"In her memory there had always been a lot of sunshine, the unfolding bracken fronds were more golden than green, there were broad clearings where the insects buzzed and the birds flitted in a special sort of honey-coloured light: lakes of luminescence in which every bee and every butterfly became a pinpoint of light as it swam there. And there were pools and rivulets and alleys and tunnels of sunshine going between the trees; and there were great banks of flowers in their seasons, bluebell and bedstraw, wood sorrel and foxglove, and woodruff that smelt as sweet as hay. What... Continue reading

I've just finished reading James Runcie's The Great Passion, a beautiful, sensitive novel about JS Bach and the writing of the St Matthew Passion. It’s a touching domestic portrait of genius, and a book about love, loss, coming to terms with life, and the infinite power of music to console, uplift, and express what words cannot. A few lines which caught my eye: 'He speaks in music. Always remember that about musicians. German is not their first language. Music is.' 'The organ carries the confidence and authority of God himself.' 'Sometimes I look at people and wonder what key they... Continue reading

I was interested to see that the King’s Coronation invitation - a wonderfully fresh and floriferous design by Andrew Jamieson - incorporated a Green Man. A face peering through a wreath of leaves or sprouting vines or branches is commonly found in churches, and thought to represent spring, regeneration, rebirth, revitalising energy, and connection to nature, among other things. The working title of my novel The Tapestry Garden / Mrs Eloises zauberhafter Garten was The Green Man as his symbolism reflects elements of the plot, and various foliate headed iterations of the archetype act as a running motif through the... Continue reading

I've been having fun making a Pinterest board with images which I think give a flavour of my novel The Tapestry Garden (Mrs. Eloises zauberhafter Garten). The pictures are either direct inspiration for elements of the book or are somehow representative of its locations, characters and period setting. Above is Asthall Manor, once home to the Mitfords, very much what I had in mind for Eloise's house, Priors Ford, in the Cotswolds village of Winterborne Parva. Continue reading

My novel is published in Germany today. It's a gentle, nostalgic story set in 1936, featuring the foremost children's author of her day, and the restoration of a garden. It's about hidden beauty, second chances, and finding your voice, and I hope it gives as much pleasure to readers as the writing of it gave to its author! Continue reading

"... that second week the poet's eyed narcissus disappeared out of the long grass at the edge of the zigzag path, and wild gladiolus, slender and rose-coloured, came in their stead, white pinks bloomed in the borders, filling the whole place with their smoky-sweet smell, and a bush nobody had noticed burst into glory and fragrance, and it was a purple lilac bush. Such a jumble of spring and summer was not to be believed in, except by those who dwelt in those gardens. Everything seemed to be out together, all the things crowded into one month which in England... Continue reading

Click to look more closely at this beautiful design for the Coronation invitations, artwork by Andrew Jamieson. Continue reading

Here is the shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction: These Days by Lucy Caldwell The Geometer Lobachevsky by Adrian Duncan Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane Ancestry by Simon Mawer I Am Not Your Eve by Devika Ponnambalam Details of all the books can be found on the longlist. Continue reading

After swithering a bit over what to read next, I eventually plumped for an old favourite - Elizabeth von Arnim's The Enchanted April. If you're not familiar with it I urge you to find a copy and read it before the month is out. As you'll see from this post, it's a real delight! Continue reading