Adapted from my my Beyond the Book newsletter of September 2024. Sign up for future issues here. If Frances Sitwell is my heroine, who is the hero? It would be easy to argue for Louis Stevenson (who has a way of taking centre stage even when he isn’t present!) but chief contender for male lead … Continue reading Sidney Colvin: an unlikely hero #BeyondtheBook #TheAbsentHeart
A Brilliant day in Bristol As in all the best stories from my childhood, the day of my book launch dawned bright and clear, so much so that as we walked down Park Street I worried guests might have chosen to head for the beach rather than the book launch. However my fears proved groundless … Continue reading The Absent Heart takes off in #Bristol #booklaunch #historicalfiction
The Absent Heart is very much a novel about letters and how they defined Frances Sitwell’s relationship with Robert Louis Stevenson, but it’s not a novel of letters. I’m actually quite a fan of the epistolary novel and, with all of the R.L.S.’s letters to my heroine at my disposal, I could have gone down … Continue reading Letters in fiction: Robert Harris, Gill Hornby and me!
Beyond the Book is series of articles I began publishing monthly in August 2024 to subscribers. I’m republishing the first issue here today. To receive future issues as they appear and a bonus chapter, sign up here. An elusive heroine I think most writers would agree we don’t usually choose our characters, they choose us! … Continue reading Frances Sitwell: An Elusive Heroine #BeyondTheBook
There’s nothing guaranteed to get an author worked up as a chat about book covers. We all have quite fixed ideas of how our book should look but sometimes a publisher thinks differently and we bow to their knowledge of the market. They usually do know best! As a reader too, I’m increasingly aware of … Continue reading Two similar covers, two very different books. The power (or pestilence) of genre.
Ali Bacon, Author 