Join me and many other authors for the Authors at the Coast event ...

... in Whitley Bay on November 14th.  Read on for more details ...

A multi-genre book event at a new venue on the north-east coast is coming up, and I am really pleased to say that I will be there.

Having lived in Whitley Bay for a while when I was working at the proper job that I once had before writing took over my life, it will be lovely to go back to that part of the country in my current guise as a scribbler.  I really enjoyed my time up in Whitley Bay when I was last there.  There's something magical about the scenery of that stretch of coastline, and I remember the many walks I took along the seafront after work or at weekends.  From where I was living back then, I had a view of the coast, and there were days when I would drive home and just sit there for a while watching the sunlight on the sea, before grabbing my briefcase and going indoors to get something to eat.

Enough of the reminiscences!  Authors at the Coast will be at Spanish City on Saturday, November 14th from 10.00 am until 4.00 pm.  The event is free for everyone, so please bring your friends and family.  A full list of the authors attending is on the banner below.

I will be there with all of my books.  I will have my seven Jacques Forêt Mysteries with me.  If you would like to chat about France, the Cévennes, the stories, or even Jacques himself, please drop by and say hello.  I will also be able to give you the latest info on the next book in the series.

I will be bringing the three Miss Moonshine anthologies as well.  If you are in need of a feel-good, heart-warming read for the coming festive season, then these collections of gentle stories will be just the ticket.  They might even turn out to be the perfect present for that difficult-to-buy-for great-aunt in your family.

I will also have the four multi-genre collections of short stories that comprise the Seasonal Paths Anthologies.  I work with one American and eight other Canadian authors to put these books together.  Having completed the seasons series, we are now creating stories based around the four elements, and I will have the first of those books with me, too.

There will be lots to see, and even more to talk about if you can make it.  So, please join me and loads of other authors at  Spanish City, Whitley Bay, Tyneside, NE26 1BG

I'm continuing my journey following the Granville-Paris Express ...

  ... and I'm stopping off in Dreux today.  Come and join me ...

The city of Dreux has a population of just over 31,000.  Which seems quite small to us.  But when you consider that between 1954 and 1990 the population more than doubled, you have some measure of this town's exponential growth.  In the heart of the city, you have a core of old historic buildings.  Between and completely surrounding the original confines of the ancient town, you have modern urban dwellings and the results of what must have been a significant housing crisis in the early decades of the mass influx of people into Dreux.

I've driven through this place, and more frequently, driven around it on the bypass hundreds of times.  It's not really a place that I want to come back to.  It's too noisy, too busy, too crowded. Having read Andrew Hussey's book, I can now see that it is a perfect example of the societal and urban fracturing he draws attention to in Fractured France.  The population is multicultural, the hijab is openly worn on the streets, and, despite the ban, I see a group of women wearing burkas strolling on the opposite side of the street.  For a moment I wonder which country I'm actually in.

But I'm here because I want to get to the station to see if the original building, completed and opened on June 15th, 1864, is still intact.  If it is, it will be one of the few along this rail route that has served as a station and is still used as such here in the 21st century.

I'm not disappointed.  The long wings of the first building are still identifiable as they flank the central portion, which houses the station's main entrance and primary foyer.  The solid quadrangular shape of the building was given a more modern facelift in 1932 by the Parisian architect Paul Louis Genuys (1818-1937).  The frontage of the building that we see today, with its sweeping arches, high semi-circular windows and stone pillars, was Genuys' vision and gives the impression that the traveller is entering a vast mansion.  Old photographs and postcards show the station as it was before Genuys worked his magic.  I prefer the current version to the characters' experiences on the Paris Express in 1895.

As I cross the square in front - all part of a remodelling of this area of town in 2017 - with its fountains, I notice a street name that I recognise.  There's another street in Granville - the starting place for our journey - that has the same name: Place Pierre-Semard.

Pierre Semard (1887-1942) was born into a family of rail workers and spent his youth in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne.  At the age of 13, he followed in his father's footsteps and began work on the railway.  During his career, he became a Trade Unionist.  Eventually, he held the post of Secretary General of the Federation of Railway Workers and became the leader of the French Communist Party.  During the occupation, he was imprisoned and eventually executed on March 7th, 1942, as a political prisoner.

I turn to make my way back to the car.  I need the peace, the quiet, the lilting ripple of the stream that flows beside my camping spot.  As I make my way through town, I can not think of a better-placed street name than that outside the station here in Dreux.

You can catch up with the previous posts in this series by clicking the following links: Granville part 1, Granville part 2, Vire, Flers, Briouze, Argentan and Surdon. My review of the book, The Paris Express, is Here

I'm reviewing Fractured France...

 ... by Andrew Hussey on my blog today.  An interesting take on our neighbour across the Channel.  Read on ...

The author of this tome is a journalist, biographer, lecturer and historian of French culture who appears regularly on radio and TV and is definitely the man to consult about twentieth-century France.  He was awarded an OBE in 2011 for his work and writings on France and his services to UK-France cultural relations.  He was appointed Dean of the University of London Institute in Paris in 2006.

So, when I picked this book off the shelf at Waterstones, I was very much aware that I would be reading the work of someone who actually knew what he was talking about.  Born in Liverpool, Hussey now lives in Paris, and his book takes the reader on a journey through the country from the industrial north through to the Mediterranean coast and the multi-cultural city of Marseille.  We see the country in its many guises and experience its cultural changes through the eyes of a man who has lived in, studied, and observed his adopted country over many years.

The book is part memoir, part travel log, and part observation and assessment.  With my well-used map easily to hand, I followed Hussey's journey from city to city.  It was especially interesting to me to read his views on each location.  I also found myself musing on his comments and conclusions, comparing them with my own thoughts and feelings about a country I have spent so much time in.  The fissures he sees in French city society are there in rural France, too.  Perhaps not quite so obviously, but the country is changing and has been for some time.  On revisiting Revin - a small town in le Grand Est - after an absence of ten or so years, the change in the population's composition was very marked.  On market day, the town was full, as expected, but the stalls were much more multi-cultural than traditionally French.  The numerous small individual shops had been depleted by the emergence of the out-of-town supermarkets, and the ethnicity of the local people was significantly more diverse than before.  There was a tension there, too, that I had not felt or witnessed anywhere else... until I went to Marseille a few years later.

Hussey completes his journey in what he calls the 'wicked city' of Marseille before returning to his Paris bolthole.  Marseille is one of the oldest cities in France and perhaps the most multi-cultural.  I believe I once said that, in Marseille, 'you can eat in any one of a hundred different languages'.  Having read Hussey's chapter on this 'wicked city', it is clear that this is still the case.  It was here a few years ago that I came across the Gilets Jaunes and the riot police lining the street I had inadvertently strayed into.  I scarpered quick sharp!  Hussey aptly describes this massive conurbation as a city of 'perpetual comings and goings'.  The vast port area brings in immigrants - some legal, a significant number not - freight, cruise and naval ships.  The quartiers nord, with a population of almost 250,000, is still one of the poorest, most ethnically diverse and most dangerous parts of the city.  It clearly hasn't changed since I was last there.

This book is fascinating, but for those hoping for an easy and joyful read, I think you will be disappointed for the most part.  This is an expose of a changing society across a large country.  Whilst I could identify with some of the fissures highlighted by Hussey, I also mourned some aspects of Frenchness that were on the brink of disappearing.  Regrettably, Hussey offers no solutions, but his keen-eyed observation and assessment still make this a thought-provoking read.

If you enjoyed this review, you might also be interested in my reviews of France on Trial,  The Lost King of France, or The Paris Muse

Please welcome, friend and author, Catherine Brooks ...

... to the blog this week.  Hello Catherine, and thank you for being here today.  It's great to meet you.  So, tell me what is your current release?

CB  The Soldier and the Swan.

AW What first got you into writing and why?

CB  I started reading a book from the "New Releases" section at my local library.  After the first chapter, I remember thinking, that's not what happens.  I put the book down and spent the next few years daydreaming about how the story should have gone.  Eventually, I decided to write it myself.  That became my first novel, though it will probably never be published.

AW You write historical romance; is it all imagination, or do you do research?

CB I do a lot of research, but probably not in the order most people expect.  I usually write the emotional story first and then dive into the historical details.  For The Soldier and the Swan, I researched 1940's San Francisco, ballet, and Swan Lake.  The history gives the story its foundation, but for me it's always the relationships that matter most.

AW Have you tried/dabbled with other genres or writing for other forms of media?

CB My first book was a romantasy.  Creating an entirely new world while learning to write a novel was a challenge.  Looking back, I'm glad I started there because it forced me to learn so much about storytelling.

AW Famous authors such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas had a special space for writing. Do you have a writing shed of your own?

CB I write from the smallest corner of my house on a papasan chair cushion.  The dog thinks it’s a giant dog bed and that’s kind of what it looks like.  I find my children in this corner reading a lot.  It's nothing fancy, but it's comfortable, and apparently everyone in the family agrees.

AW And finally, what would your eight-year-old self think, and say about you and your achievements today?

CB My eight-year-old self is sitting beside my mother at the typewriter, writing a story about a mermaid and a sunken ship.  I don't think she'd be nearly as surprised as my teenage self, who became afraid and started believing she wasn’t good enough.  My eight-year-old self would just shrug, smile, and say, "Figures."

about the book... She gave up the stage for love.

Now the man she married barely looks at her.

A love story inspired by Swan Lake.

San Francisco, 1943: Vivienne Hartley was once San Francisco's most celebrated prima ballerina.  But when her husband, Charlie, returns home wounded from the war, she gives up her dreams to care for him.  The man she married has become a shell of the man she once loved.  As Charlie withdraws further into himself, Vivienne tries to become the wife she believes he needs until she barely recognises herself anymore.

When Charlie's younger brother, Danny, returns home, he sees the woman beneath the caregiver and challenges her to audition for Swan Lake.  As rehearsals begin, Vivienne rediscovers the life she thought she'd buried forever.  But the more she finds herself again, the harder it becomes to ignore the impossible truth.

The only man who truly sees her...is the one she can never have.

about the author...

Catherine Brooks writes novels with love at the centre. As a former ballet dancer, registered nurse, and caregiver, she draws on her own experiences to write stories with emotional honesty. The Soldier and the Swan is her debut novel.

An Arizona native, she lives with her husband and two children, a diva dog, a very hungry tortoise, and a bird named Sprinkles.

You can buy the book on Amazon, Audible, Spotify, and Barnes and Noble

You can follow Catherine on her Amazon Author Page on Facebook and on Instagram

I am very pleased to tell you that a new book ...

 ... is on its way. Read on to find out more ... 

As a member of Doncaster Writers' Group, I've been involved in various discussions about writing stories, and even producing an anthology composed solely of the work of the group members.  Well, I'm very pleased to be able to say that what was once a pipe dream will soon turn into a reality.

We talked through the original idea and developed a plan to keep us all on track.  As is often the case with plans that rely on people giving their time for free in support of the project, real life gets in the way, and sometimes delays are unavoidable.  But what I'm really pleased to be able to say today is that the anthology, The Magic of Danum, will be hitting the streets in the early autumn.  

The collection of stories is set in Doncaster at various times throughout history, the present and the future.  All of the stories have been crafted by members of Doncaster Writers' Group.  Some of those writers are published, some self-published, and some are still chasing a publishing contract or an agent.  But that range of experience brings to the whole piece a mixture of fresh voices alongside the more established.  The variety of the subject matter for the tales is also wide.  Enjoy some time at the races, but beware, ghostly things may happen.  Visit a magical book shop right here in town or spend time with a ghostly grandpa.  If romance is your preferred genre, perhaps a story about finding 'the right one' might be more your cup of tea.  Whatever your reading preference, each of these stories, set in our hometown of Doncaster, can be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike, and the variety of narrative voices means that you could discover a writer new to you who you will continue to follow in the future.

We don't have a publication date agreed yet, but October is looking good.  We do have the cover art, the stories, the foreword, and a book that is almost ready for proofreading and final amendments.  So keep watching this space, and as soon as I know when the book will be available for sale, I will announce it here.  In the meantime, tell your friends and family that a book about Doncaster, set in Doncaster, will be hitting the streets very soon...

If you wish to join the writing group or want to know more about us and the book, check out our Facebook page DoncasterWritersGroup

I'm continuing my journey following the Granville-Paris Express ...

 ... and today I’m calling in at Surdon, an intriguing little place in the middle of nowhere!  Join me as I explore …

If you look at a map, you will see that Surdon is a tiny dot.  Getting there is not straight forward and involves a journey along narrow country roads.

From Argentan I take the D958 in the direction of Sées and cut to the left onto the D240 towards Médavy and onwards to an intersection where I have to rely on the Sat. Nav. to tell me where to take a left as there are no road signs. The roads thus far are flanked by fields, with any habitation being sparse and distant.  I keep going steadily and eventually I come a small, almost hidden, sign indicating the route to the station.  I follow, and as I get closer to the railway lines, I come across parked cars.

The vehicles seem to go on forever, but actually culminate in a large space right next to the rail tracks that is jam-packed full of motors.  I stop and explore on foot.  I cannot believe the quantity of cars in this remote place.  There is nothing here other than the parking area, an old building and a newer one further along the tracks.  Not only that, apart from myself and one gent sat behind the wheel of his Renault, there is no one else here.  I spin around, taking in the acres of cars, the tracks on my right and the complete silence and isolation.  I can’t help but think that this location might be a good place to use in a fictional capacity.  Perhaps I’ll use it as inspiration for the siting of a body in one of my books.  Naturally, I would have to rename it and move it to somewhere in the Cévennes…  But the idea has now formed, and I quickly make a note on my phone.

Ideas for novels put away, I make my way towards the old building.  A red-brick building, very much a mid-nineteenth-century building.  So, the passengers on the Paris Express of October 1895 may have seen this building.  Back then, the station would have been manned, and as I look around the perimeter, I can see evidence of a waiting room, a ticket office, and perhaps a space for the stationmaster, if there was one.

A walk to the other side of the parking area and I find the all-new, hi-tech replacement station. Everything is automated.  There’s a machine to buy tickets, there are up-to-date displays announcing the trains, and the tracks are about 5 deep.

A sudden rumbling in the distance and I’m aware a train is due.  The LED display confirms my suspicions.  Within moments, the modern train races into the station and stops.  Half a dozen people alight and go on with their days.  As I walk back to the car, I see the gentleman in the Renault is collecting a traveller.  His wife, I assume.  But then that idea I had earlier pops back into my head.  By the time I’ve reached the car, I have a whole backstory for a woman who got off a train in a location like this one...

There will be more from my journey following the Granville-Paris Express next month.  

If you enjoyed this post, you can find the previous posts by clicking the links Granville part 1, Granville part 2, Vire, Flers, Briouze, Argentan and my review of the book, The Paris Express, is Here

I'm reviewing The Blood in Winter ...

 ... by Jonathan Healey.  Read on ...

It was another writer's review of this book that captured my attention as I was working my way through my newspaper.  Having now read the book, I'm glad I decided to buy it.  Jonathan Healey is an Associate Professor in social history at Oxford who knows the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries very well.

With a subtitle of A Nation Descends, this excellent book charts the build-up to the English Civil War.  Beginning in late March 1641, we are introduced to Colonel George Goring, a soldier of some repute, who was well known for his camaraderie in the inns of London.  Goring is being cajoled by a friend, a co-conspirator, gambler, and courtier, Sir John Suckling.  Charles Stuart sits on the throne, but his popularity is at a low ebb, and one of the most hated politicians of the time, the Earl of Strafford, is about to go on trial for treason.  Strafford was a favourite of the King.  

Thus, the writer presents the reader with a seemingly convoluted puzzle to consider.  Throughout the rest of the book, Healey uses real people present at the time to tell the story of how England fell into civil war.  The detail from ordinary people's lives at that time is fascinating and varied.  It brings the action to life and offers insight into beliefs and thinking at that time.  I really enjoyed the minor details, and when set against the larger picture of a country on the brink of war, it added to the urgency and impetus for action.

For a history book, the narrative romps along, and the writing is smooth and easily readable.  I found I became drawn into the lives of the people who form the backbone of the events leading up to conflict.  This makes the book look and feel like a novel rather than a dry history.  Not that I've ever considered history to be dry and boring, but I am aware that promoting a book about a piece of English history and calling it that is enough to turn some readers away.  To those readers, I say, 'Don't look away.'  This is a fascinating read about a very important part of our history and well worth the time taken to discover its contents for yourselves.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in my thoughts on The Lost King of France,  The Paris Muse,or,  F is for France