#DaphneDuMaurier #JulieOwenMoylan

Today I am joined by Julie Owen Moylan. I asked Julie along after we "met" on Twitter during a conversation where we shared our love for Daphne Du Maurier. Thanks so much Julie for coming along today and talking to us all about Daphne Du Maurier and why you think so highly of her novels! 

With out further ado, I shall hand you over! 

Do you have a favourite book by Daphne Du Maurier and what is it you love about that book so much?

My favourite book is Rebecca.  I love everything about it.  The tension, the way you are drawn in by the narrator and fantastic use of the house as a character in the story.   The idea of two women, one ‘obedient’ wife and one ‘disobedient’ is an interesting device.  Both wives are ‘twinned’ throughout the novel, compared and contrasted in their responses and personalities.  In my mind it is very much a novel about women, how they react to each other.  The names they are given.  The roles they play.  It asks so many questions about these roles that the novel remains endlessly fascinating as a piece of work.

When did you discover her novels? Were you recommended them? Discover them independently? Which one did you read first?

I discovered her novels through film when I was a teenager.  I saw the film versions of Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and that led me to seek out the books.  

Why do you think her novels still resonant with readers today and what makes them so unforgettable?

I think readers love a good story and that remains ageless but with Rebecca there are so many layers that you can engage with.  The skill in using the house as an extra dimension to the story.  The relationships between the housekeeper and both wives.  The relationship between the two wives and finally the relationships between the Max de Winter and the female characters in the book.  There is so much and with every reading you can glean more from it.

How has she influenced your own writing? Or what impact do you think she has had on the psychological thriller genre as we know it today?

I’m not sure she had influenced my own writing except to make me want to be as good at storytelling.  Certainly the psychological thriller genre owes her a debt but Du Maurier is so much more than just a thriller writer.

Which recent psychological thriller do you think Daphne Du Maurier would have wanted to have written if she were alive today?

I think she would have had a good crack at The Girl On The Train.

Have you seen any of the screen adaptations of her books? Will you be going to see My Cousin Rachel? Are you able to enjoy film adaptations or do you find yourself flicking through your paperback and checking for accuracy ?!

Yes as mentioned I saw the films first.  I think of film versions as completely different things to the books.  I like films for what they are but the story as the author intended is on the page not on the screen.  I’ve written stories and made films and love to use both but they can’t really be compared.  You can do things on a page that you can’t capture on a screen and vice versa.

If you were able to host a ‘fantasy book group’ and Du Maurier came along, what question might you ask her about her own novels? What question do you think she might set your book group about her novels?

I’d love to ask her whether she intended to write both Mrs De Winter’s as two sides of the same woman.  The ‘obedient’ wife who obeys the rules and is endlessly loyal to her husband and the ‘disobedient’ wife who breaks the rules and pays for it with her life.

Can you recommend any other authors or books for fans of Du Maurier’s novels?

I always recommend Jean Rhys to everyone because I want more people to read her.  Wide Sargasso Sea is just such a beautiful piece of work and all her books have such interesting female characters who are so beaten down by life but somehow keep going.  I love her work.  The female characters have the same complexities as Du Maurier’s women I think.

JULIE OWEN MOYLAN BIOGRAPHY

Julie is a writer and filmmaker from Cardiff.  Her short stories have been published in Horizon Literary Review and The Voice of Women in Wales ( An anthology to celebrate International Women’s day)   Her travel writing was recently commended and published in New Welsh Review (Sept 2016)

Her short film BabyCakes won Best Student Film at Ffresh and Celtic Media Awards and went on to win Best Welsh Short Film at the Swansea Film Festival.

Julie is currently working on her first novel.

@JulieOwenMoylan

If you have missed any other stops on the tour, check them out here: 
Sam Blake on Daphne Du Maurier

Emily Organ on Daphne Du Maurier


Anna Mazzola on Daphne Du Maurier

Annabel Abbs

Follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#DaphneDuMaurier #AnnabelAbbs

Today, Day 4 of my Daphne Du Maurier Blog Tour, I am delighted to be joined by Annabel Abbs, author of The Joyce Girl.

Paris 1928. Lucia, the talented and ambitious daughter of James Joyce, is making a name for herself as a dancer, training with many famous dancers of her day and moving in social circles which throw her into contact with Samuel Beckett. Convinced she has clairvoyant powers, she believes her destiny is to marry Beckett, but the overbearing shadow of her father threatens this vision. Caught between her own ambitions and desires, and her parents’ demands, Lucia faces both emotional and psychological struggles that attract the attention of pioneer psychoanalyst Dr Jung. 

The Joyce Girl was published in June 2016 by Impress Books. You can read my review here

But now I'll hand over to Annabel to hear all about why she loves Daphne Du Maurier! Enjoy reading!

Do you have a favourite book by Daphne Du Maurier and what is it you love about that book so much?

Rebecca is my favourite novel.  It’s brilliantly crafted and plotted. The sense of place is superb. The nightmarish atmosphere of menace is evoked superbly from the very first line.  The writing is beautiful – lyrical, economical, dream-like.  The tension and suspense build at the perfect pace. As a reader, one doesn’t necessarily realise how incredibly difficult this is to achieve – du Maurier makes it look so effortless.  But any novelist will know that a novel this accomplished is a work of genius. 

When did you discover her novels? Were you recommended them? Discover them independently? Which one did you read first?

I discovered Rebecca in my teens, then went on to Frenchman’s Creek and Jamaica Inn.  Later I read one of her more obscure works and found it disappointing.  It put me off her for a couple of decades until my daughter was told to read Rebecca in year 6 by an inspirational teacher who was quite prepared to go off piste. I picked it up and was left breathless, again, by that opening chapter. I then noticed that du Maurier was born three months after the woman I was writing about at the time (James Joyce’s dancer daughter, Lucia).  She died a few years after Lucia, having achieved the full creative life that Lucia yearned for. I was struck by other parallels too: both Lucia and Daphne were flappers, both had unusual and intense relationships with their fathers, both were probably bi-sexual, both were hugely complicated.  So I began re-reading du Maurier.

Why do you think her novels still resonant with readers today and what makes them so unforgettable?

She deals with the issue of female entrapment.  Despite progress in the field of women’s rights, many women still feel entrapped.  Until this ends I suspect her novels will continue to resonate. 

How has she influenced your own writing? Or what impact do you think she has had on the psychological thriller genre as we know it today?

Writing a novel that is both literary and gripping is extremely hard.  She achieved it. I tried to do it in The Joyce Girl.  I think Jessie Burton does it in her novels.  And Sarah Waters does it in her novels.  I always wanted my novel to be be ‘page-turning’ but with depth.  Du Maurier does this in spades.

Which recent psychological thriller do you think Daphne Du Maurier would have wanted to have written if she were alive today?

A couple of recent debuts remind me of du Maurier and I think she would have approved:

The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley has du Maurier’s incredible sense of place and her sinister and suspense-ful atmosphere, as well as the evolving layers of tension that du Maurier is such a master of.

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller also evokes place and atmosphere superbly, while ratcheting up the tension in a very unsettling way, so reminiscent of du Maurier.   Both these debuts leave one feeling slightly disoriented and very unsettled – things I consider to be trade-mark du Maurier.

To these authors, I would add Susan Hill and Sarah Waters.  Jessie Burton, to a lesser extent, as she’s not really in the gothic genre. But her ability to plot and evoke place are right up there with du Maurier.  And like du Maurier, Burton is unlikely to win a high-brow literary prize or enter ‘the cannon’ simply because she’s been incredibly successful.  This makes me furious!

Have you seen any of the screen adaptations of her books? Will you be going to see My Cousin Rachel? Are you able to enjoy film adaptations or do you find yourself flicking through your paperback and checking for accuracy ?!

I love different interpretations of novels and characters.  They make me challenge my own assumptions and ‘reading values’.  Often I’ll return to a novel with a different lens after seeing a film of it.  I’m a big believer in the phrase ‘No one has the last word on anyone’.  I’m looking forward to My Cousin Rachel but I’d love to see another version of Rebecca.  Apparently there’s a new one in the making. Can Hitchcock’s be beaten? I’m not sure…

If you were able to host a ‘fantasy book group’ and Du Maurier came along, what question might you ask her about her own novels? What question do you think she might set your book group about her novels?

Having seen the recent BBC film about the Brontes (To Walk Invisible – brilliant, watch it on catch-up if you haven’t seen it) I would probe the root of her later obsession with Branwell Bronte.  She wrote a biography of him and it was her least successful book, but I suspect she identified with him in some way – or perhaps she was haunted by the way in which his imagination deserted him? I’d love to know…

Anything else to share while we're talking all things Du Maurier?

Yes please – my fury! Du Maurier was, apparently, very hurt at how disregarded she was by the literary set of her day.  She famously never won a literary prize and serious critics turned their high-brow noses up at her.  But Rebecca contains some of the best writing, plotting and characterisation in English literature.  Frenchman’s Creek and Jamaica Inn are not far behind.

And yet my daughter is studying a module in her A-level English called ‘Women in Fiction 1820-2010’.  This reading list includes the usual suspects: Austen, Eliot, Woolf, Plath, Mrs Gaskell, the Brontes, Rhys and (perhaps more surprisingly but pleasingly) Sarah Waters, Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson. But why, oh why, isn’t du Maurier there? Please?

Lastly, I’d really recommend Justine Picardie’s biopic novel of du Maurier, Daphne.  This is a light, easy read which manages to bring an older du Maurier brilliantly to life.  There’s a dual narrative which didn’t work quite so well for me, but her chapters on du Maurier are well-researched and fascinating.

Thank you, Katherine, for letting me air my views on this marvellous writer.

Thank you Annabel for sharing all your views on a marvellous writer! Fantastic answers and a few more things to add to my TBR pile. I am definitely ordering Justine Picardie's book today! 

ANNABEL ABBS


THE JOYCE GIRL won the Impress Prize for New Writers and tells the lost story of Lucia Joyce, a dancer in 1920s Paris and daughter of modernist author, James Joyce.

Longlisted for the Waverton Good Read 2017 Award, selected by The Guardian as a Reader Pick 2016, featured in The Hollywood Reporter (Feb 2017) as a top book-to-film pick, sold in 13 countries. Annabel will be speaking about Lucia Joyce at the Sydney Writers Festival and the Istanbul Literary Festival in May, and at Much Ado Books (Sussex) in June.

@annabelabbs

www.annabelabbs.com

If you have missed any stops on this blog tour then click on the links below:
Sam Blake on Daphne Du Maurier

Emily Organ on Daphne Du Maurier

Anna Mazzola on Daphne Du Maurier

You can follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or check out my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#VivianConroy #GuestPost #CozyCrime #CountryGiftShopMysteries

I am thrilled to be part of the Blog Tour for Vivian Conroy's Written Into The Grave, the latest instalment in the Country Gift Shop Mystery series.

Can fiction kill?

Vicky Simmons’s life was supposed to be relaxing after she moved back home to the coast of Maine, but instead of baking bread and gardening she’s been chasing down killers and it’s time to stop. Vicky is ready to slow down again and vows to start focusing more on her roses than solving crime.

That is until she reads the new serial in the paper over breakfast, describing a brutal murder that takes place on a cliff top road just above a beach. Only to find herself moments later, walking Coco and Mr. Pug, face to face with a dead body on the sand. The murder victim described exactly as he was in the story…

Once again death has come to Glen Cove and this time Vicky and her friends won’t stop until they find the killer before they get away with murder.

Written Into The Grave is published by HQ Digital on 10th May 2017.

You can buy a copy here and it is currently available for £1.99 on Kindle.

I am thrilled to welcome Vivian to my blog today with a guest post. Let me hand you over to her now and here all about her obsession with notebooks! 

Good morning Vivian!


There is no such thing as too many notebooks...  

I own A LOT of notebooks. Which is by no means a reason for me not to buy new ones. In fact, you can be certain that I'll use any excuse to buy. "Sunshine at last! Let's buy a notebook with flowers on it." "Finished my book! A notebook it is to reward myself." "National Stationery Week?! Need I say more?" Of course as a writer I can totally justify owning all these notebooks. After all, I have to write down what I'm working on, I have to make notes of dates and deadlines, I have to plot stuff, I have to keep an idea file... And to ensure all of this is done in the best way possible, I need post-its, to-do lists and coloured pens. My pages are full of stickers, drawn smiley faces and cut-outs from magazines in whatever theme I currently happen to be hot about. Strass stones are reserved for the cover, which can also be adorned with a postcard or bookmark attached with a mini clothes peg. The notebooks can be seasonally themed - like the one with the exquisite gold on black patterning used during Christmas season 2016 - or chosen completely at random, because I like them. And no, owning all these notebooks doesn't prevent me from scribbling important thoughts about my story on impossibly small scraps of paper that either get lost or prove illegible by the time I need to know what I thought so important. Fortunately, I usually also make notes at the end of my manuscript so I can go back there to recover whatever essential bit I need. But typing away on the computer only works for part of the process. Plotting has to be done on paper. Writing pitches for proposals where I can endlessly rearrange the information. Or figuring out the best character names ( I won't bother you with the story of one character who went through six names - find and replace is the best! - before I finallysettled on the perfect name for her). The other thing I'd be lost without is chocolate. Those of you who follow me on Twitter know I like to share anything chocolate, bonus if it includes salted caramel as well. Writing happens with chocolate within reach. Editing needs chocolate. Release day is celebrated with chocolate. My poor laptop has the marks to prove I snack while I tap away at that keyboard (and no, it's not chocolate,but a fatty stain on the touchpad left there by ahum... crisps!). I'm quick to say I do balance all of this by long walks -- also good for the poor back after too much time spent typing! And those moments when I'm just feeling the breeze on my face and the cadence of my own footfalls inspired me to send my heroine on a nice long beach walk with her dogs, Mr. Pug and Coco, so she could hit on a dead body and realize the victim met his end in exactly the same way as described in the latest installment in the serial Seaside Secrets, published at the same moment as the murder was committed.  
Can the sheriff just arrest the writer for the crime, or is something more complicated and sinister afoot? 

WRITTEN INTO THE GRAVE reveals it all. Although a part in a series, you need not have read the other ones to follow along, and if you like Vicky and the dogs, you can still go back to books 1 and 2, as there are NO spoilers. 

Do drop by my Twitter at @VivWrites to share your stationery weaknesses, chocolate recipes and favorite mystery books.
I'll be looking out for you! Cheers, Viv

Thanks so much to Vivian for coming along and talking to us about all things notebooks and chocolate. I am guilty of owning a shockingly huge collection of notebooks.......if only they were filled with notes for bestselling novels.....!



Vivian Conroy writes the Country Gift Shop Mysteries and the Lady Alkmene 1920s' mysteries for HQDigitalUK, a division of HarperCollins. When she's not writing, Vivian enjoys hiking, crafting and trying new dessert recipes. For all things books, with a dash of dogs and chocolate, give her a follow on Twitter via @VivWrites. You can also add and review all her books on Goodreads and LibraryThing.

To read my review of Vivian's books please click on the links below.

A Proposal To Die For

Grand Prize Murder

Dead To Begin With


You can follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#Review #NewBoy #TracyChevalier

In New Boy, the tragedy of Othello is transposed to a 1970's suburban Washington schoolyard, where kids fall in and out of love with each other before lunchtime, and practice a casual racism picked up from their parents and teachers. Peeking over the shoulders of four 11 year olds Osei, Dee, Ian, and his reluctant girlfriend Mimi, Tracy Chevalier's powerful drama of friends torn apart by jealousy, bullying and betrayal will leave you reeling.

We all know that Chevalier is a brilliant writer. And we all know that Shakespeare, well, he can really tell a story. So combine them and what have you got? An exceptionally well written, beautifully told, exciting and gripping drama. New Boy is hugely enjoyable and very very readable.

Transporting the story to America 1974, Chevalier introduces us to Osei Kokote, a diplomat's son and starting his fifth new school in as many years. He meets Dee, the most popular girl in the school which should make life easier. But Osei is the one black student and Dee is the golden girl, so how will their relationship affect the rest of the students? How will their friendship test the dynamics in the playground and the classroom? For one, fellow student Ian can't stand it and sets out to destroy the friendship between Osei and Dee in a chain of events that changes life at school in a way no one could predict and in a way that changes everything forever.

It's a tough task to reimagine a story so well known; one that has been so well constructed in the first place with such memorable characters and with such a masterful use of language. But not only does Chevalier rise to the challenge, she embraces it, runs with it and crosses the finishing line with a staggering novel that is not only true to the original essence of the tale but also manages to feel fresh and modern.

I am impressed with the way Chevalier has breathed new life into these famous characters. I am impressed with her imagination and clever adaption of setting, time and place. She skilfully combines  enjoyment, entertainment and intrigue with thought provoking questions, emotions and reactions from the presentation and interaction of her characters.

Her characterisation is perhaps the aspect of the novel I enjoyed the most. I really liked the setting of a school playground and felt it totally leant itself to the key themes in the book. Her attention to detail enables the reader to build a vivid picture in their mind and her empathetic understanding of the complexities and nuances within a school community were excellent.

"....boys running chaotically, burning up the energy that otherwise made them restless in class; or playing with a ball, always something with a ball. The girls, playing hopscotch or jacks or jump rope. The loners, reading or sitting on top of the monkey bars or tucked away in a corner or standing close to the teachers where it was safe. The bullies, patrolling and dominating. And himself, the new boy, standing still in the midst of these well-worn grooves, playing his part too."

Osei creates a dramatic impression on the teachers and students. I loved the description of him:

"Now someone new and different had entered the territory......he was moving now. Not like a bear, with its bulky, lumbering gait. More like a wolf, or.......a panther, scaled up from house cats."

Dee, one of the main protagonists and one of the most popular students in the novel, literally holds her breath when Osei makes his entrance, as does every reader. What follows next is 'casual' racism, implicit, explicit, rude and judgmental. The vagueness about where exactly in Africa Osei may be from as if to say it's all one and the same, and laziness in trying to be politically correct are amusing, effective and also very jarring.

"he doesn't need special treatment just because he's bl- a new boy."

The setting of 1974 allows Chevalier to exploit this theme of the story. Osei's attempts to become part of their community, to be trusted, liked and respected are accentuated; the intrigue, suspense and tension is much more exaggerated. The more recent setting makes the racism have more of an impact and plays on the reader's conscience much more.

Osei is a beautiful character and I shared Dee's infatuation with him. His superiority, intelligence, emotional intelligence and physical appearance all well evoked and all lovely to read!

"....his full sentences and lack of contractions, the lilt in his speech, the rich exaggeration of his vowels....."

In contrast we have Ian. Ian who "was not the tallest boy in the year."

"He did not kick balls the farthest, or jump the highest when shooting baskets, or do the most chin-ups on the monkey bars. He did not speak much in class, never had gold stars pasted to his artwork, did not win certificates at the end of the year for best mathematics....." 

Setting the novel in the school playground makes the story very real, accessible and relatable to all readers. It allows Chevalier to explore the most ugly sides of people and play out the dramatic denouement with as much tension, and with as much of an exciting climax, as Shakespeare ever did.

The opening chapters are quite lyrical and the prose is quite dense in places - although I loved the description, detail, imagery and metaphorical suggestions. But the novel does then pick up pace. There is a lot of dialogue which feels authentic, convincing and keeps the plot moving so that the tension is kept taut. It is a page turner.

I found this novel absorbing. I forgot I was reading a reimagining of a classic. I forgot I was reading a story I knew and I forgot I was reading about Othello. I was completely involved in the lives of Dee, Osei, Ian and Mimi. I was on tenterhooks as the novel galloped along to its dramatic conclusion and was as caught up in the novel as if it was something I was reading for the very first time. Chevalier is a talented writer and a masterful storyteller. This novel shows a great understanding of Shakespeare and also of themes like jealousy, bullying, love and betrayal. I recommend it.

New Boy is published by Hogarth on the 16th May 2017.

TRACY CHEVALIER



http://www.tchevalier.com/

Tracy_Chevalier

For more recommendations, reviews and bookish chat you can follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 and bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#LittleBones #SamBlake #review

Twenty-four-year-old Garda Cathy Connolly might be a fearless kick-boxing champion but when she discovers a baby's bones concealed in the hem of a wedding dress, the case becomes personal.

I really enjoyed this. It was a great read; a real page turner and a well written, well constructed crime story. It did everything you could ask a book to do! I don't know why it's taken me so long to get around to reading Sam Blake as I have seen so many rave reviews for her novel but I can assure you, as the blurb promises, protagonist Cath Connolly is indeed a bright young heroine set to take the crime world by storm!

"Cathy had seen worse, but standing here in the ransacked bedroom, her six years on the force didn't help make her feel any less unclean."

I really liked the premise for this police procedural as to me, it felt like more fresh and original than the recent crime novels I have read - there seemed to be an element of domestic noir within it and also more about a family's secret history. As the title suggests, the mystery centres around the discovery of baby bones hidden within the hem of a wedding dress that now belongs to Zoe. This is such an imaginative opening and such an intriguing discovery that I was immediately hooked!

Zoe is a struggling artist about to put on an exhibition of her work and she received the dress from her very wealthy and successful grandmother. The bones are only discovered after her house is ransacked and the dress snags on a nail revealing what turns out to be the start of a complex unravelling of a story that spans decades as well as continents.

Zoe is a well created character as I was unsure how to respond to her initially. She is clearly rattled by events - and rightly so- but the early implication that she is used to being followed, watched and judged hints at something more sinister and suggests that perhaps Zoe is privy to more than she is revealing. She appears very anxious and easily panicked as well as elusive and distant.

"There always seemed to be someone, something, watching, waiting for her trip .......the nuns who had hovered like great black birds ready to swoop on the smallest transgression......her grandmother [with] pencilled-on eyebrows raised in permanent disapproval."

I liked the lurking weight of a family name and a need to be mindful of media attention and publicity. I loved the depiction of the grandmother. I think this added extra suspense and intrigue. I liked that I didn't know how to respond to the characters who appeared to be victims but perhaps were more involved than they realised.

I really liked Cathy. She is so relatable, so likeable, so believable. She works hard, she cares, she worries, she questions and she also has her own private struggles to come to terms with. She is young but she is experienced and once again we see a female fighting in a male world and overcoming boundaries to seek out the truth and enforce justice.

"That had been the day she'd decided to join the Guards. The day she'd realised that there were people in society who meant harm to others and who needed to be stopped, and others who needed to be looked out for, and how one small act could change the course of someone's life forever." 

Cathy does have her own personal issues to deal with and I thought Blake handled this aspect of the storyline immensely well. She has picked a tricky dilemma for Cathy to find herself in - a hugely emotive one and a hugely contentious one, particularly for Ireland where the story is set. She manages it thoughtfully, sensitively, realistically but also maintains tension, fear, anxiety and plenty of suspense. It creates a more multilayered plot line which compliments the nature of the mystery and investigation taking place in the main part of the story. I liked the way Cathy could not escape her personal issues and how they affected her - she is a human, a real feeling person and this made her a very tangible, likeable heroine.

For me, I liked that this crime thriller was about families, secrets and dark revelations. The investigation relies on all the usual ingredients for a great police procedural but it also explores the complicated dynamics and relationships within a dysfunctional family. It weaves together several threads that initially seem unrelated and the reader is on tenterhooks, eagerly anticipating the resolution. Blake's control of such a multilayered novel is impressive for a debut author and suggests that this series has incredible potential.

I also really enjoyed Blake's writing style. This novel has great pace, great tension, great characters and also great description, imagery and observations. I found it very readable and would not hesitate to read anything else written by this author.

As the book says this is a Cat Connolly Thriller, I guessed it is the beginning of a series - but oh my word, I was genuinely shocked at the ending. It was such a cruel way for Blake to leave me hanging.....I do hope there is more to come because otherwise I don't know whether I can forgive her for that dramatic ending!

In case you weren't sure, I recommend this book!

Little Bones was published by Twenty 7 in May 2016.

SAM BLAKE 



Sam Blake is a pseudonym for Vanessa Fox O'Loughlin, who is originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire but has lived at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland for (almost) more years than she lived in the UK. She has been writing fiction since 1999 when her husband went sailing across the Atlantic for 8 weeks and she had an idea for a book.

Vanessa is also the founder of The Inkwell Group publishing consultancy and the Irish national writing resources website Writing.ie. She is Ireland's leading literary scout who has assisted many award winning and bestselling authors to publication. 

www.samblakebooks.com
samblakebooks

For more recommendations and reviews please follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3

#DaphneDuMaurier #SamBlake

                                                   

Today I am joined by author Sam Blake who is going to share her love for Daphne Du Maurier with us! I was really thrilled with Sam's enthusiastic response to join in with this blog tour and she was very keen to share her love for Du Maurier's novels. I hope you enjoy reading her answers as much as I did!



LITTLE BONES 
Twenty-four-year-old Garda Cathy Connolly might be a fearless kick-boxing champion but when she discovers a baby's bones concealed in the hem of a wedding dress, the case becomes personal.
You can read my full review of Little Bones here.

IN DEEP WATER was published by Zaffre in April 2017 and more details can be found here

So, on with the Q&A! Hello Sam and welcome!

Do you have a favourite book by Daphne Du Maurier and what is it you love about that book so much?

Absolutely my favorites book of all time is du Maurier's Rebecca. 

When did you discover her novels? Were you recommended them? Discover them independently? Which one did you read first?

Rebecca was the first book of du Maurier's that I read and I can't remember how I came across it - I think I might have picked up an old copy in my parents' house -  but I was blown away by it, and ever since I've discovered that a lot of the authors I know and admire also name it among their favourite books - Alex Barclay and Noelle Harrison are just two.

I've read My Cousin Rachel and Frenchmen's Creek (I holiday a couple of hundred yards from there every year) but for me Rebecca is the perfect book.

Why do you think her novels still resonant with readers today and what makes them so unforgettable?

She was a brilliant writer, the novels are multi layered and the themes are universal, themes we can all relate to (even to pirates!) She captures emotions and what is not said as much as what is said is vital to the plot. The books feel slower than the fast paced fiction we are used to today but the characters are brilliantly drawn and she keeps us on the edge of our seats with suspense!

How has she influenced your own writing? Or what impact do you think she has had on the psychological thriller genre as we know it today?

I love the blend of romance and intrigue that du Maurier achieves so effortlessly, particularly in Rebecca. She has been a huge influence on my writing - we all need someone to aspire too! I love how uses location as a character in her books, it gives them an added depth and resonance.

Which recent psychological thriller do you think Daphne Du Maurier would have wanted to have written if she were alive today? 

I think perhaps Gone Girl - du Maurier would have mastered the differing points of view with ease and she was an absolute master of misdirection.

Have you seen any of the screen adaptations of her books? Will you be going to see My Cousin Rachel? Are you able to enjoy film adaptations or do you find yourself flicking through your paperback and checking for accuracy ?!

I will definitely be going to see My Cousin Rachel - I find the screen adaptations are different from the books - Hitchcock had very good reasons for that in the original Rebecca, but I'm dying to see how modern film makers who have so much more at their disposal tackle My Cousin Rachel

If you were able to host a ‘fantasy book group’ and Du Maurier came along, what question might you ask her about her own novels? What question do you think she might set your book group about her novels?

So many questions! What was the original inspiration for Rebecca, whether she planned it or wrote it organically - did the second Mrs de Winter ever have a name, why not?! What or who inspired Mrs Danvers?  I think she'd ask a book group which we enjoyed most and why.

Can you recommend any other authors or books for fans of Du Maurier’s novels?

 There is no one to compare to her but personally I love Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan series, Alex Barclay, Karin Slaughter and Michael Connolly.

And finally, anything else to add?

Read Rebecca,  it's her best novel by far and could be the best and most perfectly formed book you ever read - the film is fabulous but the book is different and better!

I couldn't agree more! 

Thanks ever so much Sam for talking to us about Daphne Du Maurier. It's been really interesting to hear how you have been affected and influence by this writer. Thank you for joining us on this tour!

SAM BLAKE



Sam Blake is a pseudonym for Vanessa Fox O'Loughlin, who is originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire but has lived at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland for (almost) more years than she lived in the UK. She has been writing fiction since 1999 when her husband went sailing across the Atlantic for 8 weeks and she had an idea for a book.

Vanessa is also the founder of The Inkwell Group publishing consultancy and the Irish national writing resources website Writing.ie. She is Ireland's leading literary scout who has assisted many award winning and bestselling authors to publication. 

@samblakebooks 
samblakebooks.com
@inkwellhq
@writing_ie.

If you have missed the other stops on the blog tour so far then you can find them here:
Anna Mazzola
Emily Organ

And don't forget to look out for tomorrow with Annabel Abbs and Julie Owen Moylan.

You can follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk