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Happy New Year, everyone!
I’m so looking forward to 2011. It’s a very special year for Jane Austen fans as it’s 200 years since her first publication – Sense and Sensibility – and I’ll be doing my bit to celebrate this. In June, I’ll be speaking at the Worcester Literary Festival and, in July, I’ll be giving a talk at Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton.
I’ll also be kept busy with publications. The Perfect Hero comes out at the end of April in the UK. It’s my second novel about Jane Austen addicts and is set in Lyme Regis. This will also be the first year that I’ll be published in the US with A Weekend with Mr Darcy coming out in July and Dreaming of Mr Darcy (the US title for The Perfect Hero) coming out in October. Very exciting!
And, on the home front, we should be rescuing our ex-battery chickens soon. They should be arriving any day now …
Oh, and a house move is on the horizon too. At long last, we are swapping the London suburbs for a more rural setting: beautiful Wiltshire!
Continue reading 2011 – bring it on! »
One of the fun things about writing a novel is the research and the Jane Austen trilogy I’m currently writing is proving great fun. In April, I had a trip to Lyme Regis where I spent a week really getting to know the setting of the second book. I’ve been to Lyme before and love it but it’s quite a different experience to go there when you have a novel in mind. And we now seem to be hooked on visiting because we’ve just been back again. I got lots of writing done but hubby struggled with his painting because it was the windiest week ever! Still, it was good fossil hunting weather and we headed to Monmouth Beach in search of ammonites.
And we had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Carol Drinkwater whilst she was on tour for her latest book, Return to the Olive Farm. I adore Carol’s books. She writes beautifully and passionately about life on her farm in the south of France.
There was also a quick day trip to Bath which is the setting of my third Austen addicts book. Molly and I took a walk up Lyncombe Hill – a walk Jane Austen would have known well. The views across the countryside were beautiful and we then descended back into town to enjoy a sit down in a peaceful square by the abbey.
But this month hasn’t been all about research. There’ve been parties too! My dear writer pal, Janet Gover, had a party to celebrate the launch of her new book, Girl Racers. Janet and her partner are leaving for New York City in a few weeks so this was also a chance to say farewell. But what they didn’t tell us was that there was yet another reason to celebrate: they’d just got married the day before!
Here I am sandwiched between the happy couple, Kelvin and lovely writer friends, Julie Cohen, Jean Fullerton and Henriette Gyland.
Continue reading Living the novel »
We’ve just returned from a wonderful week in Lyme Regis. This was a special research trip for my current novel – The Illustrated Darcy - the second in my series about Jane Austen addicts. We were staying in an apartment on the harbour front and had our very own view of the famous Cobb.
My novel centres around a new film production of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and it was fun to explore the settings of previous film adaptations. Here I am on the very steps that Austen’s characters would have descended as well as the lovely Rupert Penry-Jones who played Captain Wentworth in the most recent adaptation.
Lyme is rich in literary history and, if you want to find out more, book yourself on a tour with the wonderful Literary Lyme.
It was a real treat to be able to walk along the Undercliff each morning and to follow the River Lim to Uplyme. The bluebells were just beginning to open and there were primroses and violets along the paths and – everywhere – the incredible smell of wild garlic.
One of my favourite places to walk is Stonebarrow. The sheltered footpaths above the sea always remind me of a Rosamunde Pilcher novel.
Here I am at Stonebarrow with my trusty copy of Persuasion. Alas, I didn’t meet any Captain Wentworths in Dorset but I had plenty to write about my own wonderful heroes.
And I even managed to do some writing on the beach at Charmouth. It’s always great to write in situ but it was absolutely freezing. I really did suffer for my art that afternoon! Still, I got my scene.
And no trip to West Dorset would be complete without a visit to the Donkey Sanctuary where you can get up close and personal to the residents! I dropped by their wonderful shop to let them know that the sanctuary has a special place in my romantic comedy Molly’s Millions.
Here’s me with the gorgeous Little Pippa.
There was, however, one distraction with being based in Lyme and that was the proximity of some very nice shops! Book shops, boutiques and bakers were a particular weakness and one boutique I fell in love with was Frills which is definitely worth a visit if you want to find something a bit special and – if you go – look out for my books as they’re going to stock some lovely holiday reads soon!
If you’d like to see some of my hubby’s beautiful paintings from the trip, visit his blog here. I love those lasers!
Continue reading Lyme Regis »