by Clare Flynn | Oct 31, 2019
When I started to write The Pearl of Penang I was drawing to the end of my Round the World cruise and Penang was behind me. Once I was back in England I thought of returning there and began to make plans to do so. But after more than three months “writing...
by Clare Flynn | Jul 30, 2019
Those of you who have read Storms Gather Between Us will know that several crucial scenes are set at the beach or in and around the dunes between Seaforth Sands and Crosby, Liverpool. I wrote the scenes largely from my childhood memories of Waterloo sands, Crosby. As...
by Clare Flynn | Jun 23, 2019
About three years ago, when I was writing The Chalky Sea, I read as much as possible about the impact of the Second World War here in my home town of Eastbourne. I wanted my main character, Gwen Collingwood, a childless married woman whose husband has gone to war, to...
by Clare Flynn | Mar 28, 2018
One of my novels, The Chalky Sea, is set here in Eastbourne during the Second World War. This is a book that I never planned to write – until two years ago, when I moved back to the town where I spent my teens and discovered something I’d never known then – that...
by Clare Flynn | Mar 3, 2018
Often the trigger for me in writing a book is its setting. My imagination is captured by a particular location. There will be something specific that is the source of its appeal to me as a writer and then I think how I can bring it to life on the page. I then dream up...
by Clare Flynn | Sep 8, 2017
Like most authors I live in fear of someone examining my Google search history. I’ve looked up all manner of things in the name of research and some of them might take a bit of explaining. At the moment I’m writing the sequel to The Chalky Sea. It’s...
