About
From early childhood a poem, executed by my own hand was a compulsory requirement for my father’s birthday. To the reluctant five year old this was considered a trial, but by the age of seven writing poetry had become my passion. At ten I won my first national poetry competition and from that moment I dreamt of being a writer.
This particular dream took rather longer than I had hoped because reading law, marriage at nineteen, children, a career as an interior designer – something always got in the way. When I moved with my second husband, three children and four step children to Burnt Norton twenty years ago, and I happened upon the empty pools made famous by TS Eliot in the first of his Four Quartets, I knew that one day the dream would become a reality.
In 2018 after first writing a historical novel set at Burnt Norton I changed agents to William Morris Endeavour and it was here that I felt truly at home. Within a fairly short time, Matilda Forbes Watson had procured a two book deal with Orion for ‘An Italian Affair’ and ‘A Paris Secret’. She recently procured a further two book deal for a novel set in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and a novel set in Greece.
Learn more about Burnt NortonBooks
Shadows Over the Spanish Sun
A country in the shadow of war. A love that burns through the decades...
Burnt Norton
Shortly after moving into Burnt Norton twenty years ago, I learnt the tragic story Sir William Keyt, master of Norton House in the 18th Century. Despite his wealth, his social position at the head of a loving family, he began a descent into a spiral of misery and excess, squandering the fortune amassed by his ancestors and destroying the family name.
This became the subject and title of my first novel, Burnt Norton. We still live in this evocative and wonderful house, that inspired TS Eliot to write the first of his Four Quartets. Everyone who ventures beyond the while gates into the pool garden can not help but be captivated by the mysterious and haunting atmosphere still remaining to this day.