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
My novel, Burning Embers, is set in Kenya in 1970. The heroine, Coral, was born in Mombasa, but when her parents separated she moved to London. Now, she is returning to her birthplace to take up her inheritance: mistress of her father’s plantation, Mpingo. At the heart of Mpingo is
French, so they say, is the language of love. You may wonder why, then, when I speak and write fluently in both French and English, I choose to write in English. As a child I grew up speaking French predominantly – which was easy for me because my governess, Zula,
Recently, I was browsing in a bookstore when I came across a hardback, clothbound edition of my favourite work of English literature: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. The book was beautiful to the eye and to the touch, with stunning colours and exquisite workmanship and – best of all for
Every hero and heroine in fiction needs a compelling motive for the journey they are taking. For Alexandra in my novel Indiscretion, that motive is a strong need to understand her roots and, in doing so, herself. For Alexandra, roots are complicated. Her father, Alonso, is Spanish born and bred.
It is a perfect example of the power of the internet: a self-publishing author has hit the headlines for her petition on Change.org for Amazon to change its review policy. Posted just two weeks ago, the petition has now been signed by more than 13,000 authors. Here is the issue:
‘Jerez de la Frontera, the capital of horsemanship, sherry and flamenco.’ That is how I describe Jerez in my novel Indiscretion. The heroine, Alexandra, has come to Spain to learn about her Spanish roots, and that involves spending time with her family – the feisty and complicated de Fallas, whose
From the blurb: Pennfleet might be a small town, but there’s never a dull moment in its narrow winding streets… Kate has only planned a flying visit to clear out the family home after the death of her mother. When she finds an anonymous letter, she is drawn back into
Followers of my Twitter account (@FieldingHannah) will know that I love proverbs: simple sayings that contain stark truth and wisdom. For each of my novels, I research proverbs that are particular to the setting, and for Indiscretion, that meant a fascinating exploration of the many and varied Spanish proverbs. I
All authors began as readers. We were the toddlers begging our parents for one more bedtime story; we were the children nose-deep in a book while our friends played. Our devotion to writing was born of a passion for books. Looking back, I can so easily trace the seeds of
How do you characterise your favourite books? The emotional impact of the book and your enjoyment while reading it are no doubt important. So is your desire to share the book; as John Green put it in The Fault in Our Stars: Sometimes, you read a book and it fills
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