CLARE FLYNN
HISTORICAL FICTION - MODERN THEMES
About Clare
A bit about me, my life and my writing
The inspiration for my writing
My books often deal with displacement – my characters are wrenched from a comfortable existence and forced to face new challenges – often in outposts of an empire which largely disappeared after World War Two. My fascination with being uprooted and transplanted into unfamiliar territory probably traces to my own life.
When I was a child, my family regularly relocated because of my father’s job in the nascent frozen poultry industry – I went to seven different schools before the age of fourteen. My father served in the RAF in WW2, in Coastal Command, doing weather reconnaissance. His father had been in the RAMC in WW1 had died in the 1930s. My mother was the youngest surviving daughter of an Irish sea captain who was killed in an accident on the Liverpool docks – also in the 1930s.
A lifelong passion for reading
Always being the new girl was a formative experience, reaching its nadir when aged seven, I had a chunk of hair pulled out of my scalp on the school bus by another child. I never found out what motivated this attack, but it may have been because I always had my head in a book!
Born in Liverpool, which we left when I was six, I’m the eldest (and according to my siblings the bossiest) of five children. The constant moving was probably also responsible for my lifelong passion for reading.
At school in Yorkshire, when I said I wanted Father Christmas to bring me books, the headmistress reprimanded me, saying that little girls must ask for dolls not books!
Travel feeds the mind
After studying English Language and Literature at the University of Manchester, I had a spell in Rome working as an au pair, and a stint pulling pints in a pub on the Norfolk Broads. Keen to move to London, I joined the civil service in the Lord Chancellor’s Department, managing the financial affairs of mental patients – sadly many of them were shell shocked World War One veterans incarcerated for decades in institutions, often abandoned by relatives.
Looking for a new challenge, I went into marketing – firstly with P&G, marketing Fairy Liquid and Pampers among other brands. The job took me to live first in Newcastle upon Tyne, then Paris and Brussels. My marketing career later took to me to other household name companies and three years living in Milan working for an Italian company.
Running my own business
Back in England and living in London, I set up my own consulting business and began writing my first published novel, A Greater World. It took about eight years and was almost finished when I had a burglary, and the thieves made off with two laptops. The book was backed up between them with no hard copy! Distraught, I thought that was the end of my authorly aspirations, until I read that TE Lawrence lost his manuscript to Seven Pillars of Wisdom in a railway station waiting room. Even after a nationwide appeal via the press, his book wasn’t recovered, so he sat down and wrote it all over again. I took inspiration from this and began all over again.
A Greater World was published in 2014 and since then I’ve published another sixteen books with number 18 on the way. Moving out of London and retiring from my consultancy business has allowed me to devote more time to writing, travel and my other interests. Sadly, it also meant giving up my season ticket to Chelsea FC after thirteen years of cheering the team on from the West Stand Lower.
I now live in Eastbourne on the south coast of England where I can see the sea and the South Downs from my windows.
Over my writing career I used my marketing and business-owning experience to apply to my books. Between 2014 and 2019 I self-published eight books, surpassing all my expectations for sales. After a couple of books published by Canelo, I went back to doing it myself – I like to be in control and achieved better results that way.
Prizes and recognition
In 2020 I won the UK Selfies Adult Fiction Prize for The Pearl of Penang. The Covid pandemic put paid to my day of glory at London Book Fair and I was awarded the prize virtually over Zoom.
I’ve always tried to support other indie authors with help and advice and was thrilled when this was recognised by the Romantic Novelists’ Association – after shortlisting me in 2021, they awarded me the Indie Champion of the Year in 2022 at their industry awards.
New markets and new opportunities
I’ve always sold my books internationally and have loved achieving best seller flags in many different countries. But it was hard to crack other European markets with English language books. In mid 2021 I commissioned translations of my Penang series into German. To my surprise and delight they took off immediately – without any marketing support! Since then, I’ve published fourteen books in German and seven in French.
Having now passed the tenth anniversary of the publication of my first book, I want to devote my time solely to writing and other interests, so don’t plan to do any more self-publishing. I have seven novels published by Storm with another on the way. As to foreign rights, I now have an agent to manage these.
I’m still very much involved with the writing community and am an active member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Society of Authors and the Historical Writers’ Association. I love attending conferences and hanging out with other authors. One of the highlights of my writing life is going to writing retreats with writer friends.
