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So my new book is out. It's called THE LITTLE BOOK OF ANXIETY and I am happy and proud. On the other hand, I am also extremely nervous and uptight, which probably isn't surprising given that I'm a highly anxious person, a fact the discerning reader might pick from my book's title. It's one thing to be sitting alone at your computer, tap tap tapping away, sharing...
Only a few weeks ago, I was in the fjords of Cape Nelson on the northeast coast of Papua New Guinea. I always find it a strange experience leaving the village, walking down the peninsular to the bright sheen of the Solomon Sea, looking back at the green drop of the cliffs, cooling off in the water as canoes glide in from the reef, and this time, it was stranger than usual. I’d been there...
Characters in a fantasy novel must be vividly drawn so the reader can build a strong sense of connection with them. A strong fantasy novel has: - A sympathetic, likeable protagonist with fears and failings just like any other human - an intriguing villain that has the potential to surprise the reader - a cast of interesting, funny and tragic minor characters that add humour, romance...
How is it possible that there could exist human filth of Reinhard Heydrich’s type? This is the disturbing question that HHhH, the magnificent book by Laurent Binet, asks us. It’s been at least three decades since I last read a winner of the Prix Goncourt. When I worked at Radio Television France in the ‘70’s, I did it by obligation, since we devoted the program Literature...
And after reading Steampunk why wouldn’t people want to dress up in Steampunk fashion? After all, well-crafted, traditional garments made with care have a certain allure, and when one adds the overlay of techno-wizardry that is so much part of the Steampunk ethos, then a playful, distinctive way of life is on show. Modern Steampunk truly began as a literary sub-genre in the early 1980s....
One of the many challenges of writing a novel set in England during the Second World War is finding something new to say. We’ve all read about Winston Churchill’s stirring speeches, about valiant fighter pilots, and Londoners braving the Blitz, and girls in parachute-silk frocks jitterbugging with GIs. All of these appear in THE FITZOSBORNES AT WAR, the final volume in my Montmaray...
One of the best things about being a writer is you get to spend all day discovering fascinating things about the world and call it research. My most recent book is BITTER GREENS, a retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale interwoven with the dramatic life story of the woman who first wrote the tale, the 17th century French writer Charlotte-Rose de la Force. While researching the motif of hair...
First time author M.L. Stedman was amazed at the unexpected breadth of response to her depiction of her native Western Australia in THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS. She credits the sense of place as a possible reason that the book is already due to be published in around 25 territories. Though I have lived in London for a long time, Western Australia will always be ‘home’ for me. ...
The first question anybody asks a writer is “where did you get the idea from?” Usually, we aren’t entirely sure ourselves. However, with my novel BITTER GREENS I know exactly where and when the idea was first generated. The inspiration reaches far back into my own childhood, back to the time when I was first beginning to walk and talk. I was savagely attacked by...
I was listening to talk-back radio the other day (because I‘m a dunderhead) and I heard yet another fat old bloke bemoan the fact that modern women “want it all”. Well, to be fair, I have no idea if he was fat, how old he was or if he was, in fact, a woman with a very low voice, but we’ve all got to use our imagination, and that’s what mine came up with. My first...
