writing process

Alia Henry

If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why? When I wrote , my second novel , Alia Henry and the Ghost Writer I wasn’t aware how much I desperately wanted to be like my sassy main character. She’s Fleabag without the self-hate. She’s Lizzie Bennett without the […]

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I’m learning…

How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals? Last year, I read the amazing Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. The simple yet elegant idea behind the book is that if we live to around 80 years of age we get 4000 weeks give or take so why waste […]

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More party lights …

What do you wish you could do more every day? Picture this – a rustic villa in the Provençal hills, gravel underfoot and a vine covered pergola overhead. Party lights loop between olive trees and above table laid with white linen and wine glasses, flowers and baskets of bread. Cicadas trill. It’s sunset and people […]

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Lose Yourself

What activities do you lose yourself in? Writing. Always writing. I need to set alarms when I’m writing because I can easily lose all sense of time and place. I use specific music to send me into a deeply focused state and this allows me to get plenty of work done. The only trouble is […]

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Very Superstitious 🎶

Are you superstitious? I’m not embarrassed to admit it either. Some things are practical. I won’t walk under a ladder mainly because something might fall on my head. Oh and don’t even get me started about people who put shoes on the table. It’s just yuck. But then things take a more esoteric turn. I […]

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Paris, of course!

Where would you go on a shopping spree? I would start with Shakespeare and Co, the famous English language bookshop on the left bank of the River Seine. Then I would move to Sennelier, the famous art supply store a little further up the river. To finish my spree, rather than go to Chanel or […]

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