France | Alison Morton Author

Charroux - a different litfest

You know the score – a crowd of writers keen to learn and interact and readers eager to adore the great ones, hurrying from pillar to post, same old topics thrashed over, expensive food, even more expensive drink, lots of undercurrents and exclusive events, groups and cliques and a carefully orchestrated bookshop with selected titles.

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Our fearless leader – of a lady in armour

The Mitela women of Roma Nova are not the only women warriors to go armoured into battle. Sometimes we glimpse one from time to time in the real historical record. In celebration of the publication of Under the Approaching Dark, historical fiction writer Anna Belfrage introduces us to a(n in)famous one.

Women in medieval times […]

Charroux LitFest - total buzz

Charroux may be a tiny town in the middle of la France profonde, but these last few days it has been buzzing with local, national and international noise. Noise? Yes, the noise of authors talking, writers of every stripe discussing craft, poets and musicians entertaining and provoking us and playwrights dramatising. We learnt, stared in […]

Stopped by the forces of law and order

Driving along the main road, I’m happy there are only 11 kilometres to home. I slow down to pass through a village of older cream stone grey-slated houses, interspersed with Roman tile roofed single-storey homes. Halfway through, I reach the open area to the side, not even a proper village square. A blue-uniformed armed figure […]

Meet David Ebsworth's Napoleonic women warriors

A welcome return visit from my writing friend David Ebsworth telling us about his next project …

1815. The 200th anniversary is looming. A passion for the Napoleonic period is tugging at my writing hand. Yes, I thought, my next one will be about Waterloo. But from what angle?

I began looking for the […]