My wife and I went to Jerusalem and Palestine in November 2017 as part of a study group. In the city we saw sites familiar to many – including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Golden Gate, the Garden of Gethsemane, St George’s Cathedral, the Western Wall and Yad Vashem the Holocaust Memorial. Even…
Last year, I sat watching some grainy film footage of the Nuremburg war crimes tribunal in the building where it all happened. It was 27 years since I had left my Foreign Office posting in Berlin, during the last years of a city split by a hateful wall. Playing my part in exercising Allied right…
The final character profile from A Motif of Seasons compares two people, one with a strong sense of discretion, who hides their feelings and keeps secrets, and another with a strong and emotional openness and the rebelliousness of a new generation forged in war. Count Frederick Paul von Deppe Frederick is Count Joseph von Deppe’s…
The penultimate character profile from A Motif of Seasons contrasts a man of enterprise whose character is undermined by greed and disloyalty with a young man from a similar unorthodox background but who does not succumb to the same petty human weakness. Ernst Kiefer Kiefer is a devious fixer, chancer and thug who allows his…
Today’s character profile from A Motif of Seasons features another mother and daughter: a woman, full of suppressed rage and unfulfilled revenge, who fails to see that her daughter, despite her contrasting happiness and success, is just as vulnerable and insecure. Rebecca Bartlett Rebecca is a young English governess to Count Joseph and Countess Beatrice’s…
Continuing the series of posts introducing new readers to some of the key characters in A Motif of Seasons, here is the third pairing. Count Joseph von Deppe and his wife Countess Beatrice offer a perfect juxtaposition of Prussian-style inflexibility against a woman’s determined and clever outmanoeuvring. Count Joseph von Deppe He is head of…
Continuing the series of posts introducing new readers to some of the key characters in A Motif of Seasons, here are the second pairing. Charles Hardinge and Robert Whitfield typify the contrast between the good and dark sides of human nature and the damage the latter can cause. Charles Hardinge Victoria Elise’s English husband, he…
Over the next few days, I’d like to introduce new readers to some of the key characters in A Motif of Seasons. As an author, I’m fascinated by the different aspects of human nature, so I’ve decided to pair the characters up to compare and contrast them. Here are the first two. Exemplified by a…
People often ask me about my writing method. Of course, each writer has his or her own but here is mine (please remember I’m relatively new at the game). First, I set myself a completion deadline and stick to it. This approach probably reflects my diplomatic career in which every task – writing a brief,…
I have already written about the way in which some pieces of 18th and 19th century music inspired a handful of scenes in each of the three books in the Herzberg trilogy. As a general rule I do not write to music playing in the background, much preferring to write in silence. The room in…
With just over 3 weeks to go until the publication of the latest and last book in the Herzberg trilogy, A Motif of Seasons, my diligent team has selected six extracts to provide readers with a little glimpse into what they can expect. My personal favourite is the poem written by Frederick in the bloody…
As a former diplomat and a strong advocate of taking the long view, I’ve witnessed the good and bad in human nature amongst many I’ve met in my career. I reflect this in my writing, not least in my third novel – A Motif of Seasons. I’ve also drawn on forty years of being part…