The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson (A Featured Blogger Series).

A short film showing the landscape of The Lantern, the new novel by Deborah Lawrenson, set in Provence.

Original music by Robert Rees


 I am thrilled today to feature Deborah Lawrenson, an accomplished author and blogger. Feel free to visit her sometime. Thank you so much Deborah, for this special interview. I look forward to reading your new novel as well.

When did you start blogging and why?
I’d been reading literary blogs for years, without feeling the need to write one myself. The reason I started is because my website designer suggested that a linked blog would be a good way of updating my website without involving any input from her! As soon as I’d started though, I immediately saw the rich possibilities of using the blog to make contacts I’d never otherwise have made, especially as I was about to be published in the USA for the first time. 
What inspires you to blog???
I’m not sure inspiration comes into it, normally. I post twice a week and I’ll have a few topics in mind, and then go with what I feel like writing on the day. The times when that changes are when I’m in France and something lovely and entirely unexpected happens, or catches my eye. We split our time between England and France, and while the blog is set in France most of my serious writing is done in England.

How did your passion for writing start?
I’ve been an avid reader since childhood, so books have always been a big part of my life. I love words and language too, so it always seemed a natural progression. I didn’t have the confidence to start writing a novel straight out of university, but I thought that if I became a journalist I could play around with words and stories all day, and meet some interesting people! It was the best decision I ever made.

Tell us a little about your talented husband. (Audio clip of Rob music above).
Rob and I met when we were at Cambridge together. There, he was always involved in the theatre and various musical ventures but turned down the chance to do a professional production when he left, as he had a stock-broking traineeship. He then worked in finance in London, but gave that up, very happily, some years ago to follow his dream of composing music. We always say we’re Practical Bohemians – we always wanted to live an artistic life, but didn’t want to starve in a garret. We’ve had our share of luck, but we’ve also worked very hard to get where we are now.

The thing I love most about what I do is…
I still genuinely enjoy sitting at my desk trying out words for size, and the gradual achievement of writing a novel.
Who are your style or inspirational icons?
I love the chic of the French woman. I never manage it myself, as I am tall and wide-shouldered and so clearly British…but if there’s one woman whose style epitomizes everything I admire, it would be Catherine Deneuve.

Who are some of your fave blogs?
The lit blogs Cornflower and Tales from the Reading Room. Crime Always Pays is a fantastic book blog by Irish comedy thriller writer Declan Burke, full of reviews, interviews and his own good writing. I also love style blogs, like French Essence, Seductively French, and Postcard from Provence, the artist Julian Merrow-Smith’s painting blog. Also perfume blogs like Perfume Shrine.

I’m currently obsessed with…
The building work at our house in Provence, and whether it will be completely finished for summer. Then what we’re going to do with the garden…
On a Saturday afternoon you will find me...
Ideally, with my nose in a good book!
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I’d be very happy to find myself in the same place I am now.
Favorite Quote…
“How vainly men themselves amaze
To win the palm, the oak or bays”
These are the opening lines of the poem The Garden by the seventeenth century writer and politician Andrew Marvell. The poem is a persuasive argument for retreat into the sanctuary of the garden where one can gather one’s thoughts undisturbed. There’s such cleverness in it, in the puns on “vainly” and “amaze” implying a stunned confusion as well as the idea of being caught in a maze unable to find a solution, as he rejects the noisy outside world, ambitious for honors – “the palm, the oak or bays (laurel wreaths)” - to sit a while, and think, in green seclusion.


Love to you Deborah.

xxx




 

Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing another great blog with us. I've just hopped over and followed her. Great interview!
    btw, I love your new header!

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