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.
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,...
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...
Nothing Wasted
When I completed the first draft of The Engraver, I honestly believed it was pretty good. My brash opinion lasted only a few days. After I climbed down from my pedestal, I looked at the manuscript...
Inspiration: Far and Wide
I’m fascinated by the endless ways in which artists – whether musicians, painters, photographers, graphic designers, but especially writers – find inspiration. ‘If you want to be a writer,’ said...
The Muse
When I visited a Frida Kahlo exhibition several years ago, I was struck by her revelation about the inspiration behind her art. ‘I am my own muse,’ she explained. ‘I am the subject I know best. The...
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...
Flashlight Under the Covers
I’ve always been a voracious reader, ever since I discovered the magic of Charlotte’s Web, The Borrowers, Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. Just one more chapter, I’d say to my parents when...
What I'm Reading
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
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
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