The Golden Era of Gatsby

This post can now be found on the new TripFiction website here

VENICE under the watchful eyes of Guido Brunetti and Donna Leon

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

One of the authors who inspired us set up TripFiction was, of course, Donna Leon. One of the most long-standing authors to use location as a character in its own right, she brings the "feel" of Venice to the page through her descriptive prose. She is, in fact American by birth but has lived in, and observed Venice for the past 25 years. She has written well over 20 books featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, who tackles crime across the Laguna.

We would love it if you would talk to us and our wider community about which particular Donna Leon novels would feature at the top of your personal list - where should a first time Donna Leon reader start? Which is your personal favourite? Inevitably some of the books are just that much better than others, and knowing which ones to pick up can be a really daunting task. So, please help your fellow readers, both actual and armchair, by leaving a review on the TripFiction website and/or using the Comments Box below to share your favourites. Imagine, there might be one clear favourite but without your help we don't know which one that would be.....!

We set the ball rolling by reviewing the Donna Leon novel we have read most recently - A Sea of Troubles, her 10th Brunetti novel.  

This book is largely set on the fishing island of Pellestrina, and Commissario Brunetti is tasked with resolving the murder of two fisherman, a father and son. The former is universally disliked, the latter is truly mourned.

The writing is as languorous as the lapping waves along the canals, the food on Brunetti's table is delicious as only Venetian food can be, and the detecting is interspersed with the odd glass of Prosecco or Vin Santo. Bonsuan, the police pilot, navigates the waterways as Brunetti shuttles back and forth between the islands, perhaps past the island of San Servolo, gliding past Santa Maria delle Grazie and San Clemente and on to Saca Sessola. Paola, his ever supportive wife, is always in the background, voicing her thoughts, keeping his conscience, getting him to think things through carefully and providing sustenance (both emotional and via food). Reading Donna Leon, for us, is not overly challenging, but brings Venice to life and feels as comfortable as a well worn pair of shoes. “Donna Leon’s engaging books have been the cheapest way to travel to Italy for quite some time…” (amazon)

Ann Reddy  - regular contributor to the TF site - reviews our second Donna Leon novel, number 17 in the series, The Girl of His Dreams

"I picked this book to review because it is set in beautiful Venice. I have visited this city many times and feel that I know it quite well, that is as a tourist. 

The Girl of His Dreams is one of a series of crime books featuring the detective Guido Brunetti. It has a story running through about a religious sect. A priest, who also has an interesting past, is concerned that the charismatic sect leader is persuading people to part with their money and even sell their homes. 

The title of the story does not start until about a third of the  way in, when the body of a young girl is pulled out of the Grand Canal. Here starts the investigation into what? A murder? A robbery? An accident? The girl with the fair hair is from the gypsy encampment on the mainland. Here you get an understanding of the nomadic way of life and how they try to live outside the rules.

Brunetti is a compassionate character who despite 'orders' wants to find out what happened to the little girl. I am not familiar with the Brunetti character and this book did not really give me much more depth to him. Perhaps if I had read this series of books in order I would feel I knew him better. 

You will recognise the names of Venice and I could picture the vaporetti on the Grand Canal. The Girl of His Dreams gives you a glimpse of living in Venice and the fact that Brunetti does not like driving, reminds you of the magical waterways. 

A personal view, I would recommend that if you have not read any of Donna Leon's series of Brunetti crime books that you start at the first. I struggled to really connect with the characters and it was a slow start. However, I did picture beautiful Venice which brought back wonderful memories of my many holidays there".

All our Venice set novels can be found here

Share with us your favourite Donna Leon in the Comments Box below and let's see which one comes overall top!

Gardening themed novels inspired by Chelsea Flower Show

"It is difficult to imagine life without the Chelsea Flower Show; it seems strange that it has only been around for 100 years." (Bunny Guinness The Sunday Telegraph 21.4.13) And here's an interesting fact about this year's show: it is the first year that garden gnomes will be exhibited! To celebrate this centenary we have called on the help from the lovely members over at Mumsnet (particular  thanks to TunipTheVegedude,  NuhichNuhaymuh, DuchessofMalfi, Clawdy, Colyngbourne, Yousankmybattleship, LatinforTelly, Piprabbit and UndineSpragg) - who are mines of information when it comes to reading - and we have brought together a selection of novels that will inspire any gardener to ditch their trowels and pick up a novel.

Check out our collection on Pinterest and many books that are evocative of location on our website

Anne Cater chooses her favourite novels set in GREECE

Anne Cater is a regular contributor to the TripFiction site and in this post she shares her love of Greece. She reviews The Island and The Thread, both by Victoria Hislop

You can find this post on the new TripFiction website here

Number Seven Rue de Grenelle, PARIS

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery set in Paris
This post now appears on the new TripFiction website here

"The Art of Leaving" A portrait of LONDON and so much more

We are really pleased to welcome Sandra Tena to the Tripfiction Team, born in Durango, Mexico, but currently citizen of the world, doing a master in Creative Writing in at the University of Newcastle, UK.  She was finalist in Voces sin Fronteras II in Canada and in Cada loco con su tema in Mexico, and thus published in the corresponding anthologies of both contests.  Her first novel, La Sombra Detrás, can be found in Amazon Kindle. She also has a collection of short stories waiting for publication. As of now in Newcastle, besides having the time of her life, she is working on her first novel in English, Iar, which is to be the first of a five-part fantasy saga for young adults titled Pentacle, and putting together her first collection of short stories in English.  When she is not writing she is reading everything humanly possible given the shortness of each day, hanging out with amazing friends from all over the world, watching T.V. shows and movies that make her laugh and think, and missing her cats and the people she adores from across the ocean. 

There are three things that must be said about Anna Stothard’s latest brilliant creation, The Art of Leaving: first, as I picked the book out of the love I feel for London I think it’s fair that I begin with my insight of Anna’s masterful portrayal of the wondrous city in her novel.  The rushing adrenaline of the city’s hurried way of life, the greatness of the historical streets, buildings and landmarks, the anonymity of the population, the tiny or sometimes not so tiny portals that go unnoticed every now and then, the intimacy of the walks under the rain or through the parks or inside the uncountable buildings…  it’s all there, sitting in black ink and white paper, looking up at you as if the city was reading you instead of you reading about the city, trying to capture your reactions to the descriptions of places from known to unknown, from idyllic to stale, from open to hidden, and so forth.  But there is also an aspect of London that jumps at you from the beginning: the feeling that you can belong in London, that no matter your background or personal history, London wipes that slate clean for you, or at least helps you find your rightful place in the world.  London, in the end, is London, a place where life goes on and the world keeps turning no matter what goes on in your life and you don’t have to rush to keep up, but instead it allows you to take a step back and reassess.  Eva walks a large part of the city in the book, and at each step she takes we’re right there with her, seeing what she sees, knowing the city through her eyes.  And very much also through Regina’s, as the eagle flies above and beyond, and sets foot (or claws) here and there and expects us to look at her in wonder much like the population of London does in the book.

Second, the depth and meticulousness in which Anna has developed her characters is impressive.  Eva, Luke, Grace and even Regina perform a dance in which they slowly reveal their hidden traits, real motives and darkest secrets, making The Art of Leaving a really hard book to put down.  The way Anna slowly untangles her characters is delightful, down to the point of awakening in yours truly a desire to reach out to them, to know what will become of them, to be with them till the end.  The thorough detail of the writing depicts the surrounding and the way it resonates within Eva in a most poetic manner: from the busy London Streets to the cramped Echo Books to what each character wears or how their hair, eyes or hands look; it made me feel for Eva, try to understand her and wonder about her at the same time, want to unravel her as I read.

And third, the way Anna delivers Eva’s wild imagination to us is magical, how Eva wanders in and out of her daydreams and hangs on to the memory of her grandmother at the same time is simply beautiful.  We are taken to a world in which the impossible becomes a part of Eva; where she can feel herself, safe and true; and where fluffy bunny rabbits and flowers speak of her wishes louder than she does in real life.  The constant mention of books, movies and stories allows this second world to exist in an almost tangible manner in Eva’s life and her relationship with Luke and Grace. The moment when her two worlds collide and she is forced to make a decision we are taken behind her mirror, and we see the truth that was hidden from us all along, and we understand that from there it could easily go both ways… and we are grateful for her imagination and her pursue and her truth… and we call out to her, urging her to never stop.

Anna Stothard is also the author of The Pink Hotel set in Los Angeles.

Thank you for visiting today, from Sandra and the TripFiction Team. To find our more about The Art of Leaving, click on the cover; and to find more books set in and evocative of London click here

Novels to capture the feel of Britain's coastline

In our researches we have come across many wonderful novels that are set around the coastline of Britain, so we thought we would bring some of them together to make an eclectic mix (no mean feat, we can tell you!); some are well known, some are less so and we ask you to contribute your favourite reads via the Comments Box below - let's build a comprehensive list of writing that brings the British seaside to life. Click on the covers to find out more. Here goes and in no particular order:



The Fortnight in September by R C Sheriff tells the story of the journey from 22 Corunna Road in Dulwich by train, via Clapham Junction, to the south coast, two weeks living in lodgings and going to the beach every day. This is the story of one family's holiday on the coast in Britain, in Bognor Regis. "A delightful and evocative book..."



The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles has to feature. This icon of storytelling is the story of Sarah Woodruff, the woman of the title, also known as the "Tragedy”. She lives in the coastal town of Lyme Regis, as a disgraced woman, supposedly abandoned by a French naval officer named Varguennes, who was married, unknown to her, to another woman. Sarah is reputed to have had an affair with him before he returned to France. Charles Smithson develops a strong curiosity for her, they build up a rapport and he supports her move to Exeter. Having, eventually made love, he realises that, in fact, she is still a virgin..... A novel set in Lyme Regis and Exeter. "A classic of its time..."


For novels set in Cornwall there was a huge choice! I am sure you will have your favourites, so please do introduce others to your top novels set there that evoke location. The Long Weekend by Veronica Henry is set in a gorgeous quay-side hotel in Cornwall, and the long weekend  of the title is only just beginning... Claire Marlowe owns 'The Townhouse by the Sea' with Luca, the hotel's charismatic chef. She ensures everything runs smoothly - until an unexpected arrival checks in and turns her whole world upside down. "beautiful views, traditional beaches, and a busy old fashioned resort town - think Padstow or Fowey."


In Rook by Jane Rusbridge, Nora has come home to the Sussex coast where, every dawn, she runs along the creek path to the sea. In the half-light, fragments of cello music crash around in her mind, but she casts them out - it's more than a year since she performed in public. In the village of Bosham the future is invading. A charming young documentary maker has arrived to shoot a film about King Cnut and his cherished but illegitimate daughter, whose body is buried under the flagstones of the local church. "A mesmerising story of family, legacy and turning back the tides, Rook beautifully evokes the shifting Sussex sands, and the rich seam of history lying just beneath them".

A Cottage by the Sea by Carole Matthews brings us to Pembrokeshire in Wales, a novel that bowls along as though carried on a warm wind off the Atlantic Coast (yes, it can be warm in Wales). Friends Grace and Flick bring their partners for a week's holiday at Cwtch Cottage (prounounced Cutch Cottage), where they join Art and their third friend in the group, Ella, who owns the cottage. Set right on the coast, it is in an idyllic location and, as Grace remarks "this has to be one of the loveliest places on the whole earth: miles of golden sand.....".

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - It is July 1962, Dorset. Edward and Florence, young innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their private fears of the wedding night to come...  "A fine book, homing in with devastating precision on a kind of Englishness which McEwan understands better than any other living writer, the Englishness of deceit, evasion, repression and regret..."







The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch transports the reader to dilapidated stone cottage by the sea, somewhere in England, where Charles Arrowby is in search of peace and tranquillity. He hopes to escape from his tumultuous love affairs but unexpectedly bumps into his childhood sweetheart and sets his heart on destroying her marriage. His equilibrium is further disturbed when his friends all decide to come and keep him company and Charles finds his seaside idyll severely threatened by his obsessions.



Brighton Belle by Sara Sheridan truly evokes the town of the 1950s. With the excitement of the war over and the Nazis brought to justice at Nuremberg, Mirabelle Bevan (retired Secret Service) thinks her skills are no longer required. After the death of her lover she moves to the seaside to put the past behind her and takes a job as a secretary at a debt collection agency run by the charismatic Big Ben McGuigan. But when confronted by the case of Romana Laszlo, a pregnant Hungarian refugee, Mirabelle discovers that her specialist knowledge is vital. With enthusiastic assistance from the pretty insurance clerk down the corridor, Vesta Churchill, Mirabelle follows a mysterious trail of gold sovereigns, betting scams and corpses to a dark corner of Austerity Britain where the forces of evil remain alive and well.


Brighton Rock by Graham Greene tells the story of a young leader of one of the infamous razor gangs in 1930s Brighton who murders a journalist and then finds that his attempts to avoid any possibility of arrest lead him into ever-increasing complications and violence. The book captures the greyness of England, it is violent, Pinky is a truly vile character, believably delineated.







Being Dead by Jim Crace - Zoologists, Jospeh and Celice, return to the fictional beach in England, where they first made love more than thirty years before. But this visit comes with a very high price. The couple are brutally and senselessly murdered on this strip of beach by a psychopath killer. Their deaths come at the beginning of the book and are the very incident upon which all others turn.

The Bookseller of Kabul - A Guest Review

The Bookseller of Kabul  by Åsne Seierstad

The review can now be found on the new TripFiction site here

The backpacker book collection - novel suggestions and so much more...

The Plain of Jars in Lao - photo courtesy allpointseast.com

WE HAVE MOVED THIS POST OVER TO PINTEREST> Click here And for more #literarywanderlust pop over to the  TripFiction website

Dark Deeds over Dinner - Novel set in Amsterdam

From the world of the Golden Age of Dutch painting we have been inspired to commission a sketch - in the traditional format of Dutch 17th century art but with a modern twist (note the trainers and the lobster) - inspired by the story of The Dinner by Herman Koch, set of course in Amsterdam. We were largely driven for this particular blogpost by our interest in why the cover for The Dinner changed from a lobster on a blue background in the original edition to a pair of adolescent trainers with just a hint of blood, also on a blue background in the current edition.... so we posed the question to Atlantic, the publishers:

“The cover of The Dinner by Herman Koch has changed from a red lobster on a blue background to a pair of battered shoes, again against a blue background in the current edition. Can you take us through the thinking behind the changes?”



Courtesy Artnet.com

"The lobster jacket came from the original Dutch publication which was a huge bestseller in Europe. It is a strong, striking, unusual image that we wanted to use on the first outing for recognition and acknowledgement of the European success. It proved to be quite a ‘marmite’ cover with some people loving its originality and others being put off by a book with an ‘overpriced crustacean’ on the front. And many eagle-eyed readers noticed there was no lobster on the menu…

So after much discussion in house we decided to make the paperback cover more accessible, more pertinent to the story and more serviceable for the ‘literary thriller’ market. The moral dilemma of the story is the element that has got so many people intrigued by this book and the teenage trainers, with a disturbing hint of blood, seemed to sum up the point in the story when everything starts to unravel (not wanting to give anything away!) We also wanted to allow a lot of space in the design for the amazing reviews the book received. You’ll see on the print edition they cover the inside front and back too. Our Art Director showed us some fantastic options, but we felt that this slightly provocative design with it’s notable absence of people, contrast between title and image and strong, almost single colour, would appeal to readers who might have been put off by the lobster, but who relish good books with a dark side. We hope you like it!"


Click on the current cover featuring the trainers to find out more and purchase your own copy. Visit the other contributors
on this tour which marks the publication of this fantastically dark novel by clicking on the following links:

@wordsofmercury  @stujallen


(A piece of interesting info: Herman Koch's surname means "cook" in German...can we read anything into that, I wonder?).

Thank you for visiting today from Tina and the TripFiction Team.

Secrecy and Perfume in Florence and France

Secrecy by Rupert Thomson set in Florence.  Our post can now be found on the new TripFiction website, here

Our Guest Blogger reviews "The Parisian's Return" by Julia Stagg, set in the French Pyrenees

We are pleased to welcome Jacqui Brown as our guest blogger, who is a real authority on the French way of life. She is a wife, Mother, animal lover, and a tries-her-best vegetable grower & home cook, living the French village dream since 2004. She is still in love with France, addicted to reading and reviewing books set in France and sharing her family's adventures on her blog http://www.frenchvillagediaries.com

A perfect French moment

"A great read for me was the second book set in the Pyrenean village of Fogas,The Parisian's Return by Julia Stagg. This book continues on immediately where L'Auberge finishes. I liked that it did this; firstly as all my favourite characters are still there and secondly because there was so much more I wanted to know about life in the village. It is all change in Fogas as the focus shifts off Paul and Lorna (the owners of the auberge) and almost immediately we meet a new character ‘Le Parisian’ and to say things don’t go to plan for him straight away is a bit of an understatement. His presence is not initially welcome, especially as he wants to make changes. Change is often difficult to accept and especially so when it happens in the heart of the village at the bar/epicerie. It takes the locals some getting used to, although little by little he gains their respect. Things are also changing for Stephanie, as she tries to get her new business off the ground, but with the distractions of a bit of love interest and a few mysterious happenings, things don’t go to plan for her either. The other new character makes a much more understated entrance into the village, but is no less integral to the story.
I found there to be a greater sense of community in this book than in the first, with less 'political' bickering (which I know to be a common element in French Village Life). There is a real pulling together, especially at the end when there is drama and a real danger threatens the safety of some of them. French village life may not have the excitement of city life, but there is never a dull moment in Julia's village. I can't wait to get back to Fogas and read book three The French Postmistress is available now. Same village, same characters but someone else's story to be told".


You can follow Jacqui on Twitter @loubille

Thank you to Jacqui for sharing her review on TripFiction. Click here to see all our books set in, and evocative of France and Click on the cover and links to find out more about the individual books. Share with us your all-time favourite reads that evoke France, there are soooo many out there!

 

Historical Fiction from Nagasaki to Plymouth

This post can now be found on the new TripFiction website here




The Gilded Fan by Christina Courtenay

Juju*, guilt and so much more in West Africa. Meet the couple behind the travels....

"West Africa  is nobody's idea of a dream holiday destination"

This post + author Q&A is on the new TripFiction website, here

"The Promise" set in Galveston & reviewed for TF by Anne Cater

We invited top book reviewer and blogger Anne Cater to share a guestpost on our blog and are very pleased she accepted our invitation. Anne is based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, married, and has two cats Costa and Nero. She has worked extensively in the voluntary sector and is an avid reader, devouring up to 12 books per month. She travels regularly to Greece and in her photo you can see her hard at work (is that Ouzo in that glass?) on one of her visits to Greece. Her favourite Greek resort is a tiny village called Arillas on the North West coast of Corfu and she has also visited Rhodes, Crete, Kos, Paxos, Lefkas, Zante, Kefalonia and Cyprus.

She has also shared her all-time favourite reads with us today and we feature them all at TF, because, not only are they top reads, they also brilliantly evoke location:

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee (set in Alabama)

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (set in Kabul/Herat)

Chocolat - Joanne Harris (set in France)

The Lollipop Shoes - Joanne Harris (set in Paris)

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield (set in England)

The Shadow of the Wind - Carols Ruiz Zafon (set in Barcelona)

The Island - Victoria Hislop (set on Spinalonga, Greece)

The Promise by Ann Weisgarber set in Galveston

I read Ann Weisgarber's first novel The Personal History of Rachel Dupree way back in March 2009 and thought it was really stunning. It went on to be short listed for the Orange Award for New Writers and was on the long list for the Orange Prize UK.

It was with some trepidation that I started to read her second book, The Promise. I wondered how she was going to write something as evocative as her first novel. I started reading The Promise on the train down to London and I finished it during my return journey. I hardly raised my head once as I was sucked into this intensely moving, sometimes very challenging, but wonderfully easy to read story. I felt as though I had been whisked off to Texas in the early 1900s and once, when I glanced out of the train window, I was actually shocked to see the fields covered in snow - this story really does suck the reader in, and very quickly.

Once again Ann Weisgarber has created a story that centres around extremely strong female characters. Catherine Wainwright, who has fled her home-town in the wake of scandal and Nan Ogden; a down-to-earth, honest farm girl who lives on the outskirts of Galveston. When Catherine realises that she can no longer hold her head up in her home town, she orchestrates a marriage proposal from Oscar Williams. Oscar moved out to Galveston to become a dairy farmer and has recently been widowed and left with a four-year-old son Andre, to care for. Nan Ogden promised Oscar's wife that she would care for Andre. Nan and Catherine are as different as chalk and cheese, yet underneath they are both very strong women, and both struggle against the rules of society.

Life in Galveston is hard for Catherine, the town-folk have never met anyone like her. She bewitches the men and the women suspect her. Nan struggles with her feelings for Oscar, her loyalties to his first wife and her feelings that no one will ever love her. They struggle on together, and it is only when a terrible storm hits the small town that they are tested to their limits.

The characters in The Promise are developed so well, they grow with the story - their flaws and their failings are not glossed over, these are real people, drawn beautifully. The sense of place is what stands out the most for me - the heat, the smells, the sights and the sounds of this bleak and desolate part of Texas. The description of the terror and havoc that the storm brings is vivid.

Galveston really did suffer terribly during the storm of 1900, this is an event that I had no knowledge of and have discovered that although this is a fictional story, some of the people and the places really did exist. This storm was far worse than Hurricane Katrina and ripped the heart out of this small community, killing in the region of 6000 people.

I enjoyed every single page of The Promise, I liked it even more than Rachel Dupree. Ann Weisgarber has proved to me that she is an incredibly talented author whose stories are going from strength to strength.

Click on the cover to find out more and to purchase. 

Anne started her blog http://randomthingsthroughmyletterbox.blogspot.co.uk/ a couple of years ago with the intention of using it as a place where she could remember her favourite books.  It has really snowballed from then and now she gets review requests on a weekly basis, both from authors and publishers. She is part of the Pan Macmillan Readers Group Panel, meeting 4 times per year to discuss newly released books and to put together the Reading Group Guides and Notes for the paperback editions. Follow Anne on Twitter @annecater

Anne will be sharing her top reads set in Greece soon

MOROCCO: "Piece by piece the camel enters the couscous" - Review and author interview with Lawrence Osborne

Where to start with this sumptuously descriptive novel dripping with lusciousness and foreboding? The background setting of Morocco is an intrinsic character that fluently comes to life through Lawrence Osborne's writing. Whether it is the landscape, the characters, the ambient temperature, the fossils or the people - both local Moroccans and Westerners whose lifestyles and values pit themselves against each other - everything is bathed in a terracotta hot red, set against the desert and mountains of the country. The food is richly described from the McVitie's crackers slathered with majoun (a mix of kif, dried fruits, nuts and sometimes fig jam) to the couscous "sweetened with sugar and lines of melted cinammon" to "almond breewats" all washed down with Santenay and Tempier Rose.

Jo and David Henniger are motoring down to the ksour, owned by Dally Rogers Margolin and his partner Richard Galloway at Azna, with the prospect of a weekend of hedonism with the rich and powerful from around Europe and America, billed as "the best party East of Marrakech". It is a dark night, the road gives off its accumulated daytime heat, the stark shadows rise up against the mountains. Suddenly, David, with a high level of alcohol in his blood, hits one of two locals, Driss, and kills him on the spot. His companion Ismael heads for the hills as the Hennigers step out of the car to assess the damage.The story expands from there as the cultures of the party people from Europe and America, and the indingenous peoples, the Berbers, weave an unforgiving path. The impact of the tragic incident reverberates into the hedonistic thrum of the party weekend, and forgiveness and revenge vie with each other, as the individuals all respond in their own unique way to events.

The author clearly knows the country really well and the research peppers the pages of the novel. We learn, for example. that fossil mining is a huge industry in the country and each tribe deals in different and specific fossil-types - only the black market dealers cross the lines. For now, though, enough of our eulogies, and over to the author himself for a few words:

TF The book brings the rugged countryside and people of Morocco to life.  A really red burning, hot and brooding sense comes through your writing. You clearly know the country very well, how has that come about? 

LO I began traveling to Morocco many years ago, spending winters alone in a place called Essaouira. It's still place I love and that I go back to. When I was younger I used to like taking buses all over the country, it was a way of being alone for weeks on end during spells of unhappiness. Then, later, I made some trips into the deep desert to collect fossils at Jbel Izzomour and Alnif, places that are far off the road maps, and the solitude came to be of a different order. On one trip I went to Erfoud with a French girlfriend and for weeks we argued and fought during endless sandstorms and, I think, the first seeds of the novel were implanted. 
TF What was you inspiration for the gripping and black storyline of The Forgiven? 

LO It was a story told to me by my then-agent Emma Parry during lunch one day in New York. It was, apparently, true. I changed a few things, of course, and created my own ending and themes....but when I heard it I thought "But I know those places from years ago." I had never written anything about Morocco, not even a travel piece. I never wanted to do any travel writing about it - it meant too much to me. But the story immediately resonated with me. I never hesitated, I started writing it that night. 

     TF You clearly show how two cultures struggle to live side by side – the Westerners bring moral standards that are very different from those of the indigenous people in Morocco. How smoothly do the cultures co-exist in practice?  

      LO I see that the Washington Post has just published a map showing the most and least welcoming countries on earth and Morocco is rated as the third most welcoming. Very well. But there is more to it than that. There is suspicion and distance too and I think two cultures will rarely lie down side by side easily. I live in Thailand, which was also rated high in the Post piece, but Thai attitudes to westerners are not simple either. When you live in a place for a while you see that the apparent harmonies are often just expediencies that can easily decline into paranoia and defensiveness, not to mention exploitation. 

TF Nicholas Lezard describes you as “a master of the high style” when he refers to your book: The Wet and The Dry: A Drinker’s Journey. We very much enjoyed your writing style in The Forgiven. How did you initially come to writing? 

     LO I have been working as a journalist since I was very young and writing non-fiction books, but apart from a novel that was published when I was 27 I would say I came rather late to fiction...there was a long gap but I was struggling with the form all the time, largely unsuccessfully. It doesn't come easily to me. I had to rewrite The Forgiven over a period of several years before it was accepted by anyone. It took so long because I needed to work out my own prose attitude and style dealing with the things I wanted to explore - the relations between men and women, for one thing, and the way landscapes create story and character, the relation between western personality and non-western - a theme that fascinates me. I knew what I wanted to explore, and the simple elegance and suppleness I needed, but I didn't have the means to do it. I am not sure I do have it now, but it seems to be crystallizing. 

     TF What are you working on now?

LO Hogarth have just bought another novel called "The Ballad of a Small Player," about gamblers in the casinos of Macau. It's quite autobiographical, but it's adapted from a Chinese ghost story. I've also just finished a collection of short stories, several of which are being published this year in magazines in the United States. 

A big thank you to Lawrence Osborne for answering our questions. And if you happen to know what "piece by piece the camel enters the couscous" means, do let us know in the Comments Box (oh, and let us know of other terrific novels you have read that are set in Morocco, we'd love to hear from you!) "Ar Tufat" from Tina and the TripFiction Team.

"Cobblestony old Europe" in Luxembourg (the e-book version)

The Expats by Chris Pavone, thriller set in Luxembourg.
This post can now be found on the new TripFiction website here

Time out on Tilos, Greece

This post can now be found on the new TripFiction website here

Falling in Honey by Jennifer Barclay, set on Tilos, Greece

Coasteering* and loved-up encounters in Pembrokeshire

from skoobyblue.blogspot.com

Caerfai Bay, Pembrokeshire



A Cottage by the Sea by Carole Matthews This post now appears on the new TripFiction website here




Bangkok and on Thailand's Islands

THAI GIRL by Andrew Hicks, set in Bangkok and Thailand's Islands

this post can now be found on the new website here

Hexham (not Haltwhistle) - the centre of Britain

We have selected two top books to escort you around the highways and byways of Britain "see a location through an author's eyes". Discover Britain!

Are We Nearly There Yet by Ben Hatch tells the story of Ben, his wife Dinah and their two pre-school children, Phoebe and Charlie who are commissioned by Frommers (the American equivalent to Time Out) to set out on a 5 month family odyssey, an 8000 mile journey around Britain. Only the foolhardy, surely, would take up the baton and set off from the Brighton area in a westerly direction and then up to the northern sphere, with a boot and roofrack full to bursting with luggage, two tinies in tow... but gamely, they embarked on this trip with aplomb and enthusiasm. In parts a chronicle of hilarious experiences, in part a travelogue that honestly charts the sights worth seeing (and those to be missed), interspersed with enough poo and vomit to keep the whole family (and the readers) down to earth (including an unusual encounter with a toothbrush, which results in a visit to Hexham Hospital). Encounters abound, with the World's Largest Pencil (or possibly not, as it transpires) at the Cumberland Pencil Museum (and Borrowdale graphite was the drawing material of choice of Michelangelo, well, I never....); from negative encounters in the Lake District (this is depressing when it is England's largest and best known national park, and is widely considered the most romantic spot in England - Bill Clinton proposed to Hilary here, as did Sir Paul McCartney to Heather Mills, which, of course, did not end well....); to the Robin Hood Experience (worth a miss, it would seem); to Craster, which at the turn of the 20th century was the UK Kipper Capital, smoking over 25,000 fish per day (the fish were "gutted by Scottish fishwives, who lived in ramshackle buildings called kip houses, suitable only for sleeping in" - hence the saying, to have a kip.

Scotland gets short shrift at just 3 pages and the geography goes a bit haywire at this point.
Daughter Phoebe has a larger than life presence in the book, and in the background is the tragic demise of Ben's Dad.  Relationship officionados will also be able to glean a bit about the couple's marital fit, and observe the interpersonal exchanges that really keep the show on the road! Overall, a gamut of emotions contained in one informative travelogue. In the next print run we would love a map to be included in the book, that charts their, at times, erratic journey!

Our second featured book is a work of fiction, and at 87 days and 627 miles it covers considerably less ground. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. is a gentle meander from Kingsbridge in Dorset to Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northernmost town in England, as Harold Fry finds a fit of passion on his way to post a letter and just continues walking in a northerly direction. Along the way he encounters beautiful English countryside, which is dreamily described and will just transport you to this green and pleasant land: Trees and flowers seemed to explode with colour and scent. The trembling branches of the horse chestnut balanced new candle spires of blossom. Rambling roses shot up garden walls, and the first of the deep red-peonies opened like tissue-paper creations. The apple trees began to shake off their blossom, and bore  beads of fruit; bluebells spread thick like water through the woodlands. The dandelions were already fluffheads of seed  all kinds of weather is thrown at him, from blistering sun to rain that drove at him in thick pins... (isn't that just a lyrical description of England at its best?).

This is a slow story of love and loss and love regained, Harold's aim to see his old friend and work colleague Queenie before she dies of cancer.  He shows unplumbed depths of determination as he ploughs on, accumulating a coterie of people who want to latch on to his journey, in the hope that his inspired walk will rub off  them and they too can take ownership of his "pilgrimage". Towards the end he diverts briefly to Hexham, to try and catch up with someone he met earlier on his walk.

A gentle and meditative novel, that entices you to keep up with our hero, tand to share his trials and tribulations as the miles pass by. Bit by bit the shared history that he,and his wife Maureen have long grappled with begins to take shape. A languorous read that will transport you to a ruminative place, but will frustrate readers who like a fast-paced book.

"Paris at my feet" (from Les Misérables)

The Novel:
Anna Trent (pronounced Tron in French) suffers an accident in a chocolate factory in England where she works. She loses a couple of toes and in order to get back on her feet, her erstwhile French teacher Claire - who herself is extremely poorly -  suggests she takes some time to get herself together and work for Thierry, master chocolatier, and also Claire's amour from younger days. Paris  certainly calls....
Anna settles into a tiny apartment high above the rooflines of Paris, which she shares with Sami, an operatic costumier who brings a sense of exoticism to the story (as though diving in and out of chocolate making and eating delicious food isn't enough!). The story deftly weaves its way through the quartiers of Paris, as love and care blossom and we follow Anna as she experiences an "EXTREMELY foreign experience".

Paris, the City:
Come, follow us to Paris via this  beautiful tale of romance, heartache and chocolate:

"Friday afternoon in early July on the Ile de la Cité was hot and sticky and bustling with tourists. Away from the formal 'placement' of the organised streets and wide boulevards, the far corner betrayed its twisty, hugger mugger mediaeval origins; little alleyways springing hither and thither; roads narrowing to nearly nothing or ending abruptly at the wall of one of the great churches." Tempted to visit....?

Author Interview:
To mark the publication of this fabulous new book, TripFiction poses some questions to author Jenny Colgan

TF - You warmly evoke Paris in your new novel – so much so that we are left yearning to visit again. How have you come to know the city so well? 

JC - My brother moved there when he was in his early twenties and lived there for a long time so I used to hop across all the time. Now I have two friends who spend a lot of time there and I love going to see them from Antibes, where I live. It's a beautiful trip on the TGV. 

TF - You describe how Laurent and Anna set off down a tiny maze of alleys, heading for a restaurant that only has a mushroom over the door to indicate an eating establishment; it is somewhere only Paris insiders would know about. Does this restaurant exist and how did you discover it? 

JC - It certainly does, and it's amazing- we were taken there by friends, I can't even remember where it is. We ate nine mushroom based courses. Extraordinary place. 

TF - You share so much wonderful information about the production of chocolate. Where did you learn about the process? 

JC - Haha, thank you but very boring research I'm afraid; books and the internet. Alas, I never got to go to a factory! 

TF - The story is in part romance, but it also has a much darker edge it to it. What was your inspiration for the storyline? 

JC - Well, I really did it backwards - what would make Anna go? It's so hard to throw up your whole life and change everything, really difficult. So I thought someone must have inspired her to go and Claire's story came out of that really: when I started the book I didn't envisage Claire having such a large role. 

TF - How did you choose the names for your characters? 

JC - With enormous difficulty. Every writer will say this, it's a great question. You want names that tell you a bit about a character but not too much. I chose Claire because it sounds the same in both English and French. Finding a boy's name was quite difficult because a lot of the male names I really like in french sound a bit feminine to english ears- Clément, Florian, Baptiste. So we experimented with a few and settled on Laurent. Anna started off with another name, I can't remember what it was now. Actually funny story: my daughter is called Delphine and when I told my writer friends two of them went 'oh, really?" So this year both Jill Mansell and Maggie O' Farrell have books coming out with Delphines in them. I'm really pleased! 

A huge thank you to Jenny for answering our questions.