Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of taking part in Newcastle Noir at the Lit&Phil Library. This hugely enjoyable festival is in its second year and attracted high calibre writers along with enthusiastic and informed readers and bloggers. The organisers, Jacky Collins, Kay Easson and Ariane Bogain put together…
SISTERS ON BREAD STREET SIXPENCE IN HER SHOE HALFPENNY DREAMS These three novels were first published before the Kate Shackleton books, under my own name, Frances McNeil. Sisters on Bread Street draws on stories from my mother Julia’s life. Born in Leeds to a German Jewish father and an…
A Maharajah on the Moors, a priceless jewel, an inexplicable murder To celebrate US publication of Murder on a Summer’s Day and the New York Post’s choice of the book as a “must read”, here is the story behind the novel … The idea for Murder on a Summer’s Day…
A WOMAN UNKNOWN is on the short-list of five for a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award: the Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award. The awards are named after Edgar Allan Poe. They are presented every spring in New York City, to “honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction,…
I am delighted to welcome to Bookish Jottings, best-selling author Frances Brody for a chat about her delightful sleuth, Kate Shackleton, the enduring appeal of crime fiction and where she gets her inspiration from! Thank you so much for joining us here at Bookish Jottings, Frances. It’s lovely to have…
Kate’s latest adventure is A Death in the Dales. The story unfolds in the village of Langcliffe and the market town of Settle so it was fitting that the official launch – publication day, Thursday, 1 October – took place in the new Settle Library. The library is housed…
We’re more than halfway through August. I’m looking out onto a winter-white sky. Rain washes my skylight windows, now firmly closed against the chill. So why am I glad? If bright sunshine lit my room at the top of the house, I would roast and need to shift myself. Since…
The 27th Malice Domestic Convention in Bethesda was brilliant. By now this will have been thoroughly blogged about elsewhere so I’ll just say how enjoyable it was to meet friends old and new. There was time to explore the area around Annapolis. I borrowed a big hat to avoid burning…
An English friend who lives in Brittany met me off the train at the Gare du Nord. Armed with passport photos, we bought passes that enabled us to hop on and off buses for the duration of our stay. Everyone who has visited Paris has a favourite spot and so…
In 1910 Punch magazine declared that feeding birds was a national pastime in the United Kingdom. I know there are pros and cons regarding feeding garden birds but I plead guilty to putting out suet pellets, seeds and peanuts, attracting blackbirds, robins thrushes and starlings as well as a few sparrows…
