Self-harm, heartache or toothache – which is worse?

Self-harm, heartache or toothache – which is worse?

I’ve just come back home from a minor operation, and the memory of the surgeon’s knife cutting through flesh, sinews and bones has set my brain neurons hurtling all asunder. Of course I didn’t feel any pain during the actual operation itself, thanks to the sweet liberation of anesthesia. But the very mention of the [...]

African Mr Darcy meets Jewish sex shop worker – love at first sight?

African Mr Darcy meets Jewish sex shop worker – love at first sight?

Extract from ONCE UPON A THOUSAND HILLS.  Tense interview between sex shop worker Naomi Lieberman and Rwandan Director of a London refugee centre.   I step inside the room, closing the door behind me. “Hello, I’m –” And suddenly, I stop. I’m lost for words. Even though only two words need follow. “Naomi Lieberman?” I nod. [...]

Forget the Maldives – come to Rwanda!

Forget the Maldives – come to Rwanda!

If you hear the name Rwanda, most people will either: associate it with the mountain gorilla; recall the appalling genocide of 1994 that swept across the country with devastating speed, claiming a million lives in the process; ask you: “Rwanda? Who’s that?” (which is precisely what a young shop assistant said when I enquired about [...]

Sex, Lies and Genocide – dangerous premise for a novel?

Sex, Lies and Genocide – dangerous premise for a novel?

For the last two years I have been writing, re-writing, changing the title, re-writing yet again, and at last finalising my latest novel, which was inspired by my trip to Rwanda in October 2016. In a nutshell, Once Upon a Thousand Hills is a very modern love story that blends a risky cocktail of sex, [...]