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What would you do if your marriage ended? Me: Take a chance on Greek Picture the scene, your 20+ years marriage has ended and you’re shell-shocked. You imagined death being the only parting and now you’re suddenly single again, in your forties.  Is it scary? Yes! Did...

Here is a list of five of the best books I read and one film I watched when researching Operation Berlin, my detective novel set in Berlin in 1930.  By ‘best’, I mean most useful, or most entertaining, or both.   The High Sheriff by Henry Wade (1937)  One of my two...

Ribbons of cucumber, gin (can use non-alcoholic if preferred), elderflower cordial and soda water blend to create a refreshing cocktail.  Ingredients 25ml gin 2 ribbons of cucumber 25ml elderflower cordial Juice of 1/2 lime Topped with soda   Method Add cucumber...

Here’s a guide to the wonderful local Breton food and drink you’ll discover in A French Fling for the Golden Gals. Galettes & Crêpes: Savoury buckwheat pancakes (galettes) are often filled with cheese, egg, and ham (galette complète) or sausage (saucisse) followed...

For all of you who love a World War Two saga, here is a little insight into the author’s experiences of writing in this genre. I find it ironic that before I began writing the Great Western Railway Girls saga series, I thought I knew everything about my own family’s...

Yorkshire 1361. Sir Ralph de Mandeville has been appointed one of the first justices of the peace by King Edward iii and he travels bringing law to the villages and hamlets in the wapentakes of Yorkshire. Wapentakes were the administrative divisions of Yorkshire...

AND BREATHE… For the last couple of years, we’ve been living in Storrington, a large West Sussex village at the foot of the South Downs. We are transient, here to sell my late Dad’s house – and it’s a lovely village, with a real sense of heart, but it’s impossible not...

Young Icel is an orphan in the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles, his mother dying when he was born. He knows very little about her, but there are a number of mother-figures in his life. Lady Cynehildis one of them, and she’s the one to spill the beans about the identity of...

Every Saxon-era series needs a book where the primary location is a ship and Storm of Mercia sees Icel and some of his allies on board a Viking ship. And it’s not willingly done. ‘If these bastards think they’ve found strong men to row their ship for them, they might...