As the whole world is settling into lockdowns and social distancing, I couldn’t help but wonder how some of my favourite fictional characters are handling the Coronavirus crisis. Would they obey social distancing rules, or dismiss it as an overreaction? Help others, or stockpile loo roll? Who better to ask, than the authors themselves… How […]
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Cover story: A Cotswold Family Life
A Cotswold Family Life is my sort-of-memoir; a compilation of columns I wrote for Cotswold Life magazine for nearly a decade. It’s a beautifully published book, with some lovely reviews, and I was allowed to read the audiobook, which I loved doing. (My children listen to it when I’m away from home, which is a […]
My 2019
As each year draws to a close, I like to reflect on what I’ve achieved, both in my personal life and my professional one. Amid the chaos of Christmas, it’s easy to feel out of control, and I find it grounding to look at each month in turn, and remember what it felt like at […]
Writing with other authors: The Understudy
The Understudy – a book I collaboratively wrote with three other authors – is out now, and my timeline is full of the same question: what’s it like writing with other authors? There are many successful writing duos (try Nicci French and Ambrose Parry, for starters) but add another couple of writers into the mix and […]
How do writers procrastinate?
With a book deadline looming it’s highly likely you’ll find me hunched for hours in the same position, feverishly working on… defrosting the freezer. Or weeding the veg beds. Or, frankly, anything other than what I’m supposed to be doing. If procrastination is the thief of time, I’m constantly complicit in the crime. When I […]
Behind the scenes: creating a cover for After the End
This is a guest post from Laura Barrett, the talented illustrator who helped make the cover for After the End so beautiful. Creating a cover for After the End I was delighted to be commissioned by Little, Brown to illustrate the covers of two of Clare Mackintosh’s books and then equally thrilled when Clare asked […]