loveromancepassion.com/for-the-love-of-legends/ and comment for your chance to win, and to read about the legend of God’s footprint, the origin of Sardinia…
I’m commonly asked in interviews, ‘If you weren’t a writer, what would you do?’ The answer is: restoring old buildings. For many years, restoration was my passion. I ran a business buying, restoring and selling on cottages, and both of my homes were large-scale restoration projects; they are unrecognisable now
Please visit http://booksbycenteno.com/2014/05/12/the-echoes-of-love-very-venetian-giveaway/and comment for your chance to win, and to read about the legend of the bocolo…
Please visit http://thelittlereaderlibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-echoes-of-love-hannah-fielding-blog.html and comment for your chance to win, and to read about the true sword in the stone…
After I published my first novel, Burning Embers, I ran interviews on my blog with the main characters, Coral and Rafe. For The Echoes of Love, I thought I’d try something a little different with ‘in their own words’ features, exploring how my characters reveal major facets of their inner
Please visit http://luxuryreading.com/echoesoflove/ and comment for your chance to win today, and to read about the tortured lovers of Fosdinovo Castle…
From the blurb: Blueberry Cove, Maine, is as small-town as small towns get. More than a little quirky, it has sheltered generations of families. But there’s always room for a new face… Fixing things has always been Alex McFarland’s greatest gift and keenest pleasure. But with her own life thoroughly
Please visit http://writingcrazyme.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-echoes-of-love-guest-post-review.html and comment for your chance to win today, and to read about the legends of the gondola…
For UK readers, pick up a copy of BN magazine from your local Bon Marche store for a free abridged version of The Echoes of Love…
Please visit http://bookbriefs.net/2014/05/07/reviewgiveaway-echoes-love-hannah-fielding/ and comment for your chance to win today…
My latest novel, Legacy, is set in Cadiz, a city in Andalucía that is almost entirely surrounded by sea. This is the view from my heroine Luna’s home at dusk: The port of Puerto de Santa María glowed in the distance, accompanied by the steadfast wink of the lighthouse. Fishing
This month, I’m having a FAN-tastic Fiesta, to celebrate the launch of my Andalucían Nights trilogy in a special, all-in-one edition. The award-winning epic Andalucían Nights Trilogy sweeps the reader from the wild landscapes of Spain in the 1950s, through a history of dangerous liaisons and revenge dramas, to a
Back in the nineteenth century, readers – men and women alike – began to discover and enjoy fiction by new novelists Currer Bell, Ellis Bell, Acton Bell and George Eliot. Male writers, you may well have assumed, but in fact these were the pen names of the Brontë sisters and
Earlier this week, I was hunting in my files for a photograph when it struck me just how many images I was browsing through. Since I began blogging here back in September 2011, I have built quite the picture library! When I write on this blog about the settings for
In my latest novel, Legacy, the love story begins when the hero and heroine cross paths in Barcelona. I very much enjoyed setting the scene in this colourful, lively city, especially because it is chock-full of works by one of my favourite architects, Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí was a Spanish architect
There is so much that drew me to the Spanish region of Andalucía when it came time to choose a setting for my romantic trilogy. But given that core themes in the trilogy are roots and legacies, the rich history of the Andalucía was a big attraction. Andalucía is steeped
She’s the one: Five reasons I write in the third person ‘I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, great and
Here’s a little quiz question for you: Which bird features in my novel Burning Embers, set in Kenya, and my novel Indiscretion, set in Spain? No doubt the photograph has given away the answer! Yes, it is the flamingo. In Burning Embers, the heroine Coral takes a balloon ride over
‘Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.’ So wrote satirist P. J. O’Rourke. Of course, he was joking. We should read whatever we want to read! But I think this quotation touches on a very real discomfort in readers over being judged for reading choices.
Andalucían culture features prominently in my recent novels, Indiscretion, Masquerade and Legacy, especially in relation to music and dance, which is characterised by a single emotion: passion. As Salvador tells Alexandra in Indiscretion: ‘Spanish flamenco is the embodiment of passion. Some people say that music is at its best when
I love books. I love to browse books, choose books, purchase books, collect books – and, of course, read books! If, like me, you are a bibliophile, you will know well the happiness a book can bring: finding a hidden treasure in a second-hand bookstore, eagerly buying your favourite author’s
How to Do Good: Essays on Building a Better World, published by my publisher, London Wall, is a collection of essays by thought leaders, celebrities, statesmen and women, Nobel prize winners, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists and others who are driving and inspiring positive change. Each month, I’m focusing on one
Each of the Spanish regions has its own unique culture and history; but for me, the most beautiful and fascinating of them all is Andalucía. This southernmost region has a distinctive look and feel influenced by a history of Moorish occupation. It is a place characterised by legacy, and thus
The city of Cádiz features in each of the novels in my Andalucían Nights trilogy. It’s such a vibrant, luminous city, it was an easy decision to set scenes there; this a thriving and beautiful place with a rich history and culture. Here’s a glimpse of the city from the perspective
Sometimes, when I am interviewed by a blogger or a journalist, I am asked what hobbies I have beyond reading and writing, and the answer that always springs to mind is this: ‘Antiques. I love antiques! I love to be the custodian of an object that has a history –
Ask yourself this: what would your life be like without love stories? No romance novels. No romantic TV series or movies. No daydreaming, even. How would you feel? Bereft? I know that I would be! Since I read my first romantic fairy-tale as a young child, I’ve been in love
‘”Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.” This is the kind of intense, enflamed passion that I dreamt of for my novel Concerto…’
‘The dappled sunlight filtering through tree branches – is there a word for that? The seeds of a dandelion drifting on the breeze – do we have a word for that? Should we?…’
‘An author’s job is to tell a story through writing, but in Concerto I was able to also use music to tell that story.’
‘En la sangre hierve España sin fuego. (In Spain blood boils without fire.) This proverb says it all: Spanish is a land of deep passions, the perfect setting for fiery, dramatic romance…’
Recently, a memoir caught my eye. Published in February this year, Sounds Like Titanic by Jessica Chicceh Hindman is an account of her time playing the violin with a professional ensemble in New York City. Only she didn’t actually get to play the violin – none of the members of the
‘”Each kiss a heart-quake,” wrote Lord Byron, and that is how I envision the first kiss in each novel I write…’
‘Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.’ So wrote French novelist Honoré de Balzac. For me, this quotation perfectly encapsulates the difficulty of our time in lockdown. We may appreciate the simpler, quieter life, but at the same time we ache to share the time with
‘The title is such an integral part of any novel that I write. It’s the cornerstone, essentially. From the title flows the work. Thus, the title fits…’
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