Blog

People in my books: Janie. “Saying Nothing”.

How would you cope if you were kidnapped?  You are not rich, you are not famous, you are not powerful.  Furthermore, you know nobody who is …. She had always had a kind of romantic notion about Spain and all things Spanish.  She assumed it was because her first little teenage fling had been with […]

Posted 12 years ago

The French language – things you don’t learn in evening class.

Today Eden, who is seven, asked me if it was obligatory to go to the pool. You would never hear this in English. “ C’est obligatoire d’aller a la piscine?” she asked after I suggested I accompany her there. An English child would say “do I have to go?” or perhaps “is it important I […]

Posted 12 years ago

People in my books – the abuelo. A novel set in Spain, “Saying Nothing”.

He was born Jose Felipe Ramirez, the illigitimate son of one Josephina Ramirez who was only fifteen at the time of the birth.  She always maintained that she was raped by a boy in the village, but she refused to name him because, she said, she didn’t want to be forced to marry him.  In […]

Posted 12 years ago

People in my books: Pia. A novel set in Cyprus. About Pia.

“The Man with Green Fingers” by Catherine Broughton. When Pia left University and trained as a teacher, she had no wish but to return to her home in the Troodos mountains.  For a while, as a student, she had befriended a Nicosia girl who wanted to leave Cyprus and teach in England and, although Pia […]

Posted 12 years ago

International accents, learning French; things you won’t learn in evening class

I was staggered one day last winter when in Belize.  I was talking with an American man and a young man from Liverpool.  The Liverpool chap had a very heavy Liverpuddlian accent.  My accent, I’m afraid to say, makes me sound like Princess Anne.  What staggered me is that the American couldn’t hear the difference. […]

Posted 12 years ago

How to avoid arguments & how to deal with arguments. Men and women: Venus and Mars!

I was about to write: my husband and I never argue, but that isn’t really true.  Like all normal human beings we sometimes argue, but it is soon over and done with, it happens rarely, and it is never ever out of hand.  It is also, by the by, usually about his mother! We have […]

Posted 12 years ago

People in my books: Faydu. Paphos, Cyprus.

Faydu had got Stella sussed from an early stage.  He thought it was amusing. In the quiet of his bedroom he whispered to his wife, laughing lightly, trying not to snigger for he was not an unkind man.  To him it was obvious. His wife said she couldn’t see it, she thought he was wrong, […]

Posted 12 years ago

People in my books: Marie-Carmen de la Frontera, Peru & Spain

When they left Peru, Marie-Carmen treated it almost like a game.  She had been hankering after a trip to Europe for some time and, although their departure was sudden, and in the middle of the night, she didn’t take it seriously and didn’t truly imagine they were in any danger. She was accustomed to intrigue. […]

Posted 12 years ago

Scene from one of my books: the Sierra Blanca, Costa del Sol, Spain.

The foothills of the Sierra Blanca were dotted with outcrops of woodland, though mostly it was deserted and rocky – white rocks, hence its name.  Janie knew the area well. She had travelled up the road to Ronda several times, and had frequently picnicked amid the spring flowers in the hills beyond San Pedro. Her […]

Posted 12 years ago

Raising Debbie: I am a powerful woman. An English family living in France.

I have just had this item published on an excellent web site called “I am a Powerful Woman”.   When we looked at Debbie, aged fifteen, going on sixteen, we felt proud.  We had done well.  We had raised her and her two brothers to be independent, kind, caring, self-assured, decent people. Debbie had always […]

Posted 12 years ago

Books now available on Amazon:

A Call From France
French Sand
Kefani: An African Childhood
The Man With Green Fingers
Saying Nothing