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Before I Knew You...
‘Before I Knew You’ was originally published by Penguin (Michael Joseph) in 2011. The idea for the book began with the appealing notion of its structure – two families swapping houses across the Atlantic – and then returning to their respective lives subtly altered by the experience. I saw it as a Venn diagram, two separate worlds with a sliver of an overlap in the middle. Authors love structure…
How the Harrisons Began
I started work on ‘Relative Love’ in 2002, with little notion of what I wanted to achieve other than a story told from the multiple viewpoints of a single family. It would take place over the course of a year – twelve chapters, one for each month – and the narrative would jump from viewpoint to viewpoint. I thought that would be interesting enough – the dense, tightly threaded rush-hour of multi…
On Revisiting THE LOVE CHILD
Revising a backlist novel for republication is an interesting and often unsettling exercise. The story holds true – a good story always does – but you encounter a greener version of your writing self, a version that sometimes strikes off-notes, or misses irresistible insights. To have had the opportunity to tighten and iron out such youthful mis-steps, making the narrative both stronger and more…
LIFE BEGINS...
Revisiting my novel, ‘Life Begins’ was a shock. Originally published sixteen years ago by Penguin, I thought I remembered my protagonist, Charlotte Turner, pretty well: newly single, about to turn 40, with a sensitive young son and antipathy towards her ex, full of regrets about a life that had veered off course. Cue mid-life crisis… The shock, a pleasurable one, was how much more there was both…
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