Musings
Welcome to my Musings
My Musings are for readers, writers and those who love the magic of words. You’ll find snippets on a variety of topics: inspirational places and people, suggestions for readers, tips for writers, my journey as a writer, insights into my books, special previews.
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...
When Fact Becomes Fiction
I was recently interviewed by a journalist about the release of my historical thriller The Engraver. The Dutch edition of De Graveur spins the tale of famous Baroque painter Rubens, his chief...
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...
Pumpkin Pies and Sensory Immersion
Whenever I smell freshly grated nutmeg, my mind takes me to the kitchen of my childhood home. My dad and I stand side-by-side with our sleeves rolled up, wearing aprons: he mixes canned pumpkin with...
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...
Embracing Failure
Writer Samuel Beckett coined the phrase “Fail again. Fail better” in his penultimate novella Worstward Ho in 1983. It became the mantra for individuals, entrepreneurs and writers around the world,...
What I'm Reading
November/December 2022
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
The Tea Lords by Hella Haasse
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler
The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth Hickey
The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
The Flames by Sophie Haydock
The World of Yesterday: Memoirs of a European by Stefan Zweig
September/October 2022
Heat Wave by Penelope Lively
The Book of Form & Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
Summer by Edith Wharton
The Europeans by Henry James
The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee
Haven by Emma Donoghue
So Big by Edna Ferber
The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith
July/August 2022
The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge
The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
How It All Began by Penelope Lively
The Undertaking by Audrey Magee
May/June 2022
The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
The Curlew’s Eye by Karen Manton
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
Sell Us the Rope by Stephen May
March/April 2022
A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson
Matrix by Lauren Groff
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
January/February 2022
The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson
Address Unknown by K. Kressmann Taylor
The Assistant by Kjell Ola Dahl
Still Life by Sarah Winman
The White Book by Han Kang
The Artificial Silk Girl by Irmgard Keun
A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville
The Hiding Game by Naomi Wood
Widowland by C. J. Carey
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
What I read in 2021
November/December 2021
The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen
The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler
Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
Mrs England by Stacey Halls
The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce
Gigi and The Cat by Colette
September/October 2021
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans
No Honour by Awais Khan
The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
July/August 2021
The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
Orkney by Amy Sackville
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Force of Nature by Jane Harper
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Painter by Will Davenport
May/June 2021
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak
The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré
The Didomenico Fragment by Amor Towles
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce
Markievicz: A Most Outrageous Rebel by Lindie Naughton
March/April 2021
Love is Blind by William Boyd
The Unforgetting by Rose Black
Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
January/February 2021
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
The Man Within by Graham Greene
The Break by Marian Keyes
Vox by Christina Dalcher
The Telling by Jo Baker
Dear Mr M by Herman Koch
Snow Blind by Ragnar Jónasson
What I read in 2020
November/December 2020
The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin
The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley
The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud
September/October 2020
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
Pew by Catherine Lacey
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
The Susan Effect by Peter Høeg
The Good People by Hannah Kent
The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
July/August 2020
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
The Foundling by Stacey Halls
A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier
The Dark Circle by Linda Grant
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
May/June 2020
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Lie With Me by Philippe Besson
March/April 2020
Out of Egypt by André Aciman
The Carer by Deborah Moggach
The Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Nutshell by Ian McEwan
January/February 2020
When All is Said by Anne Griffin
A History of the World in 21 Women by Jenni Murray
Happiness for Humans by P Z Reizin
The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty
The Magus by John Fowles
Mrs Dalloway by Virgina Woolf
What I read in 2019
November/December 2019
Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene
Midnight Blue by Simone van Vlugt
Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls
Longbourn by Jo Baker
The Christmas Hirelings by Mary Braddon
A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg
September/October 2019
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal
Our Friends in Berlin by Anthony Quinn
The Innocents by Francesca Segal
The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
July/August 2019
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
The Familiars by Stacey Halls
After the Party by Cressida Connolly
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
This Must be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
May/June 2019
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting
Stronger Than Skin by Stephen May
Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle