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 | Oct 22, 2017
Apart from planned trips to India and Australia to research two of my books, these days I usually plan my holidays around painting – choosing locations I’ve never visited before and where I think there might be interesting landscapes. There have however been two short...
by Clare Flynn | Feb 9, 2016
Finding appropriate and memorable names for characters in my novels is a fun challenge. My favourite method – as I write historical fiction – is to have a wander round a graveyard. I’ve always had a weird fascination with cemeteries. I haunted Père Lachaise when I...
by Clare Flynn | Nov 25, 2014
My work in progress has just taken itself off to New York City. This is a classic case of being swept along in the wake of one’s characters. I get very little say in the matter. As a result I’ve been researching life in the tenements of NYC in the late...
by Clare Flynn | Aug 14, 2014
The main character in my novel, A Greater World, is effectively won in a game of poker, after her desperate father uses her as a stake. Poor Elizabeth Morton has to go through what amounts to a forced marriage when all her options run out. Someone asked how I’d...
