Learning to Listen
Several years ago, with the aim of increasing my daily steps, I purchased a monthly audiobook subscription. With my trainers laced up and earbuds in place, I strode down the street listening to Natasha Pulley’s fast-paced fantasy adventure The Watchmaker of Filigree...
The ENGRAVER in Dutch
While I was writing The Engraver, I imagined most of the characters spoke Dutch to one another. The seventeenth-century protagonist Antonia chattered in Dutch to the family maid as they walked to Grotemarkt in the centre of Antwerp. The modern-day protagonist...
Short and Succinct
I have turned to short stories for my reading fix of late. The long dark days of winter and enforced isolation due to the pandemic sees me wandering around my house, completing tasks while listening to stories by Shirley Jackson, Ian McEwan and Elizabeth McCracken. I...
Translated Fiction
Although I can bumble my way through basic Dutch to help with grocery shopping and rudimentary French to order from the menu in a Parisian bistro, I am fluent in only one language. I admire those who easily flit from one language to another in everyday conversation. I...