I first started reading about the Hungarian Uprising in 2013 and I very quickly decided that this was a great subject for a novel. The Cold War period, an oppressive Communist regime, Soviet tanks, a brutal Secret Police, and ordinary people rising up in their quest for freedom. What was not to like? (From a novelist’s perspective at least.)Continue Reading
My Top Reads of 2018
2018 has been a good reading year for me. I seem to have read around 67 books and there were only a tiny handful that I didn’t finish. Here are some of my highlights of the year.Continue Reading
Author Interview with Clare Flynn
Today I’m delighted to welcome historical author Clare Flynn to the blog.
Clare writes historical fiction with a strong sense of time and place and compelling characters. Her books often deal with characters who are displaced – forced out of their comfortable lives and familiar surroundings. She is a graduate of Manchester University where she read English Language and Literature.
Born in Liverpool, she is the eldest of five children. After a career in international marketing, working on brands from nappies to tinned tuna and living in Paris, Milan, Brussels and Sydney, she ran her own consulting business for 15 years and now lives in Eastbourne where she writes full-time – and can look out of her window and see the sea.
When not writing and reading, Clare loves to paint with watercolours and grabs any available opportunity to travel – sometimes under the guise of research.Continue Reading
The House of Terror
On a recent trip to Budapest for a friend’s wedding we visited the House of Terror at 60 Andrássy Avenue.Continue Reading