I’m delighted to be part of the launch celebrations for The Uncommon Life of Alfred Warner in Six Days by Juliet Conlin, bringing you a wonderful extract from the book as well as a chance to win your own signed copy.

The Uncommon Life of Alfred Warner in Six Days is published today, 23rd February 2017, by Black and White and is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here and directly from the publisher.

The Uncommon Life of Alfred Warner in Six Days

Approaching 80, frail and alone, a remarkable man makes the journey from his sheltered home in England to Berlin to meet his granddaughter. He has six days left to live and must relate his life story before he dies…

His life has been rich and full. He has witnessed firsthand the rise of the Nazis, experienced heartrending family tragedy, fought in the German army, been interred in a POW camp in Scotland and faced violent persecution in peacetime Britain. But he has also touched many lives, fallen deeply in love, raised a family and survived triumphantly at the limits of human endurance. He carries within him an astonishing family secret that he must share before he dies… a story that will mean someone else’s salvation.

Welcome to the moving, heart-warming and uncommon life of Alfred Warner.

An Extract from The Uncommon Life of Alfred Warner in Six Days

The forest air was warm and drowsy and smelt of dusk and moss. Alfred knew that later on, after sunset, the forest would lose its sluggishness and be transformed into a wondrous strange and busy place, alive with crisp rustles and sporadic skirls: quick sharp movements as prey evaded predator, or else succumbed to claw and beak and tooth. But for now, at the end of a long, hot summer’s day, the forest was listless and quiet. Alfred began to feel sleepy and he closed his eyes.

Then he heard a voice. It was a whisper – hissskkss, shhhhts, psstss – coming from somewhere above him to the left. Alfred had spent enough of his young life in the forest to know that this was no bird or other creature, or any other sound the windless forest could produce. It was a human voice, a woman’s voice. It was too low for him to make out the words, but something in the inflection made him recognise it was a question. A moment later, another voice, slightly to the right. And although this too was a whisper, or perhaps more of a sigh, he could tell that this was a different voice and that it was answering the first. He opened his eyes and lifted his head to the boughs above him. He did this out of curiosity, not because he was afraid, being, developmentally, on the cusp of leaving a world in which hearing voices could still quite easily be reconciled with the stark objective realities of life.

However, with his eyes open, the voices seemed to dim. He shut his eyes again, opening his hearing to its most sensitive, and then:

OF COURSE HE’S NOT AFRAID, ARE YOU, ALFRED?

Alfred fell from his nook and hit the ground hard. He fell, not just because of the loudness and suddenness of the voice, but because he realised at once that the voice had not come from outside, but from inside his head.

Giveaway

For your chance to win one of two signed paperback copies of The Uncommon Life of Alfred Warner in Six Days, click here. Open internationally. Giveaway closes at UK Midnight on Wednesday 1st March 2017.

About Juliet Conlin

Juliet Conlin was born in London and grew up in England and Germany. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Durham. She works as a writer and translator and lives with her husband and four children in Berlin. She writes in both English and German.

You can visit Juliet’s website and follow her on Twitter. There’s also a launch tonight in Edinburgh if you can make it:

There’s more too with these other bloggers:

Earlier this month, to celebrate the launch of The Saturday Secret, Linda Huber was kind enough to provide a guest post for Linda’s Book Bag that you can read here. She also kindly sent me a copy of The Saturday Secret in return for an honest review.

The Saturday Secret was published by Fabrian Books on 15th February 2017 and is available in e-book and paperback here. Profits from The Saturday Secret will be going to charity.

The Saturday Secret

The Saturday Secret and other Stories is a collection of fifteen tales of life, love, and family – perfect for a coffee-break! Previously published in UK national magazines, the stories are about relationships within the family and without – some are humorous, some bittersweet; all are upbeat and emotional.

The Party Partners   Belinda and Phillip have fun at weddings, engagement parties and all sorts of celebrations. But anything more personal was out of the question – or was it?

Family Matters   Gary shares Sharon’s dream of having children – but as far as he’s concerned, it’s something for the future.

Corinna’s Big Day   It was the most important day in baby Corinna’s life, but for Madge, it was one of the saddest…

Lucky for Some   You might say drawing number 13 in the cycle rally was bad luck. You might say falling off was bad luck, too. But Hilary knew better!

Patiently Waiting   Mike woke up after his operation and saw the girl of his dreams. The problem was the engagement ring she wore on a chain round her neck…

The Saturday Secret   What was she up to? The whole family wanted to know! But Gran wasn’t telling…

My Review of The Saturday Secret

The Saturday Secret contains 15 stories that can each be read in under 15 minutes.

What a delightful selection of stories this is. There’s no violence or cynicism, just pure entertainment. Reading The Saturday Secret was rather like slipping into comfortable slippers after a day in heels, or sinking into a blissful bubble bath to ease away the strains of the day and I really enjoyed the read.

I particularly enjoyed the uplifting nature of the stories. Even though each takes only 10 minutes or so to read, Linda Huber manages to introduce realistic and human characters facing tough choices, difficult problems or challenging situations. Given that The Saturday Secret stories were originally written for women’s magazines, it comes as no surprise that each is resolved with a happy ending, but this added to the appeal for me. I had just read a very intense book followed by a very graphic one and these stories were the perfect antidote, being light, entertaining and positive.

I also really appreciated the variety of story. Writing with an effortless grace, Linda Huber conveys both male and female perspectives equally well and covers a huge range of themes from the need for a child in an infertile couple to the impact an animal can make in a life. The reader encounters love in many forms.

With the profits from The Saturday Secret going to charity, the lovely quality of the writing and the entertaining nature of the stories, I heartily recommend The Saturday Secret.

About Linda Huber

Linda grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, but went to work in Switzerland for a year aged twenty-two, and has lived there ever since. Her day jobs have included working as a physiotherapist in hospitals and schools for handicapped children, and teaching English in a medieval castle. Not to mention several years being a full-time mum to two boys and a rescue dog.

Linda’s writing career began in the nineties, and since then she’s had over fifty short stories and articles published, as well as five psychological suspense novels. Her books are set in places she knows well – Cornwall (childhood holidays), The Isle of Arran (teenage summers), Yorkshire (visiting family), as well as Bedford and Manchester (visiting friends).

After spending large chunks of the current decade moving house, she has now settled in a beautiful flat on the banks of Lake Constance in north-east Switzerland, where she’s working on another suspense novel.

You can visit Linda’s web site, find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

Last year I was thrilled when Linda’s Book Bag won the award for the Best Review Blog in the first Bloggers’ Bash Awards and you can read my thoughts about that here.

This year the Annual Bloggers Bash Awards have grown so much that there’s a raft of new elements, one of which is a writing competition with the theme ‘Connections’. Perhaps stupidly, I’ve decided to give it a go!

If you’d like to enter, time is running out as you have until March 1st. More details can be found here.

So, with a knowledge this is very sentimental (but which is based on my parents and the events of last year) with sharp intake of embarrassed breath here’s my effort!

Almost Time

It was almost time.

He looked at her lying there shrunken in the bed and felt sorrowfully glad they’d won the fight to move her to the peace of the hospice away from the clamorous and impersonal ward of the local hospital.

Her thinning hair left a smudge of brown dye on the pillow from a failed last ditch attempt to stay young and cover the downy grey. Once it was a sheen of chestnut. Her skin, wrinkled in lines across her face like the road map of their lives, remained silky and soft to his cautious touch. He wanted so much to touch her one last time. His hand, still large, but gnarled now, navigated the tubes and wires and he brushed the pad of his thumb across her cheek. A precious contact.

It was almost time.

She opened her hazel eyes and looked at him steadily. The fading light in them was still a blazing beacon to him. Sucking in air with effort,  her voice was wispy like smoke although the memory was strong. ‘Do you remember,’ she asked, ‘Our first walk along the brook at dusk. The bats were circling and I was so afraid. You laughed at me and I was cross. Our first tiff on our first walk.’ Her lips curved upwards and his heart soared to see the smile he’d known for almost seventy years.’ I’m not afraid now.’

‘I remember,’ he said, the corners of his eyes crinkling at the recollection. ‘I’d waited weeks to pluck up the courage to ask you to walk out with me and when I finally did you laughed and asked me what took me so long.’

She smiled. ‘We’ve laughed a lot over the years haven’t we?’ But he still noticed the wince of pain that speech caused her. ‘I’ve loved you every minute of our time together.’ With effort she moved her arm and clasped his hand in hers. The connection seared his skin with memory.

It was almost time.

‘And I’ve loved you too.’ He was fighting the urge to weep, not wanting her last memory to be a sad one.

‘I know,’ she told him. ‘I always knew.’ Gazing steadfastly into his eyes she allowed her lids to close slowly. The pain in her face seemed to smooth away and he was aware of a silence in the room. He realised the sound of her wheezing breath had stopped.

It was time.

I’m delighted to welcome Anna Franklin Osborne, author of Walking Wounded to Linda’s Book Bag today in association with Emma Mitchell PR. Anna’s story Walking Wounded hinges around people from her own family and it’s wonderful to find out more about them today.

Walking Wounded is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here. I’m also sharing a link to a giveaway to enter to win one of two signed copied of Walking Wounded.

Walking Wounded

Born at the end of the First World War, a young girl struggles to find her own identity in her big family and is pushed into a stormy marriage through a terrible misunderstanding from which her pride refuses to let her back down. As her own personal world begins to crumble, the foundation of the world around her is shaken as Germany once again declares war and her brothers and young husband sign up with the first wave of volunteers.
Walking Wounded tells the story of those left behind in a Blitz-ravaged London, and of the web of loyalty, guilt and duty that shapes the decisions of the women awaiting the return of their men-folk as the war draws to a close.
Spanning the period from the Armistice of the First World War to the exodus of the Ten Pound Poms to Australia in the 1950s, Walking Wounded is a family saga whose internal violence is mirrored by the world stage upon which it is set.

Creating Character

A Guest Post by Anna Franklin Osborne

Most, but not all of my characters were inspired by family legend and folk lore. Some were real and I knew them very well, some were dead long before I was born and their characteristics were invented by me to ‘fill in the gaps’ which were never talked about within the family.

I loved writing about May but also found it quite traumatic because she was so blind to help herself. I felt she was such a complex person – her main character trait of always believing the best of everyone was also her main downfall. She always gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, always believing that they would ‘come good,’ ironically failing to protect her only child as a result. This refusal to see the truth before her eyes was also aided and abetted by those around her, even her sister wondered if one violent outburst by Jimmy had been provoked by his little girl not being cooperative and loving enough. This collusion in violence intrigued me, and it is interesting to hear the debates on Radio 4 because of last year’s Archer’s story line, discussing how so many people do not see what is happening to their family although the signs are clearly there to be read. It would seem that it is more comfortable to see what we want to see rather than what is actually visible…

I have no further plans for these characters – I have been asked about a sequel but I prefer to start afresh. I love history and want to go back, not forwards!

Most of my reviewers to date have loved Stanley. He was actually my favourite character too – honourable and brave, artistic and sensitive. I wish I had known the real Stanley. The letter he wrote to his wife showed how he had truly reflected on why he was fighting his own war, not just because of any social pressure or being called up, but because of what it had done to his family and country in the past. He needed to see an end.

I mixed truth, rumour and conjecture in this story, and created characters that meant the world to me. I need to get my teeth into my next novel now to get to know some more.

Giveaway

Click here to enter to win one of two signed copies of Walking Wounded by Anna Franklin Osborne. This giveaway is independent from Linda’s Book Bag.

About Anna Franklin Osborne

Anna has always worked in health care, and more recently in education, and like so many other parents, hit a tiny crisis a few years ago when she felt that her purpose in life had narrowed to not an awful lot more than dashing between her two jobs and being a mummy taxi.

She managed to find time to begin singing with a choir, and that helped her feel that she might have a more creative side to herself. One evening, her husband was out and, quite suddenly, she decided to Start Writing.

After several short stories and RSI Anna was walking along a D-Day beach for no other grander reason than her ferry home from France being late, and she began telling her children about her three great-uncles who were part of that day, and her grandmother who sewed parachutes for the paratroopers jumping over Normandy. Anna’s husband looked at her and smiled and said, ‘you do actually have a story there, you know….’

You can follow Anna on Twitter and there’s more with these other bloggers:

I’m delighted to welcome Clare Harvey, author of The English Agent, to Linda’s Book Bag today to celebrate the paperback edition. The English Agent is published by Simon and Schuster and is available for purchase here.

I love both travel and historical fiction so to have a guest post from Clare about how her travels bring her into contact with all manner of people is a real treat.

The English Agent

How far will two women go to survive a war?

Having suffered a traumatic experience in the Blitz, Edie feels utterly disillusioned with life in wartime London. The chance to work with the Secret Operations Executive (SOE) helping the resistance in Paris offers a fresh start. Codenamed ‘Yvette’, she’s parachuted into France and met by the two other members of her SOE cell. Who can she trust?

Back in London, Vera desperately needs to be made a UK citizen to erase the secrets of her past. Working at the foreign office in charge of agents presents an opportunity for blackmail. But when she loses contact with one agent in the field, codenamed Yvette, her loyalties are torn.

Strangers

A Guest Post by Clare Harvey

My husband refers to me as ‘the nutter magnet’ whenever we travel anywhere. Why? Because I’m the one who always gets embroiled in conversations with strangers, the one who chats in the queue to the ladies’ loos or at the bus stop. I have even been known to make eye contact and strike up a bit of banter on the tube (I know, shocking, right?).

I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps it’s a childhood spent moving around (I went to five different primary schools), my misspent youth pulling pints in pubs, my journalism training, or seventeen years as an army wife, being posted to a new home every two years. For whatever reason, I’ve got into the habit of chatting to apparent strangers, who chat back. And then I listen to their stories:

There was the man with the red-rimmed eyes on the plane from Zurich who told me about how his wife didn’t understand his obsession with walking with wolves, and the impact it was having on their relationship. There was the Filipino nurse in the neonatal unit in Bonn who told me that her husband left her because she couldn’t have children, and how every day on the ward with the mums and new-borns was a reminder of her failed marriage. There was the man with the moustache in the waiting room at Derby who was just returning from the first weekend he’d spent with his son in three years – when his marriage broke up his wife had tried to prevent him from seeing his boy and it had taken years worth of legal wrangling to get access. And there was the glamorous woman on the train to Bristol who told me that she’d been packing to leave her abusive and adulterous husband to be reunited with her girlhood sweetheart, when her husband suffered a massive stroke, and she found she couldn’t leave, kissing her dreams goodbye to a combination of guilt and the drudgery of nursing him.

And these are just the few I can remember.

I have never used any of these stories in my fiction, but I value every second of their telling, listening to how voices change as details are recounted, watching expressions flit across faces, shoulders hunch, or eyes well with unshed tears. The tone of voice, body language and sense of internal conflict are all a gift to me as a writer. And I feel privileged that to be given such insights into other people’s lives.

So, whatever my husband says, I’m proud to be a ‘nutter magnet’, even if it had caused the odd awkward moment on the tube…

About Clare Harvey

Clare Harvey was born in Barnstaple in North Devon, and lived there until just after her seventh birthday, when the family uprooted and moved to Mauritius for two years. After living overseas, the family moved back to Englefield Green, in Surrey, and then later back to Devon, where she went to secondary school.

Clare studied Law at the University of Leicester, but chose not to follow a legal path, deciding instead to do voluntary work in Tanzania and hitch-hike from Zanzibar to Cape Town, where she stayed for a year. After her African adventure, she worked for an overseas charity, picked up a journalism qualification, and fell in love with a soldier. Much to her parents’ dismay, a safe career as a solicitor never looked likely!

Clare has had an itinerant adulthood, working as a freelance journalist and English tutor in Nepal, Germany and Northern Ireland, as well as various parts of England, as the trailing spouse of a serving soldier.

Clare’s debut novel The Gunner Girl (Simon & Schuster, October 2015) won the Exeter Novel Prize in 2015 and the 2016 Joan Hessayon Award for romantic fiction.

You can follow Clare on Twitter, find her on Facebook and visit her website.

There’s more with these other bloggers:

I’m delighted to be supporting Emma Mitchell PR in introducing Sue Shepherd, author of Love Them and Leave Them, so that we can find out more about the woman behind the writing. Today, Sue gives an insight into five areas of her life.

Love Them and Leave Them is available for purchase in e-book here. I’m also sharing a link to a giveaway to win one of two e-copies of Love Them and Leave Them.

Love Them and Leave Them

Sometimes you have to leave the one you love … sometimes you’re the one who’s left behind. The new heart-warming and heart-breaking romantic comedy from the No.1 bestselling author of Doesn’t Everyone Have a Secret?

On his way home, Ed makes a split-second decision that changes the lives of all those who love him.

Six years on, Ed’s daughter, Jessie, is stuck in a job with no prospects, her dreams never fulfilled. It will take more than her unreliable boyfriend, Chris, and temperamental best friend, Coco, to give her the confidence to get her life back on track.

But what if Ed had made another decision? It could all have been so different …

Six years on, Ed’s daughter, Jessica, has a successful career, loving boyfriend, Nick, and a keen eye on her dream home. But when new clients, a temperamental Coco, and her unreliable boyfriend, Chris, walk into her life, Jessica’s perfect world soon starts to unravel.

Love Them and Leave Them is a story of love, families, friendship and a world of possibilities. Whichever decision Ed makes, the same people are destined to come into his daughter’s life, sometimes in delightfully different ways. And before they can look forward to the future, they will all have to deal with the mistakes of the past.

Sue Shepherd Author Spotlight

• Years Ago – I recently had a big birthday, and I mean BIG! Turning 50 feels very odd. I can’t possibly be a middle-aged woman, can I? Of course, being this age means that I have many memories. If you say the words ‘years ago’ to me, I’m transported back to somewhere around the 1980s. The music was excellent. I was young, I was slim and I had absolutely no confidence in myself. What a waste! If I had that time again, I’d wear whatever I damn well pleased and I’d be bloody proud of my fit and healthy body (frizzy perm aside). ‘Years ago’ also brings to mind my childhood, a very happy one. Spent with my sister and my wonderful parents. Although neither my mum nor my dad are with us now, I only need to close my eyes to be transported back to our house in Harrow. My childhood was a standard pre-smartphone one. We rode bikes, we played in the street, we went to the park and we were always home by the time it got dark.
• Family – I have a wonderful husband and two teenage sons. All three are immensely proud of my achievements. I’m grateful to my husband for supporting me in the leaner months. Our relationship is the classic – can’t live with him, wouldn’t want to live without him. I love him to bits, but he drives me crazy. You get the idea. I adore my children and do far too much for them, which will mean their future partners will no doubt hate me. Both my boys have vowed never to read any of my books because they contain occasional sex scenes – this decision suits me just fine!
• Work – I’m amazingly lucky that at the moment my job title is full time author. To be able to do the thing you love all day, every day is awesome. However, this is a recent career move, and I had many jobs prior to it. Until 2015, I was a Teaching Assistant in a Primary School, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Before that, I did many years of customer service work on the telephone, which was … let’s say, less enjoyable, but fitted well around my children. If you go back far enough, you’ll find me dressed all in pink, and going by the name of ‘Stinky Pinky’ as a Children’s Party Entertainer in the 90s.
• Hobbies – Until I gave up working at the school, I would always list creative writing as my main hobby. But now it’s my job, so I suppose I need to put something else. Umm … the truth is I’m always writing. I write almost every day and if too much time goes past without me getting to my laptop, I feel deprived. However, I’m not supposed to be talking about writing … so, let’s not forget that I live on a small island, which has glorious beaches and beautiful countryside, therefore I would also list walking our dog, Forrest (named after Mr Gump) as a hobby. Now our sons are older, my husband and I are starting to find that more and more often when we go out for walks on the weekend, it’s just us, so Forrest is very much our constant companion and in many ways, our third child.
• Future – There is one thing that I really hope will happen in my future and I don’t think anyone who knows me in real life will fail to guess it. My husband and I bought a small detached bungalow a couple of years ago, and our plan has always been to knock it down and re-build on the land. It’s an ongoing project which mostly involves watching endless episodes of Grand Designs and The £100K House. My greatest wish is that we can accomplish the build soon and stop living in ‘The Old Lady Bungalow’.

Giveaway

Click here for your chance to win one of two e-copies of Love Them and Leave Them.

About Sue Shepherd

Sue Shepherd writes contemporary romance and enjoys creating novels with heart, laughs and naughtiness. She doesn’t pull any punches when choosing her subjects, but manages to handle her characters’ challenging situations with sensitivity and humour. Her debut novel, Doesn’t Everyone Have a Secret? was published by Corazon Books in March 2015. It reached the top 10 UK Kindle chart, and also topped the romantic comedy, contemporary romance and humour charts. It became available in paperback on Amazon in November 2015.

Sue’s second novel, Love Them and Leave Them, was published in September 2016.

Sue lives on the picturesque Isle of Wight with her husband, two sons and a standard poodle. Her passions in life are: her family, writing, the sea-side and all the beautiful purple things her sons have bought her over the years. Ask Sue to plan too far in advance and you’ll give her the heebie-jeebies and she’d prefer you not to mention Christmas until at least November!

You can follow Sue on Twitter and visit her website. You’ll find Sue on Facebook and there’s more with these other bloggers too:

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed The Other Half of My Heart by Stephanie Butland, my review of which you can read here, I’m delighted to be helping to reveal the cover of the latest book from Stephanie, Lost for Words. I’m also apologising for accidentally scheduling this post a week early last week!

Stephanie was previously kind enough to feature on Linda’s Book Bag telling me about how her writing has evolved and you can read that guest post here.

Lost for Words will be published by Bonnier Zaffre in April 2017 in e-book and paperback and is available for pre-order here.

Lost for Words

You can trust a book to keep your secret . . .

Loveday Cardew prefers books to people. If you look closely, you might glimpse the first lines of the novels she loves most tattooed on her skin. But there are things she’ll never show you.

Fifteen years ago Loveday lost all she knew and loved in one unspeakable night. Now, she finds refuge in the unique little York bookshop where she works.

Everything is about to change for Loveday. Someone knows about her past. Someone is trying to send her a message. And she can’t hide any longer.

ABOUT STEPHANIE BUTLAND

Stephanie Butland lives in Northumberland, close to the place where she grew up. She writes in a studio at the bottom of her garden, and loves being close to the sea. She’s thriving after cancer.

You can follow Stephanie on Twitter, find her on Facebook and visit her website.

Having previously really enjoyed Four Weddings and a Fiasco, my review of which you can read here,  I’m very pleased to be taking part in the cover reveal for The Secrets  of Ivy Garden by Catherine Ferguson.

The Secrets  of Ivy Garden will be published by Maze, an imprint of Harper Collins on 3rd April 2017 and is available for pre-order in e-book here.

The Secrets  of Ivy Garden

When Holly breaks up with her boyfriend Dean, she’s at a loss as to what to do next. But things go from bad to worse when her beloved grandmother Ivy dies – and Holly is left in charge of sorting out Ivy’s house and garden. As she sorts through her grandmother’s belongings and makes her way through the wilderness outside, Holly soon finds that there is more to Ivy than meets the eye, and uncovers a surprising family secret that changes everything…

This is a heart-warming and hilarious story from Catherine Ferguson about starting over, learning to garden and most of all learning to love.

About Catherine Ferguson

Catherine Ferguson burst onto the writing scene at the age of nine, anonymously penning a weekly magazine for her five-year-old brother (mysteriously titled the ‘Willy’ comic) and fooling him completely by posting it through the letterbox every Thursday.

Catherine’s continuing love of writing saw her study English at Dundee University and spend her twenties writing for various teenage magazines including Jackie and Blue Jeans and meeting pop stars. She worked as Fiction Editor at Patches magazine (little sister to Jackie) before getting serious and becoming a sub-editor on the Dundee Courier & Advertiser. Moving south in her thirties, she set up Surrey Organics, delivering fresh organic produce to people’s homes – and this experience provided the inspiration for her first attempt at writing a full-length novel.

Catherine’s first novel Humbug and Heartstrings is very loosely based on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and is a clever, modern tale about the price of friendship, the cost of enmity, and the value of love. She lives with her son in Northumberland.

You can follow Catherine on Twitter.

It’s difficult to convey how excited I am to welcome Dinah Jefferies, author of Before the Rains to Linda’s Book Bag today as part of the book’s launch celebrations. I love Dinah’s writing and you can read my review of The Tea Planter’s Wife here and of The Silk Merchant’s Daughter here. I’m still to read Before the Rains as I want to savour it when I have time to immerse myself completely.

Before the Rains will be published by Penguin on 23rd February 2017 and is available for purchase in e-book and hardback from all good booksellers as well as here.

Before the Rains

1930, Rajputana, India. Since her husband’s death, 28-year-old photojournalist Eliza’s only companion has been her camera. When the British Government send her to an Indian princely state to photograph the royal family, she’s determined to make a name for herself.

But when Eliza arrives at the palace she meets Jay, the Prince’s handsome, brooding brother. While Eliza awakens Jay to the poverty of his people, he awakens her to the injustices of British rule. Soon Jay and Eliza find they have more in common than they think. But their families – and society – think otherwise. Eventually they will have to make a choice between doing what’s expected, or following their hearts. . .

An Interview with Dinah Jefferies

Photographs kindly provided by the author

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Dinah. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing and your latest novel Before the Rains in particular. Firstly, please could you tell me a little about yourself?

Well I live in Gloucestershire with my husband and our Norfolk Terrier, Teddy, and not far from family which is lovely. I’m very family oriented and love nothing more than going on holiday with everyone. Kids keep you young I reckon. I enjoy reading and I love to travel too.

Without spoiling the plot, please could you tell us a bit about Before the Rains?

This book is an unashamed love story set in Rajasthan India, which is the most gloriously romantic place I’ve ever been – India’s hilltop forts and ornate palaces were magical and I hope to go back. But, as is usual with my books, there is an edge. When Eliza, a photojournalist, is sent to a Princely state to photograph the royal family she’s determined to make a name for herself. But when she arrives at the palace she meets, Jay, The Prince’s handsome brooding brother. She is enchanted by him and by India but can’t ignore the shocking poverty she sees around her, nor the plight of women. Gradually she awakens to the injustices of British rule too and must find her way in this alien world. The bond between Eliza and Jay is powerful and they have much in common, but their families and society have different ideas and she is left with heart-breaking choices.

Which aspects of your writing do you find easiest and most difficult?

I find the first draft the hardest part and I enjoy the editing the most. Anything is better than staring at a blank page. Mind you the whole thing is a juggling act. By the time you’re doing the publicity for one book you’re already writing the next and it’s hard sometimes to remember where you are.

What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?

I write in the mornings in my lovely new garden room. I’ve only had it for a few months and it still feels such a luxury. In the afternoons I walk the dog, do any chores and see to emails and such like. I’ll edit a little and maybe plan the next chapters. I don’t work in the evenings as I run out of energy.

The tragic death of your son at an early age has been a catalyst for your writing. Is writing a cathartic experience for you?

It isn’t cathartic but I do think the loss does inform my writing. It’s a part of who I am, so it’s a part of my work, and there is usually some kind of loss lurking at the heart of my stories.

You were born in Malaya. How far has this impacted on your choice of settings for your books as I know it influenced The Separation?

It has hugely impacted on my choice of settings. It’s as if I keep going back to the East in search of something I lost when we moved to England. Now my publisher keeps suggesting even more far flung places. It’s very exciting.

How do you go about researching detail and ensuring your books are realistic?

I read massively and I watch as many films and videos as I can. Youtube can be very useful. I try to build a picture of a time and place by making endless notes until I feel as if I had actually been there at the time in question. Going to the country helps so much with detail and atmosphere. For example who knew the palaces walls were once actually studded with rubies and the like, some as large as a child’s fist. Now it’s coloured glass of course.

When I see your research travels I’m always very jealous. Which comes first – the travel and then an idea for a book or the idea and then the travel to research it?

With The Tea Planter’s Wife I had already written the first draft when I went to Sri Lanka, so I knew exactly what I was looking for while I was there and that helped enormously. But I went to Vietnam before I’d even started The Silk Merchant’s Daughter so that was very different. I guess what I’m saying is that it can be either way. I had started Before The Rains before I went to India but going there helped clarify my ideas and gave form to the hazy imaginings in my mind.

What’s your essential author travel kit when you’re travelling and researching?

Lots of notebooks, pens and my camera. Most importantly I seek out books while I’m there that I’d never have found if I hadn’t visited the country. For Before the Rains I went to Rajasthan where I found an amazing book about Indian beauty regimes which inspired a chapter of the story when Eliza is taken in hand by the concubines.

All your books feature strong women. How important is it for you to give an historical voice to women?

I am fascinated by how much changed for women during the Twentieth Century and I do enjoy going back in time to give a voice to women at different times from our own. We have come a long way in terms of women’s rights but it wasn’t always the case. I value what the past can teach us.

How do you create your characters?

First I have an idea for a character and their story and then I jot down rough notes until I can actually see him or her in my mind. During the next stage of planning I write a character synopsis for each main character based on my jottings. Usually my characters develop even further as I’m writing the first draft and I learn more about who they are.

When I read your books (and I notice Before the Rains is no different) I always get a sense of social or political injustice exposed. Is this a deliberate or incidental feature of your writing?

It’s deliberate as I think it’s important to set my stories in a social and political context in order to anchor them firmly at a particular time. It helps to create the mood and mindsets of the period.

There’s often a theme of secrecy and identity in your books. Does this reflect your own search for identity or a more general view of how society functions?

I think it reflects my own search for identity. I spent my early childhood in Malaya, and it was home to me. I felt it was where I belonged so coming to England at the age of nine left me with a sense of not fitting in. Malaya had been so warm, colourful and seductive but Worcestershire in February couldn’t have been more different. It was cold and smelt of coal smoke.

In Before the Rains, the protagonist Eliza is a photojournalist. How far does this reflect one of your own passions?

Actually it’s one of my husband’s passions and so I picked his brain rather a lot on this.

So, if you hadn’t become an author, what would you have done instead as a creative outlet?

Before I started writing I was a painter but I hurt my shoulder and couldn’t easily paint the large abstract landscapes I liked to make. Now I paint with words and love to create visual and sensory impact in that way.

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

Well, for example, I’ve just finished The Essex Serpent which I loved and I do get sent quite a number of proofs to look at and quote for too. But I have wide ranging reading tastes and love to get lost in an engaging novel.

I adore all the covers for your books. How has that style come about?

I’m happy to say that the style of the covers is entirely down to Penguin’s design team. They came up with the look and continue to develop it. I get asked for feedback but so far I’ve been delighted by what they’ve done.

If you could choose to be a character from Before the Rains, who would you be and why?

I would be Eliza because I would love to have seen Rajasthan back in the day before tourism. And also I think Jay is gorgeous and exactly my cup of tea!

And finally, Dinah, if you had 15 words to persuade a reader that Before the Rains should be their next read, what would you say?

Sink into a complex love story set in the vast deserts and fabulous palaces of Rajasthan. Sorry Linda it’s 16!

As I love your writing, I’ll let you off! Thank you so much for your time in answering my questions Dinah.

About Dinah Jefferies

Dinah was born in Malaya and moved to England at the age of nine. In 1985, the sudden death of her fourteen year old son changed the course of her life, and deeply influenced her writing. Dinah drew on that experience, and on her own childhood spent in Malaya during the 1950s to write her debut novel, The Separation.

Now living in Gloucestershire with her husband and their Norfolk terrier, she spends her days writing, with time off with her grandchildren.

You can follow Dinah Jefferies on Twitter and visit her web site. You’ll also find Dinah on Facebook.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

I so loved How To Find Your First Husband by Rosie Blake, my review of which you can read here, that I can’t thank Atlantic Books enough for a copy of How To Get A (Love) Life in return for an honest review. How To Get A (Love) Life is published in e-book and paperback by Corvus, an imprint of Atlantic, and is available for purchase here.

How To Get A (Love) Life

Nicola Brown doesn’t like to lose control. Her flat is always meticulously tidy and her weekly meals carefully planned; Nicola keeps her life in order.

When her carefree colleague Caroline challenges Nicola to find a date for Valentine’s Day, it’s a surprise to them both when Nicola agrees. As Nicola’s search for a man begins, she is thrown in at the deep end – sometimes quite literally – of the dating scene. From men more likely to sell their mother than open their wallet, to those who are determined to find a girlfriend who shares their passion for extreme sports, Nicola has to run the full gamut of dodgy dates.

But as the deadline looms closer, Nicola realises it isn’t so bad to lose control. It turns out that trying to get a love life can be rather a lot of fun…

My Review of How To Get A (Love) Life

Nicola Brown is a control freak and that means not only is her flat pristine, but so are her emotions – she doesn’t let them get away from her. Perhaps she should.

What a hugely entertaining read How To Get A (Love) Life is. I enjoyed every word. Rosie Blake has the skill of producing a light, delightful read that also manages to be intelligently written so that it is effortless to immerse yourself in and escape reality for a while. I’ve said before that I rarely laugh aloud at books marketed as funny, but I certainly did with this read. It is such a fun book and I found Rosie Blake articulated exactly the kind of thoughts I often have.

I thought How To Get A (Love) Life was really deftly plotted. Many of the incidents are simple parts of everyday life that any reader can relate to, but that are presented with such humour and incisive observation of the familiar that they appear fresh and new. I loved the overall cyclical structure too as well as the ‘adverts’ which were highly amusing. i had fun trying to work out the significance of the box numbers too!

The characters are so good. Whilst Nicola is understandably the most finely drawn, the secondary characters add real layers of amusement whilst highlighting Nicola’s personality further. It took me a while to warm to Nicola completely and again I think this is a strength of the writing. She’s so uptight to begin with that the reader relaxes with her as the story progresses. Her brother Mark is just wonderful with his bat obsession and as for James, I think I was rather in love with him from the first moment!

Behind what is essentially chick-lit, are also some important messages indicated by the brackets in the title. It isn’t just Nicola’s love life that needs attention. Life is short and can so easily pass us by. We do need to ‘get out there’, as Nicola tries to do, and enjoy every moment. Reading How To Get A (Love) Life is one of those enjoyments and I really recommend it. Rosie Blake is becoming an author I know I can rely on to give me a thoroughly feel-good read. Smashing stuff!

About Rosie Blake

Rosie is an author of comic commercial fiction. She spent her university years writing pantomimes based on old classics (highlight: ‘Harry Potter: The Musical’) and went on to write short stories and features for a range of publications including Cosmopolitan,The Lady, Sunday People, Best and Reveal magazines. She worked in television as a presenter on both live and pre-recorded shows in Bristol and London.

Rosie likes baked items, taking long walks by the river and speaking about herself in the third person. Her greatest ambition in life is to become Julia Roberts’s best friend.

You can follow Rosie Blake on Twitter and visit her web site. You’ll find her on Facebook too.