Tell us a little bit about you:

 We live on the Yorkshire coast, with a greedy cat. My irrepressible family provides inspiration for newspaper columns on family life, but my romance novels have been inspired by my travels.  

What do you like most about your craft?

I have learnt how to delete whole paragraphs or pages without regrets.

 

What inspires/influences you?

I read a lot of history. I also travelled a lot when I was younger and am interested in the lives of people in different countries.

 

What are you working on at the moment?

My third romance novel, set in the early 1800s. Research leads me down interesting by-ways and can easily sidetrack me.

 

We at Good Guy Publishing are mad on books, what are you reading at the moment?

The Snake Stone by Jason Goodwin. A detective story set in Istanbul under Ottoman rule.   

 

Which three books would you list as your favourite all-time reads?

The Memoirs of Madame de la Tour du Pin

Wild Swans by Jung Chang

Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte

 

What are your hopes for the future?

Any year beyond three score and ten is a bonus. I’m unlikely to write a best seller or get my tongue round the Japanese language, but I can enjoy my endeavours to do so.

 

Do you have any advice for anyone wishing to follow in your foot-steps?

In my first job as a translator, my boss used to tell me to take ten minutes to read the King James Bible and soak up the style of its English before starting work. Only with hindsight can I see what sound advice this was.

 

Find a writing group or a writing buddy. Mutual support is invaluable. Above all, persevere.

 

Where can you be found online?

The Good Guy Blog