Historical Fiction with a French Flavour
Where’s Parisot? It’s a hilltop village in Tarn-et-Garonne, Southwest France. You could be forgiven – but would be mistaken – for passing it by. Mistaken, not only because it has some interesting historical sites to see, but also because it hosts an Anglo-French literary festival every October.Continue reading “Festilitt – Parisot Literary Festival”
If you live in France (or even if you don’t; make a trip of it), there are various Anglo-French literary events going on this year. First up is the Charroux Literary Festival, a biennial event that takes place from Thursday 24th to Saturday 26th August this year. Charroux is located in the Vienne Département, north-west of Limoges in western-central France.Continue reading “Charroux Literary Festival August 2017”
It gives me great pleasure to welcome author Angela Wren to the blog today. Angela is a Francophile and writes a series of detective novels set in the Cévennes, featuring investigator Jacques Forêt. Merle, the latest in the series, is published on 5th July by Crooked Cat Books.Continue reading “Murder and Mayhem in la France Profonde: Angela Wren’s Merle”
Can you name some famous Corsicans? There’s the obvious one, Napoleon Bonaparte. Slightly less obvious ones are the singer Tino Rossi, and Pasquale di Paoli, who headed the short-lived independent Corsican republic in the 18th century. But did you know that François Coty, who founded the famous Coty perfume empire, was also Corsican?
Continue reading “Scent of Corsica: the Maquis”
Today, I’m delighted to welcome Katharine Johnson to the History People slot. Lucky Katharine has lived in Italy, which has provided inspiration for her writing and she’s supplied some mouth-watering shots of Italian views and villages below. But I’ll let her tell you about that.Continue reading “History People #10: Katharine Johnson, Inspired by Italy”
I’m very excited to welcome my friend and Crooked Cat author Jennifer Wilson as my latest History Person. In advance of the launch of her second novel next week, Jen tells us how she came to be haunted by royal phantoms!Continue reading “History People #9: Jennifer C. Wilson, Haunted by Royalty!”
When you’ve spent months, or even years, with your characters they somehow take on a surprising reality and a life of their own. I felt a bit empty when I typed ‘The End’ to The House at Zaronza since I had become very fond of my main character, Maria Orsini.Continue reading “My Main Character Has Her Say…”
Finding out about the daily lives and concerns of your characters is hard, especially when they aren’t famous historical figures. You don’t want to put all the details of food, dress, housing, etc. into your novel, but you still have to provide a convincing social background to the story.
Continue reading “Food and Diet in Corsican History”
Today, I’m delighted to welcome a fellow Crooked Cat author, Tim ‘T E’ Taylor, to the History People slot. He looks at the ways in which history has inspired his novels, and continues to do so. Take it away, Tim.
Continue reading “History People #8: Tim Taylor Looks at the Boundaries of Historical Fiction”I’m appearing on author Jennifer C. Wilson’s blog today, talking about traditional soap-making in Marseille. This features in my recently-completed latest novel, provisionally entitled The Corsican Widow.
Happy Sunday everyone! Today, we’re visiting Marseilles with Vanessa Couchman, and learning about soap-making in Marseilles…
Thank you for inviting me, Jen. It’s great to be back.
As it’s Sunday, here’s a nice clean subject. We all use soap, don’t we? (At least, I hope so!). It’s the kind of product we take for granted these days. I certainly did until I decided to set part of my latest novel in a soap factory in the southern French city of Marseille.
Soap has been made for centuries and Marseille became a centre of production. The olive oil needed to make the soap was in plentiful supply. Also, the city was a major port and imported other soap ingredients and exported the finished product. In addition, Marseille’s warm but windy climate helped to solidify the soap.
By the time of the French Revolution in 1789, the Marseille area had 65 savonneries
View original post 430 more words
Vanessa Couchman