The Literary Sofa
Writers on Location
My Books of 2022
Hello and happy new year! After a four-year tsunami of personal crap no novelist would get away with in a book, 2022 was a really eventful and positive year for me and I’m grateful and relieved to have made it to the next chapter. Among the highlights were a fantastic in-person launch party I didn’t … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Melissa Fu on Western China
It’s suddenly gone a bit ‘London buses’ here – less than a week after Ethan Joella’s beautiful piece on how personal grief inspired his debut novel A Little Hope, I’m hosting Melissa Fu whose post takes us to Western China, home to several of the settings in her own first novel Peach Blossom Spring. It’s … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Sophie Haydock on Vienna
It’s such a joy to be hosting Sophie Haydock on the day her stunning debut novel The Flames is published. The buzz surrounding this book about the four muses of renowned artist Egon Schiele has been building for months but I can honestly claim to have spent years in anticipation, ever since Sophie told me … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Peter Papathanasiou on the Australian Outback
The last couple of months seem to have raced by. As usual I’m juggling several projects including a new mentoring role on the Retreat West novel course, which I am really enjoying, and gearing up to start writing my own. Today’s guest post by Pete Papathanasiou may be the first in a long time but … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Anne Goodwin on the long-stay psychiatric hospital
Welcome to the final post of the Summer Reads guest programme – if you missed it (or have already read all the books on the original selection – some people do!), Summer Reads Extras was released earlier this week with another five novels that really impressed me. There seem to be even more great books … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Amanda Huggins on the North Yorkshire Coast
There was a very enthusiastic response to Marika Cobbold’s recent Writers on Location about Hampstead Heath and in keeping with the times we’re staying put in the UK for this week’s instalment in the series by Amanda Huggins on the North Yorkshire coast. Short novella All our Squandered Beauty, one of my Spring Spotlight choices, … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Marika Cobbold on Hampstead Heath
It’s wonderful to open this week’s post with the news that I’ve been shortlisted for Best Reviewer of Literature in the 2021 Saboteur Awards, a big surprise given that my running of the Literary Sofa has been pretty shambolic over the last year (bad times make for good excuses). Thank you to everyone who showed … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Neema Shah on Uganda
This week I’m delighted to be hosting the first Writers on Location post of the year, courtesy of talented debut author Neema Shah. Her novel Kololo Hill is set in Uganda and the UK during the expulsion of Ugandan Asians by dictator Idi Amin in the early 1970s. Surprisingly, I have vague memories of this … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Cath Barton on Morecambe, Lancashire
Today I’m pleased to introduce my final guest of 2020 and the last of this year’s Writers on Location, Cath Barton. The UK has made only infrequent appearances in this long-running series, but the north-west of England gets a moment in her post on the coastal town of Morecambe in Lancashire. There’s something I found … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Tyler Keevil on Prague
This is the first post of England’s Lockdown 2 (today is the halfway point, not that I’m counting), but not the last, as I have some exciting things lined up. Not many writers can commit right now, so I’m doubly grateful to acclaimed guest author Tyler Keevil, who grew up in Vancouver and now lives … Continue reading
My new novel SCENT – out in paperback on 19 May 2022
The Literary Sofa 