I recently read an interview with a writer who said that she far preferred fictional love stories to real life. The longer I live, the more I agree with that sentiment. I guess that’s why some people write, and some people read, and some people do both. And some people are really, really lucky, and [...]
I once had a boyfriend who had a very simplistic philosophy on life. According to him (let’s call him Joe Bloggs), what could anyone want more in life than good food, good wine and good sex? Our relationship did not last long. But although it’s true that Joe was a rather simple sort, he was [...]
I’ve been thinking lately, as we all do. But I’ve been thinking specifically about what makes a great book, as opposed to merely a mediocre book. I won’t bother conjecturing about what makes a bad book, even though lots of those get published as well and sometimes even acclaimed as bestsellers. In my opinion, the [...]
My father once wrote a poem for my mother, before they were married. Although he was Polish, he had an amazing command of the English language, rather like a Joseph Conrad or Vladimir Nabokov. So here are his words of love, sixty years on, in all their time-locked beauty. You asked me how I [...]
I started writing this Blog in November 2017, just after my husband and I split up. How long will the pain last? I remember asking a friend who had been through a similar break-up. “Eighteen months,” was her answer. I remember sucking in my breath. At the time I could barely get through a single day without [...]
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, [...]
Okay … so what do Africa, Jews and sex have in common? Not a great deal, unless you happen to be part of Naomi’s world. Or John Paul’s. (More of them in a minute.) Or have some interest in the Land of a Thousand Hills – a tiny country right in the heart of Africa [...]
