Blog

The inspiration for writing ‘The Midwives’ War’ came to me in a rather unexpected way. I was rooting in a box of family memorabilia when I came across my father’s Royal Air Force Service and Release Book. In WW2 he served as a leading aircraftsman, much of his time...

I’m a West Country girl, from Somerset, not Devon but I have to admit Dartmouth is possibly my favourite place in the world. It’s one of those places that once you discover it, you keep wanting to return. I met my husband there, we lived there for the first few years...

Before writing mystery novels, I was a philosophy professor. In my day job, a lot of my research focused on women’s issues. These days, I use some of that same research in my novels. All the novels in my three mystery series (Jessica James Mysteries, Pet Detective...

Sturdy semi-detached and terraced houses were constructed in the period between the First and Second World Wars to fulfil the promise of the title – Homes for Heroes. The council house had arrived. Large estates sprang up on the outskirts of large cities – my own home...

I love writing. I have a magnetic relationship with it – if there’s a pen or a laptop, I can’t leave it alone: I’m drawn to it. If I’m not writing, I’m thinking about writing. I have a lot of creative energy and if I didn’t have novels to write, I can’t imagine the...

This month Boldwood Books celebrates its fourth birthday, and I am one of the authors fortunate enough to have been with them since day one. Over the past four years, we have published fourteen books together - and with many more to come, it’s nice to look back to...

Why Siena?  Book number four in the Armstrong and Oscar mystery series Is set in the beautiful Tuscan city of Siena. For many years back in the Middle Ages, Siena was more important and wealthier than its neighbour Florence, until the arrival of the Black Death in...

When I dreamed up St Bride’s School, the setting for my Gemma Lamb Cozy Mystery series, I was drawing not only on my experience of working at a girls’ boarding school, but also on my love of the various boarding school stories I read as a child. While my Gemma Lamb...