heroines | Alison Morton Author

Kathleen McGurl - On settings

This week’s guest in the writers abroad series, Kathleen McGurl, actually lives in Christchurch, England but when pandemics allow she spends a lot of time travelling in Europe with her husband in their motorhome, especially France and Spain. She has written ten dual timeline novels, set in England, France and Ireland, and is constantly inspired […]

Vanessa Couchman – The other South of France

Continuing the writers abroad series, this week it features Vanessa Couchman whom I met at a literary festival here in France. Vanessa writes historical novels and short stories set in France or on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. Quirky true stories often find their way into her fiction, and she likes nothing more than pottering […]

Tracey Warr – Writing medieval fiction in southern France

Photo by Sara Perry

Continuing our series about English-speaking writers based in Europe and their ‘terroir’ – the place where they live. How does it affect their writing? This week, it’s Tracey Warr who lives near Albi in southern France.

She has published five novels set in early medieval Europe. Her first […]

Chris Longmuir on research for historical fiction - A Dangerous Destiny?

I’m delighted to welcome crime writer to the blog. I was entranced by Chris’s ‘The Death Game’ where I first met Kirsty Campbell so I had to know more. Chris won the Scottish Association of Writers’ Pitlochry Award for two of her contemporary thrillers in the Dundee Crime Series. One of these books, ‘Dead Wood’, […]

Antoine Vanner: Writing about a female protagonist – a challenge for a male novelist?

I’m delighted to welcome back Antoine Vanner, creator of the Dawlish Chronicles series featuring Royal Navy officer Nicholas Dawlish (1845-1918) and his wife Florence (1855-1946). Nine volumes have been published to date and I’m looking forward to reading more!

Antoine’s own adventurous life, his knowledge of human nature, his passion for nineteenth-century history and understanding […]