Call of the Kingfisher is the enchanting debut from composer and wildlife recordist, Nick Penny. This love letter to a short stretch of Northamptonshire’s River Nene celebrates all the wild things that live there, especially the kingfishers.
Welcome to My Creative Notebook, I’ve always been fascinated by the creative process and believe that everyone has their own personal collection of skills and abilities, which just needs time and encouragement to develop.
Finding the time and space to be creative is vital to sustain creativity, one of the most important actions in any day is to seize the moments which sometimes occur when you least expect it; to simply stand and stare, to be inspired by a beautiful view, hear a bird singing, or to watch your family laughing together. Treasure these moments; they form the rich tapestry of living in a creative way.
There are so many amazing sources of inspiration and I hope in this space to share ideas, thoughts, words, books, resources, art, photography, events and interviews, which I hope you will enjoy and find inspiring.
Despite this space being rooted in technology, I see My Creative Notebook as a starting point from which to go and do things!
Ever After by Kate Eberlen
Tess and Gus are strangers when their lives collide one sun-drenched morning in Florence, but it feels as if fate has brought them together.
One their return to rainy London, will their love be strong enough to survive the challenges of their complicated lives?
A Secret Cornish Summer by Phillipa Ashley
When Eden steps out of her beautiful coastal cottage to find a Speedo-wearing, suntanned stranger doing yoga in next door's garden, she is immediately on her guard. Since her ex-husband betrayed her in the worst possible ways, she has kept her distance from all men, taking refuge in her start-up coffee business.
Summer at the Ice Cream Cafe – Jo Thomas
A dream home
Beca Valentino is ready to escape the city. When she sees the perfect house for sale in her hometown, it seems like fate. Is this her chance to build the foster family she dreams of, on the beautiful Pembrokeshire coast?
The House in the Olive Grove – EMMA COWELL
Will one week in Greece change their lives for ever? Chef Maria is running a successful cookery school in her home village of Petalidi, Greece – but she is also running from the secrets of her past. Food journalist Kayla thought this was going to be just another work trip. But right before she leaves for Greece, she discovers that her whole life is built on a lie. Jewellery-maker Alessandra has always lived according to her own rules – despite what it has cost her to do so. But she has just had some devastating news. As these three very different women come together at the house in...
An Italian Island Summer – Sue Moorcroft
Will one summer in Sicily change her life for ever? After her marriage falls apart, Ursula Quinn is offered the chance to spend the summer working at a hotel on a beautiful island off the coast of Sicily, Italy. Excited by a new adventure, she sets off at once. At Residenza dei Tringali, Ursula receives a warm welcome from everyone except Alfio, son of the Tringali family. He gave up his life in Barcelona to help his mother Agata with the ailing business, and is frustrated with Ursula’s interference – and she in turn is less than impressed with his attitude. As they spend more time...
Summer Wedding – Sarah Morgan
A family wedding Catherine Swift is a bestselling romance author, but her personal story hasn’t been quite so successful; three failed marriages have left her relationship with her daughters strained. Engaged once again, Catherine is counting on this wedding, at her villa in Corfu, to finally bring the family together. A summer of secretsAdeline can’t believe her mother is getting married for a fourth time, or that she’s expected to attend. It brings back the pain of her mother’s infidelity and the baby who was the result. Not that she blames her half-sister Cassie, but then she’s never tried to know her,...
The Sunrise Sisterhood – Cathy Bramley
Three generations of women, and the summer that saved them.
The holidays are here, and in Salcombe, Liz longs for the arrival of her god-daughters, Skye and Clare and Clare's daughter baby Ivy.
The Secret Shore – Liz Fenwick
As one of the Navy's most skilled mapmakers, Merry knows the very lives of men far away depend on her work in the War Office.
But when a family crisis draws her back to her beloved Cornwall, Merry finds herself working alongside an enigmatic American officer on secret operations spanning the rugged coasts of Cornwall and Brittany which she knows so well.
Interview with Liz Fenwick – Author of The Secret Shore
Thank you so much for the early proof, we have loved all your books, but this one is particularly evocative and gripping, and we love the cover, it’s absolutely beautiful! The Secret Shore is such a powerful and moving novel, what inspired you to focus on wartime mapmakers? I’d known about the SOE (Special Operations Executive) base on the Helford River almost from my first visit in 1989. When I was writing A Cornish Stranger in 2013 I thought I was going to write then about the secret flotillas but it wasn’t right for that story and so I filed...