POSTCARDS FROM OUR FAVOURITE SUMMER LITERARY LOCATIONS...

Hello! As lockdown gradually eases here in the UK some lucky readers will be packing, ready to head off on summer hols. However, for many, summer will be spent in the park or garden, relying on novels to provide that dose of bright sunshine or fantastic feeling of escape. So we thought it might be fun to send a postcard from our favourite summer literary locations. And please remember to let us know where your literary travels might take you, in the comments at the end.

Fasten your seatbelts as…  

Victoria says … A summer book I like or a summer place I would like to write about? 

Well considering I have set all my published novels (to date) in Cornwall, with its beautiful coastlines, moorlands and quaint villages, my preferred summery location should probably be in Cornwall again. However, I have just emerged from lockdown so at the moment I have a longing for exotic fauna and flora, and guaranteed warm lazy summer evenings that don't require a cardigan.

Somewhere my heroine can sip strangely named cocktails, wriggle her white sand-sprinkled toes as she watches exotic birds of paradise shake their vibrant plumage during a mating display... after a packed filled day freeing captive, grateful lions back into the wild in the company of a handsome ranger. Did you spot my dilemma? Cocktails, exotic birds of paradise and conservation programs (involving lions which are more cuddly than man-eating) are hard to find. If you do know of this literary location, please let me know, but for now it seems it will just have to be a Cornish sunset. I can see it now... my heroine digs her toes into the fine golden sand of her favourite beach as cawing seagulls fly overhead and cumbersome seals sunbathe on distant razor-sharp rocks. All my heroine needs are a large cocktail and a handsome ranger... as for the cuddly lions, they might just be harder to find.

Kath says … Summer books; Christmas books - I have a confession to make. I don't segregate books like this - neither my own nor those I read. Although I have many author friends who talk about writing 'their summer 2021 book' or their next Christmas book. These titles do sell well in their designated season - perhaps I am missing a trick?

I tend not to pick up a 'summer' book simply because it's summer though. Having said that, I do like a book that has a strong sense of season and place - and if it's set in Tuscany or Provence or the Italian Lakes, then what's not to like? We can travel there vicariously through our reading - especially important this year when it is tricky to go anywhere away from home. But I won't specifically read them because they are set there or because it is summer. I'll read them because the blurb intrigues me.

Settings I love are places like the rugged west of Ireland or the Scottish Highlands. Or high Alpine villages, snow-covered in winter; a riot of flowers in summer. Or medieval hilltop villages with narrow cobbled streets and a jumble of rooftops. Or windy moorland where the weather can change in a minute from a balmy summer's day to wild, wet and murderous. 

In the best books, the setting and season become a character in its own right - not just there as a backdrop but shaping events and pushing the story inevitably towards its conclusion. Now those are the books I love to read!

Beauty of the Dolomites

Linda says … Hello. My name's Linda and I'm a lazy researcher .... which will go some way to understanding why most of my novels are contemporary and set in Devon where I live. I have written historicals but they were set in Devon too, and in places I know well for the geography and also because history in this area is well-documented and easy to find. I'm a seat-of-the-pants writer and I love the writing process but not the thought of wading through dozens and dozens of tomes - often having to resort to a dictionary for words I don't understand. I just don't have the time. So Devon it is going to be. And coastal as I can smell the sea from my back garden. 

My favourite book to write (of the nine published so far) was SUMMER AT 23 THE STRAND. Back in the day when I was a teenager wanting money for the cinema and pop records and the like, on Saturdays, I used to help my mother clean beach chalets. Each was let for a fortnight.  We never met the people who stayed in them but I used to imagine the lives they lived where they came from, and how different it would be for them down here on the South Devon coast. 

When my children were at school these chalets came up for sale. Some were bought privately and some by the council. A friend bought one and she used to let me use it on a fairly frequent basis. So, I used to eavesdrop on what people in the (council-owned) chalets either side were talking about. Or not talking . One couple didn't leave the chalet for a fortnight, they were so loved up! I often wonder where they told their respective spouses they were! Fast forward a few years (oh, okay, decades!) and I was walking past the chalets and ... I had one of those magic moments when the muse pays a visit and I couldn't get home fast enough to write it all down. SUMMER AT 23 THE STRAND is linked stories, with the thread of a gift to be left for the next occupant running through them all. I'm now nearing the end of another Devon-based novel - CHRISTMAS AT CHANNEL VIEW. Lockdown has meant I haven't been to the beach in months but that's the beauty of writing about where you know ... you just know!

Escape to Devon ...

Terry says … When we were asked to pick a summery place that we would like to write about, Cornwall popped into my brain immediately. I’ve yet to visit Cornwall but am familiar with the stunning beauty of her coastlines and her charming villages. Ideally, I’d go there for a visit, a working vacation so to speak, with an eye towards absorbing the local culture and history. There’s something about Cornwall that I’ve seen in pictures that speaks to my writer spirit. Cornwall provided inspiration for Daphne Du Maurier, who penned Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, and several other books while living at Menabilly, her house that was the influence behind Max De Winter’s beloved Manderley. I’d like to think that the energy of the place would influence my writing as well. One of the best perks of the writing gig is taking a research trip. Since the world is in chaos and traveling is out of the question right now, I’ll just take a vicarious vacation to Cornwall. Providence willing, I’ll come up with a story idea or three…

Happy writing.

The Cornish Coast

 Jennifer says … I’m finding it hard to think about summer reading and writing, largely because the weather Will Not Make Its Mind Up. Yesterday it was 28 degrees and we were drinking Pimms in the garden and today its lashing down with rain and my tomato plants are looking at me in poor as if I’ve abandoned them in a very scary place indeed. But I will focus. Rae asked me to talk about summer reads and so I shall. 

I’ve written a few summer romances myself, though they’re currently not available, waiting while I get round to self-publishing them. They were set in summer in Italy and Majorca, both of which are right up there with Greece and the South of France as places I love reading about.

I have to confess, though, to a yearning to write a summer book set in a completely different world — one where the romance is of a different type entirely, more fairy than frangipani. A few years ago I spent midsummer in Iceland. It was the strangest experience. The land was black and white with the merest flush of green, the sky was an incredible blue. The ground smoked and heaved. And it never got dark. The combination was a weird and magical setting for a romance.

I doubt if I’ll ever write it…

Midsummer in Iceland

Jennie says … I’m not really a summer person - I don’t do heat at all well - but I do tend to write books where the story takes place in summer and the setting is usually either south Devon or the south of France. The first can have fairly mixed weather over the summer months while the second is renowned for its better weather. Five of my fifteen books are set in or around Dartmouth during the summer, whilst the remaining nine are set in France at various locations along the Riviera. My new book though, (the 15th!) A French Affair, is set in Brittany, a department of France that generally receives a bad press for its weather!

Like Devon the weather in Brittany can be unpredictable but rumour (and climate change) has it that this northern corner of France is getting hotter and drier. The last couple of summers have definitely been hotter here with temperatures reaching the mid to high 30s.

I might not like the weather being too hot but I do find a clear blue sky and the sun shining far more inspirational than the dull grey days of later winter.

Hello sunshine!

Rae says … I am very much a seasonal reader who is drawn to book covers sporting beach towels and shimmering sunsets in summer, then dark snowy landscapes in winter. I’m a sucker for novels set against a hot American summer filled with long cool drinks by a harbour or pool. Novels like Elin Hilderbrand’s Nantucket series or Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann.

However, I also love a languorous Gothic summer read. Something set deep in the buzzing greenery of the English or French countryside, perhaps at a mansion or chateau that has seen better days. A group enjoying a long sensual summer where nothing much happens, but the growing sense of dread tells the reader something dangerous will tip with the weather and by the end everything will have changed for them all. Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller was a favourite of last year. Would I like to write a summer novel? Perhaps one day I'll try …

Nantucket Lighthouse

We hope you enjoyed our summer literary travels and would love to hear your dream bookish locations in the comments below.

In the meantime, safe travelling!

Rae x