Don’t miss my article on travel website Wanderlust, ‘An insider’s guide to the south of France’, in which I share my top five off-the-beaten-track places near my home in the Côte d’Azure. Visit http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/blogs/insider-secrets/an-insiders-guide-to-the-south-of-france.
Marvin Gaye famously sang ‘Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home’. The inference is that, snail-like, you can carry your home with you, within you, allowing you to live nomadically without the pull to a particular place, rootless and free. It’s a fabulous song, but one whose sentiment I’m
UK readers, don’t miss this week’s Burning Embers competitions in Women’s Own and Now magazines, for your chance to win a romantic holiday for two to Kenya. Now magazine competition The prize is an all-inclusive nine-night stay at the glamorous Papillon Lagoon Reef resort, plus a trip to the Tsavo National Park and
Tempestuous, tumultuous, wild, stormy, turbulent, electric, thunderous – these are words we’re used to reading in romance novels in descriptions of the passionate relationship between the man and the woman. They of course relate to the elements: Nature demonstrating her power through storms. I recently read the last novel of
You know that moment when you rather wearily order a desert in a restaurant, knowing you are full and not expecting much of the crème brûlée, but when you take that first spoonful – oh my! It’s delicious, and at once you give up following the conversation of your companions
Have you heard of chromotherapy? It’s a sort of therapy that draws upon colour to rebalance and heal. It’s labelled pseudoscientific by some, and I’ve no personal experience of it. But it seems to me that colours do have significance. If I wear black from head to toe, I can
Countryside in the back country not far from the house, where I go for long walks while cogitating on plots for my novels.
When does the urge to be a writer commence? The nights, as a young toddler, that you sit on your parent’s knee and gaze at the scenes in a picture book while the words you hear spoken twist and gallop and soothe all around you? The time you first hold
A heart-warming, touching ‘clean’ romance with a charming setting and appealing characters. I found myself absorbed in the story from the first pages, starting as it does with two frightened and traumatised children who pull at your heart strings, and their caring but way out of her depth aunt, Jenna.
I always keep an eye out for news items that report on surveys on matters related to the heart. Usually, the results affirm that plenty of people in the world are as much hopeless romantics as am I! This week, then, I decided to set up my own romance survey
A carriage ride around verdant Hyde Park. A stroll along the Thames at dusk, admiring the misty lights of the Houses of Parliament. A coffee in a pavement cafe in Covent Garden, watching opera singers vie with circus performers for the public’s attention. A wander around the National Portrait Gallery,
Gorges du Verdon, a beautiful nature resort half an hour from our house in France. There are some wonderful restaurants around there.
With the Queen on most people’s minds, the Huffington Post recently published a list of favourite queens from literature. They included three queens from Alice in Wonderland, Tatiana from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Guinevere from the many stories of King Arthur, Lady Macbeth from Macbeth, the White Witch from the Narnia
Did you watch any of the Queen’s jubilee celebrations on the television? I enjoyed watching the flotilla, the fireworks after the concert and the coverage of the National Service of Thanksgiving; but what most drew my attention was the television footage of the Royal Family from many years ago. One
It’s summer (I know it’s raining, but check the calendar), and I’m delighted to be participating in Red Hot Books’ Shameless Summer Giveaway Hop. For a chance to win a print copy of Burning Embers this month, simply comment on this post. Now, here’s a list of all the lovely
Although this book is pitched as a young adult novel, and I generally don’t read within this genre, I love Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction and so was keen to read her latest offering, which is a departure from her norm, focusing as it does on four fictional characters rather than
When I was a young girl, one of my favourite treats was a visit to the ballet. For this special occasion my parents my sister and I wore evening clothes. The Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria, which in those days was called the Mohamed Ali Theatre, hosted some of the
When I close my eyes and conjure up a picture of Africa, the setting of my novel Burning Embers, it is the colours that are most vivid. The dry yellow of the savannah. A terracotta building. A coral-pink kapok tree. Every shade of green among the leaves of the jungle.
It has been several months now since I first began this blog and website, and I have very much enjoyed developing it and learning more about publishing and sharing books (what did I do before GoodReads?). Now that Burning Embers has been published, I have encountered a whole new area
I loved this book. The cover drew me in – especially the unusually silky textured paper – and sitting in my garden, I was transported to a bygone era, lost in a world of kings and queens and religion and politics and ambitions and dreams. While the book is full
What do you think of the view? This is a beautiful port near my home in France. I sometimes take a thermos of coffee and a baguette of ham and cheese and spend the day writing there. Excitingly, this is my first blog hop. The hop is hosted here: http://omnificpublishing.blogspot.co.uk/. Enjoy!
When I was a teenager my family had a friend called Mr Chiumbo Wangai who was from Kenya. He would tell us all about his homeland – the landscapes, the people, the cultures. But my favourite tales were those he related based on African legends. And when I came to
There is something so romantic about a waterfall. The roaring of the water in your ears; the rainbow of colours reflected in the downpour; the shock of the plummet from the horizontal river; the sense of nature’s might. Little wonder, then, that those who dream up love stories are drawn
Have you tried bouillabaisse? It’s one of my favourite dishes because it’s a specialty of the region where I live in France, and because it calls to mind my childhood. Growing up, my parents would throw big parties for relatives and friends at our home, and my father would cook
Have you noticed the recent renaissance of the fairytale? At the cinema one can see two versions of Snow White, while on television Once Upon a Time is building a solid fan base. In a recent episode I enjoyed the classic scene of Prince Charming awakening Snow White with a
View from municipal garden near my home in France where I go to write my love scenes . Steps lead down to a deserted rocky beach where I can sunbathe.
I love all forms of literature, from prose to poem – and one of my favourite poets is the 19th-century writer Leconte De Lisle. His poems are evocative and descriptive, which marries with my own writing style, and because he wrote about exotic locations like Africa, his verses were a
I was fascinated to read an article in the Huffington Post books section this week about a company called Literary Dinners, which creates ‘a pop-up restaurant for a night, specifically located for the author in question, a lavish spread and a reading (or two) from the author hosting’. What a
Moustier. While my husband and I were exploring on a sunny weekend, we discovered the most wonderful restaurant, La Bastide de Moustier. All their food is either fresh from their potager (vegetable garden) or from the local market. Their ‘Du potager à l’assiette’ (from the vegetable garden to the plate)
I notice that there are two competing versions of the classic fairytale Snow White coming to the big screen this year: Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman. I can only imagine the frustration of the opposing movie studios when each realised the other was creating a major motion
From the blurb: How To Tame A Willful Wife: 1. Forbid her from riding astride 2. Hide her dueling sword 3. Burn all her breeches and buy her silk drawers 4. Frisk her for hidden daggers 5. Don’t get distracted while frisking her for hidden daggers… Anthony Carrington, Earl of
The publishing industry has transformed radically in the past twenty years. The keyword in the preceding sentence is industry. The business of publishing has been forced to up its game in terms of creating product and selling them to customers. Marketing is now of paramount importance. As a result, few
I came across this book via the Guardian this week: Here’s the outline: From the rise of the egalitarian Little Free Library movement (motto: Take a book, return a book) to the growth in luxury hotel libraries, Alex Johnson whose parents were both librarians maps out the history and future
Here’s a simple fact of the publishing industry: many more books are printed than are read. In the UK, for example, according to data compiled by theInternational Publishers’ Association, in 2014 UK publishers released more than 20 new books every hour.The Brits published more books per inhabitant than anywhere else
When I write a novel, I immerse myself in the culture of the country in which the story is set. For my new novel Indiscretion, that was a sheer delight, because I have adored Spain since I first visited the country as a young woman. Because I am a keen
I’ve been following publishing news ever since I began publishing my romance fiction, and in recent months it’s become apparent that digital is dominating the news. This week, three stories jumped out at me: Whichbook Here’s a new site that matches a book to your mood. According to the site,‘Whichbook
I’ve been following publishing news ever since I began publishing my romance fiction, and in recent months it’s become apparent that digital is dominating the news. This week, three stories jumped out at me: Whichbook Here’s a new site that matches a book to your mood. According to the site,‘Whichbook
Regular readers of my blog and followers on Twitter will know that I love quotations – little nuggets of wisdom to make you smile, make you think, make you feel, make you connect. With the growth of the internet, there has developed a proliferation of websites and blogs that collate
Readers of my new novel Indiscretion will find themselves transported not only to a beautiful location – the ancient cities and wild landscapes of Andalusia, Spain – but also to another time. What do you expect of a novel set at the beginning of the 1950s? This was a decade
A cultural symbol of Spain known around the world, the Spanish fan exudes romance and passion. So much so, it is an important symbol on the cover of my new novel, Indiscretion: While the fan may have begun its life in Spain back in the 14th century as a practical
Regular followers of my blog will know I am an ardent bibliophile, and that extends to an adoration of those places dedicated to connecting us with books: libraries. I wholeheartedly agree with Jorge Luis Borges: “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” The dust motes floating dreamily in
Did you watch the video of JK Rowling’s 2008 speech at Harvard University? I found her words very poignant, especially such points on imagination and empathy as: “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to
Have you heard about the Clean Reader app? Its release has caused quite a stir in the reading and writing communities. This free app, whose tagline is ‘Read books, not profanity’, allows you to blank out swear words in an ebook, so that they aren’t displayed on your ereader screen.
I’m thrilled to be able to share with you today the trailer for my novel Indiscretion, which will publish next week!
It’s the final day of the tour, and today you can find me at The Secret Writer: http://thesecretwriterblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/indiscretion-blog-tour-stop-official.html And at Bluestocking’s Place http://ov099.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/feature-indiscretion-by-hannah-fielding/
“If you like your romances filled with smouldering Mediterranean men, secrets and lies, then Indiscretion could be the perfect read for you this Easter.” Today you can read a review of Indiscretion over at Books with Bunny: http://bookswithbunny.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/indiscretion-hannah-fielding-blog-tour.html
It’s no secret that there is a stigma attached to romance novels. They’re unrealistic, they’re cheesy, they’re silly, they’re cringe-worthy, they’re formulaic, they’re not ‘proper’ literature… these, and many more, accusations are levelled at romance books. For the reader, this means having to push through any sense of embarrassment or
‘Pride comes before a fall,’ we say. ‘Honesty is the best policy… and look before you leap.’ Have you ever considered where these little axioms of wisdom originated? The answer is: the stories of a man named Aesop who lived in Ancient Greece. I grew up with a governess who
Over the past couple of years in the UK, loneliness has become a topic for discussion. The Duke of Cambridge’s campaigning on mental health is bringing such social issues into the open. We’re worrying about elderly people who are too isolated and alone. But we’re also worrying about other groups
At the heart of every romance novel is a love story: two people meeting and falling in love. But of course, the unfolding of that love is never simple; ‘The course of true love never did run smooth,’ as Lysander put it in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The heroines and heroes
‘A room without books is like a body without a soul.’ So said the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. If a room without books lacks soul, imagine an entire home without books. To me, that’s a bleak vision. Empty. Lonely. How many books do you own? Books on shelves, in bookcases
One of my earliest memories is of a party at my home in Alexandria, Egypt. My younger sister and I hid on the upstairs landing and peeked through the balustrades at the guests as they arrived – in such exquisite, astonishing costumes! The kaleidoscope of colours, the incarnations of fantastical
Over the past six months, American readers have been voting for their favourite novels as part of The Great American Read. An advisory panel of literary industry professionals chose a shortlist of 100 books following a poll of 7,200 Americans who were invited to nominate their favourite novel. The 100-book
My novel Aphrodite’s Tears is set on a small Greek island near the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. It is an island where tradition is deeply respected and ancient customs and rituals are still part of life. One ritual is regarded as especially important: that of appeasing Typhoeus, the island’s volcano.
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