It’s always exciting to have a new project. I realised as 2026 dawned that I would finally have the time to begin thinking about and researching a new novel. Without giving anything away, this project will involve the railways in the 1860s, about which I know very little, so have a long way to go. Indeed, I didn’t even realise how interested I was in the history of the railways until I began reading.   My starting point was Fire and Steam: A New History of the Railways in Bri

I had never heard of the Mirabal sisters until I recently listened to a podcast about them. I also knew nothing about the twentieth-century history of the Dominican Republic, nor the repressive regime of Rafael Trujillo, who controlled the country 1930-1961. But what a nuisance to him those Mirabal sisters turned out to be. The second part of the podcast was constructed around an interview with Julia Alvarez whose 1994 novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, tells their story

My last couple of offerings have been rather sombre, so as it’s Christmas I thought it would be good to lighten the mood with something more optimistic. For the last few weeks, I have had the privilege of spending time with The Red Dress . Now, this is not a book and so represents a deviation from my usual subject matter, but I would argue that The Red Dress is still a text. Indeed, it represents one of the most extraordinary collections of stories that I have ever encounter