Natasha Lester's Blog, page 4

Would You Like to Win an Early Copy of THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE?

Hello lovely newsletter subscribers! I have something very exciting to share with you. The proofs, or advance reading copies, of THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE have arrived! And they look so good!

These are the North American proofs; the Australian proofs are being printed right now. (You can see the different covers for the different editions in this post) And my publisher has sent me a few more copies than I need, so I thought I’d give a couple away!

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I have one proof to give away to my paid subs...

I Wrote a Book About a Woman Who Fought ...

For the past two years, I’ve been writing The Mademoiselle Alliance, a book about a woman named Marie-Madeleine Fourcarde who fought against a collaborationist French government that declared abortion to be treasonous, and thus punishable by death. A government that made it illegal for women to work in the public sector. A government that reintroduced laws that prohibited women from having control over the money they earned. A government that made divorce laws more restrictive for women. She als...

Two Extraordinary Women: Lee Miller & Kate Winslet

I went to see LEE on the weekend, in which Kate Winslet turns in the performance of a lifetime as war correspondent Lee Miller. Those of you who’ve been following me for a while will know that my 2019 novel, called The French Photographer in most of the world but going by the title The Paris Orphan in North America, features a main character who was inspired by Lee Miller, and that I’ve long been fascinated by Miller. So the stakes were high for me—I wanted Winslet to do justice to the bold, tro...

Time For a Bookish Chat

Some books are so hyped it’s almost hard to read them because what if they let you down? Others slip more quietly into your consciousness, mentioned in a few Substack posts, spotted on Instagram, discussed in a podcast—murmuring in the background of your life. What’s the thing that tips you over from disinterested observer to buyer of that book? Believe me, that’s a question all publishers and most authors would love to know the answer to!

For me, there’s nothing surer than a recommendation from ...

Cover Reveal Time! It's a Stunner!

Hello everybody! I’ve just come back from a solo writing retreat refreshed and revived and head down into the manuscript for my 2026 book—but before we get to 2026, we have all the excitement of 2025 ahead of us! It’s getting close to the end of the year now, which means it’s less than six months to go until The Mademoiselle Alliance is in bookstores everywhere, so all the fun stuff is starting to happen! Before I went on my retreat, I finished the copyedit for the book, which I wrote about for ...

Capitalisation, Commas and Character Eye Colours

I’ve just finished the copyedit for THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE—woo hoo! The copyedit is simultaneously one of the most painful and best parts of the process of getting a book out into the world. It’s where you discover you’ve changed the eye colour of one of your main characters from grey-green to blue halfway through the story, where you have intense debates about the rules of capitalisation in French vs English, because they’re really quite different—and when you’re referring to organisations f...

If I Could Write With a Blindfold On ...

I started a Learn to Draw class three weeks ago, inspired by my daughter. She’s doing drawing classes as part of her Bachelor of Fashion and Textile Design and when I visited her in Sydney recently, I saw one of her latest drawings. It was just done in pencil. It was of a face. And, my god, it was fantastic. I had no idea that a simple pencil could produce something so beautiful.

So I enrolled in a Learn to Draw class because I want to be able to draw a face as well as she can with just a simple...

Discovering Catherine Dior

It would have been Catherine (Ginette) Dior’s 107th birthday last month and, by sheer coincidence, I also had the opportunity last month to talk about Catherine to a group of people participating in Dressed: The School of Fashion, an offshoot of my favourite fashion podcast. So I thought why not take a look at her extraordinary life in more detail here.

My regular readers will remember Catherine Dior as a character in my novel, The Paris Secret. But who was she really, and why do so few people kn...

Exciting News! And Beach Reads and Writerly Catch Ups & Book Recommendations Galore.

Something very exciting has happened(!), which is why this newsletter is a little delayed. Just as I was about to send it out last week, I was told this news, which was embargoed until today. So I hope you’ll forgive the week’s delay and celebrate with me instead. And the news is …

My most recent book, The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard, has been longlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize! This is such an honour; it’s the richest literary prize in Australia and while obviously the winner get...

50 of My Favourite Books

There have been a few posts circulating lately in response to the New York Times list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. Not everybody agreed—of course!—and there were accusations about literary snobbishness and such a huge response to the article that the New York Times then compiled a second list, based on the votes of its readers. Interestingly, only 39—less than half!—of the books chosen by readers were also on the list chosen by the NYT.

We all know there’s no definitive list of the ...