Readers
Welcome to my Musings for Readers
If you enjoy reading, you’ll find snippets about my favourite books and authors, insights into my own work, special previews and news.
Architectural Gems: Past and Present
…the tarnished nameplate fixed to the wall: Begijnhof Sint-Catharine. Passing a gatehouse, they emerge into a large courtyard. Brick buildings on all sides rise three-storeys high, each façade...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Subtle Art of Symbolism
While reading Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, I was intrigued by her repeated use of colour as a way of adding richer context to the courageous story of former slaves in post-Civil War Cincinnati. It...
Dual Narratives
Dual narratives have always fascinated me: transitioning from one character or time period to another, an intriguing juxtaposition of language, idiom, objects and customs that describes two distinct...
Book Club Chatter
Book clubs are the go-to places for readers to spend time with fellow enthusiasts, discover new literary voices, step outside their comfort zones and read something they would never normally...
Cultural Diversity
I have a perpetually long list of fiction books I want to read. Within days of leaving a bookshop with a bundle of newly purchased novels, I’m adding more novels to my wish list. Whenever the short...