A Long Way From Warsaw is a novel that tells the story of Poland in World War II through the eyes and experiences of the fictional Nowak family living in Warsaw. I’m interested in the way that ordinary people are forced into extraordinary circumstances when confronted with traumatic events, such as war. Although the family in my story is fictional, what happens to them happened to many such people in Poland during this turbulent time.Continue Reading
A Research Trip to Poland
One of the perks of my job is travelling for research purposes – at least that’s my excuse! My current work-in-progress is a novel set in Poland during World War Two, so in January I booked a trip to Poland, going via Berlin and returning via Dresden. I was so excited! And then the pandemic struck…Continue Reading
Writing Goodbye to Budapest
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
Behind the Iron Curtain
The inspiration for the novel I’m currently working on, Oranges for Christmas, came from my first visit to Berlin in 1987. I was 19 and studying French and German at Oxford and I arranged to visit a friend in West Berlin over the summer. In those days there were two Germanies: West Germany with its capital in Bonn, and East Germany with its capital in East Berlin, although the East Germans simply called their half of Berlin, “Berlin.”Continue Reading