The Literary Sofa
Guest Authors
Writers on Location – Christopher Bollen on Long Island
I’m sure you know the immense satisfaction that comes from thinking a book sounds right up your street and finding that is indeed the case. That happened to me with Christopher Bollen’s second novel Orient, a sophisticated murder mystery set on Long Island. It has everything I most enjoy about contemporary American fiction and is … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Jill Alexander Essbaum on Zürich
Hausfrau is the first novel by acclaimed American poet Jill Alexander Essbaum and I was fortunate enough to read it six months ago, knowing only that its UK publishers at Mantel were very excited about it. As anyone who runs a literary blog knows, it’s a publisher’s job to be excited about the titles they release – … Continue reading
Guest Author – Patrick Gale on Writing A Place Called Winter
It is a huge pleasure to welcome prolific bestselling author Patrick Gale to the Literary Sofa today. Patrick’s long and successful literary career had an unusual beginning back in 1986 when his first two novels were published on the same day. He has since written over a dozen more as well as two short story collections … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Eve Makis on Cyprus
These days e-mails and text messages frequently appear in novels but there’s nothing like an old-fashioned hand-written letter and I am drawn to books with any kind of epistolary connection. Things were literally looking good for The Spice Box Letters before I even started reading – it also has the most beautiful enticing cover. I’m … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Melanie Finn on Tanzania
The list of places which have featured in Writers on Location is varied – Cuba, Arctic Norway, Mallorca, Las Vegas, to name but a few – but it is also pleasingly random. There’s no plan: each post starts with me reading a novel with a brilliantly handled setting and I enjoy fiction set all over … Continue reading
Guest Author – Claire Fuller on Giving your Characters a Hard Time
As I prefer to open a book knowing the bare minimum about it (yes, that is weird coming from someone who constantly recommends books but at least I don’t do spoilers), I am very influenced by titles and a beautiful and intriguing one like Claire Fuller’s Our Endless Numbered Days is guaranteed to attract my attention. (It’s actually … Continue reading
Guest Author – Alex Christofi on Writing the Shard
Since starting the Literary Sofa blog in 2011, I read far more new fiction than I used to. And despite the endless stream of fantastic novels which find their way to me, I often get the feeling there are established notions of ‘what works’ in fiction or ‘what the reader wants/expects’ – notions I personally like … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Oscar de Muriel on Victorian Edinburgh
It’s not every day that you bump into a violin-playing Mexican chemist who’s written a historical crime novel set in Scotland, in English! I met today’s guest Oscar de Muriel at a book party in the early days of the Literary Sofa and although our paths have yet to cross again in real life I have … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Peter Nichols on Mallorca
I launched the Writers on Location series almost a year ago to showcase novels which have interesting settings and a particularly strong sense of place. It’s become very popular and has featured some fascinating pieces by authors who’ve set their books in locations that were sometimes new to them, sometimes familiar and in some cases, their home town. If … Continue reading
Guest Author – Shelley Harris on Writing a hero from the inside
I am really thrilled to welcome Shelley Harris to the Literary Sofa following the recent release of her second novel Vigilante. Her first novel Jubilee (2012) was a critically acclaimed bestseller and her path to publication has been a genuine inspiration to me. I’ve also had the pleasure of getting to know Shelley in person and … Continue reading
My new novel SCENT – out in paperback on 19 May 2022
The Literary Sofa 