The Literary Sofa
Writers on Location
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
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
Writers on Location – Philip Teir on Helsinki
Over the next few months I’ll be featuring some of the titles from my Hot Picks 2015 selection on the Literary Sofa, starting with a Writers on Location post about Helsinki by Finnish author Philip Teir, dubbed #Scanzen by his UK publishers Serpent’s Tail. I’m often sceptical about such tags but with his debut novel … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Kerry Hudson on Siberia
It is a huge pleasure to have Kerry Hudson join me on the Literary Sofa today. She burst onto the scene in 2012 with her debut Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, which won the Scottish First Book Award and was nominated for five more. She was recently named … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Laura McBride on Las Vegas
The Writers on Location slot returns today and I’m delighted to welcome Laura McBride, debut author of We Are Called to Rise, which is one of my Summer Reads 2014 and the current Radio 2 Book Club choice. Like many readers I love to discover new places through fiction and also to revisit familiar ones – as a … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Jason Hewitt on Arctic Norway
I’m really thrilled that the Writers on Location series is proving so popular. Every author’s relationship with place is different and makes for such an interesting story in its own right. That’s especially true of today’s guest: novelist, actor and playwright Jason Hewitt. His World War Two debut The Dynamite Room, one of my Fiction Hot … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Naomi Wood on Hemingway’s Havana
I’m very excited to be introducing a new regular slot on the Literary Sofa: WRITERS ON LOCATION, inspired by my own love of travel (and the way it, in turn, inspires me) and the many novels which have a particularly vivid, interesting or exotic sense of place. Naomi Wood’s novel Mrs Hemingway, one of my … Continue reading
My new novel SCENT – out in paperback on 19 May 2022
The Literary Sofa 