Clare Flynn - The first book is the toughest!

A pleasure to host multi-published historical fiction author Clare Flynn on the blog today. I’ll let her introduce herself…

I would have given you all of my heart But there’s someone who’s torn it apart And he’s taken just all that I had But if you want I’ll try to write again Baby I’ll […]

Let's hear it for 'shades of grey'

No, not Fifty Shades, but something a long, long way away from that.

Since 2016, I’ve seen a marked decrease in rationality, the lessening of the desire to examine and discuss and disagree in a civilised way, and for that to have become the norm.

‘Polarisation’ used to apply to the nutters at the far […]

Antoine Vanner's historical mission: “The past is a foreign country…”

I’m delighted to welcome Antoine Vanner, author of the Dawlish Chronicles, for a return visit to the blog. Set in the late Victorian period, the series of naval adventures are linked closely to real historical events, and sometimes personalities, of the period and in most feature a high degree of moral ambiguity and ethical […]

Stephanie Churchill – To plan or not to plan?

Today my guest is Stephanie Churchill, author of The Scribe’s Daughter and The King’s Daughter.

Being first and foremost a lover of history, Stephanie’s writing draws on her knowledge of history even while set in purely fictional places existing only in her imagination.

Inspired by gothic romance novels like Jane Eyre, epic fantasy […]

Jill Marsh – The well-made play

Jill in characteristic occupation

Jill in characteristic occupation

As a child, Jill read so obsessively she got kicked out of the school library. But her passion for words continued. She graduated in English Literature and Theatre Studies from the University of Wales and set up a theatre company.

Since then, as an actor, director, teacher, writer and […]