Fiona McIntosh's Blog, page 2

Don’t risk losing your storytellers

I feel I too must leap into the abyss of despair that the Australian Productivity Commission created recently over copyright legislation. In a double kick in the guts for Australian writers, the Commission is firstly supporting the strategy that any country should have the right to dump books on the Australian market. As well, it wants to severely limit a writer’s ability to continue to earn from the sale of his or her books.

The Commission has also decided, in what feels like pretence at economic reform, that I – and other writers – apparently don’t wish to make money from writing books. In its wisdom it feels I clearly write, not for a living, but entirely for love…and that I don’t need to feed or clothe myself, or my family. If the proposal goes ahead I will lose the rights to my books after a set number of years allowing anyone in the world to publish them and I can no longer earn from something that is mine, turning my writing into little more than a hobby.

Does that seem fair? It sounds like theft to me.

We are going to become the bargain basement for other nation’s books if we don’t stand up and fight to protect our publishing industry and everyone involved in it.

UK, US, Europe, Asia would not allow their publishing industries to be made a soft target like this but all would happily pour their overstocks into our newly opened market and essentially trample and kill off a small but shiny industry that does its country proud and is also one that gives, it doesn’t take.

Can we just take a snapshot of Australia’s publishing industry please:

It’s clean.
It creates something innovative every day.
It genuinely encourages the young and offers them job.
It values the senior staff with all of their wisdom.
It gives women especially an arena that all of their inherent and sometimes unheralded skills in perception, nurturing, communicating, emotional exchange, solid team management, marketing, promotions and reading can be put to sharpest use.
Women in publishing who are in relationships, have families, want to start families are not penalised or set back in any way that I know of, for pursuing a family life alongside their working life. Can we say the same of many other industries?
It offers one of the happiest environments in which to work – as an industry it probably has one of the lowest turnovers of jobs in terms of staff not wanting to move on. People in publishing love and live books and they want to remain around them in one shape or another.
It offers one of the least stressy environments in which to work. People work hard, work long hours but I don’t sense a lot of hostility or defensiveness as a result of being miserably pushed or pressured.
Publishers pay taxes.
Authors pay taxes
Publishing doesn’t hurt the the environment, it isn’t cruel to animals, it doesn’t create frightening pollution and it is a thriving export business – and don’t governments love to brag about our creative exports?
Australian books from Australian writers and publishers bring immeasurable pleasure to an Australian audience. As a nation we are now known for supporting our own as much as reading overseas writers.
Australian books from Australian writers and publishers ensure we protect our creative identity in the world and above all, that we protect the voices of our writers in both commercial or literary fiction, and in non-fiction.
The publishing industry is NOT asking the tax payer for a cent. It requires no subsidy and no special considerations. It stands alone as a working, successful industry model.

For those who don’t know how the publishing industry works, this might help.

I am a storyteller. I write those stories down and a publisher- let’s use mine, Penguin Random House as an example – judges each story based on its merit. If the publisher believes that there’s an audience out there that will enjoy this story, it acquires the manuscript and spends up to a year working hard on producing a book that everyone can feel proud of. A great number of people are involved in this process. Booksellers have to be convinced to stock and support it. If that happens and once the book is released the audience alone decides on whether it was a successful project. If individuals like the sound of the story then they purchase and as the originator I earn a royalty on that purchase but also everyone else involved also shares in the profit for that book including the publisher, the bookseller, the printer, the distributor, the person who puts up posters in airports…to the very person who drove the forklift to move the crate of books from a warehouse onto a truck.

My single story, if it’s successfully published, will touch the lives of dozens of people through the wages it will help to cover.

What’s more, if successful, it will touch the lives of potentially tens of thousands of readers for whom it brings entertainment, escape, emotional release, diversion and pleasure.

Take a moment to think of all the glorious Australian books that you have loved over the years. Pick one. Schindler’s Ark? The Book Thief? The Thorn Birds? The Power of One? Can you imagine having to buy your favourite Australian novel, written by an Australian writer, from an Australian bookseller only stocking the American version? Is that what you want? American spelling? American sensibilities? Acknowledgements of American editors?

It’s troubling that my Australian readers might have to read a foreign version of my writing with the editing angled to suit the taste of a different audience to Australia. This is what the Productivity Commission is suggesting is a really great idea for the Australian Government to pursue.

The former Labor government is not immune to this, be warned. It tried and changed its mind, thank goodness. I was one of the people that went to Canberra to address Caucus in order to put a face to the industry they were setting up to destroy. And now the Liberal Government is falling prey to the same idiotic idea and I am still to work out why? I’m not sure who it benefits; it feels like smoke and mirrors to show Australia that its politicians are busy at economic reform when in fact this is not reform but a return to a darker age.

The Commission says it will improve pricing on books.

Maybe a few of the major blockbusters will be lower in price but not enough to make anyone feel anything but cheapened by the move. Instead, Australian audiences will be spoonfed what overseas publishers want them to read. It was tried in NZ and failed miserably. Books did not become massively cheaper and the local industry has all but collapsed.

Buried somewhere within this move – and while I’m sure it’s not intended by our Government – is the danger that the major publishers in Australia will no longer get to choose what they publish. The real threat is that they will no longer act autonomously, they may no longer source new literary voices out of Australia and instead might have to kowtow to what the new head office deems the Australian audience should be reading.

Can you see how the homegrown writers will suffer?

I host a Commercial fiction masterclass twice a year for new and aspiring writers. I am regularly astonished by the talent that sits down with me in those bootcamp weeks but that talent needs nurturing, confidence-building and especially time and support to walk on steady feet before it can run and kick goals. My masterclass is about discovering, guiding and focusing that talent onto a pathway forward to publication. What is the point of all these fabulous new writers desperately trying to be noticed when, if the Productivity Commission has its way, there won’t be a thriving publishing industry for new writers to enter? And new writers invariably cannot get noticed by overseas publishers and we should all fear that our young, bright voices may not ever get heard.

What this all signals is the potential demise of our enviable Australian publishing industry. At the recent Australian Book Industry Awards I listened to well known writer after well known writer get on the stage and shake a fist at this crazy plan. I listened to international writers shake their heads aghast at our government while admitting their governments wouldn’t dream of opening the doors to cheap imports.

You may love the idea of a bargain book but you surely cannot love the notion of overseas publishers making money out of the Australian public while the Australian publishing industry begins its decline. Remember these overseas publisher do not pay taxes here, while our industry does.

It’s not hard to see what will occur ….jobs will go first…in bookstores, in the printing industry, in publishers. Authors might even stop writing because they simply can’t get a worthwhile contract. You won’t notice it at first but then you’ll look up one day soon and wonder why the book you’re buying is printed on cheap paper, with a cheap cover and the bookstore is a bargain basement perhaps selling kitty litter as well and the staff don’t really know all that much about the books on the shelves. And wait a minute…where are all the Aussie writers?

On a more personal note, moving away from the industry and into the home of my family, it was 16 years ago that I took the most enormous risk. My husband and I began with very little but we set up a business in 1985 and we cast all doubts aside and went for it. I was not quite 25 and I was gung ho and crazy in love. Our little magazine publishing business went from strength to strength until from tiny Adelaide began to take on the big boys in Sydney and Melbourne. We began to win awards, we went national, we went international and we became a fabulous little powerhouse in travel industry publishing. At the height of our success we had a growing family…twin boys, hard won because they were IVF, plus all the trappings of a young family of mortgage, car repayments, all those scary utility bills that drop in at the worst time, and school fees. We went without plenty but I was fine with this until I was turning 40. At 39 I had the proverbial mid life crisis and decided I wanted to do something entirely selfish and my big meltdown became a yearning to write. I don’t know quite how or why it crept up on me.

But I did something about it rather than bleat. I wrote a story, sent it off in a time that was pre-internet when email was still to arrive and websites sounded like science fiction. A major publisher rang me and said it wanted three books and within weeks I had a contract. It was a fairytale. And in my excitement I decided writing fiction was all I wanted to do forever more and I was prepared to risk everything for it. My husband wondered if I needed hospitalization. I begged him to trust me. He did. We sold the business, lived off love, fresh air, eggs and some savings and I began to write madly…book after book. It took a while. It took a decade in fact of frugal living and massive debt that we juggled and nudged at until in 2009 I got my big break.

Since then life has been on the up. I wouldn’t say easy street. But we’ve paid off debt, we’ve seen our sons through high school, through university and off into their next stage of life. It was only last year – 2015 – that I began to feel the effects of all our frugality and my endeavour….finally the books were beginning to deliver and we were beginning to feel that our future was secure.

Much of that security, after years in the wilderness and worry, is connected with the copyright of my books. That’s my intellectual property. It means the rights to those books can be sold into different territories around the world. So, if a market, let’s say France, wants to read The Lavender Keeper, it has to buy the rights to publish in the French language. And I not only earn from selling those rights but I also earn royalties on books sold. It’s my income. It’s why I don’t approach my work as an artist but in a workmanlike manner – because I see myself as a worker. Some people make roads, others make wine, or pasta or coffee. I make stories. My husband overnight went from Managing Editor and Publisher of a top title to head cook and bottle washer. It took courage for him to stop being top dog and start being a supporting stay at home husband while his wife built a new business from the ground up. It took trust and belief. It took ages too but committed and boots in together we did it.

The Productivity Commission has decided, in its ongoing stupidity, that it would like to take away my rights to my books after a set number of years and then allow anyone in the world to publish them as they see fit and I am owed nothing.

Do other creators have to give up their IP? Why should any writer give up their legal rights to their work? My first book that captured the imagination of the publishers and hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, will already be out of copyright if the new plan goes ahead.  And I’ve been patiently waiting to start earning from some of those books written a decade ago.

The government thinks it’s okay, with a sweep of a hand, to suggest taking away copyright is a really good thing…for whom, pray tell?

If any of this motivates you to stand up for the writers of Australia and for the publishing industry, would you please let your local MP know, write to your local newspaper, write to the Prime Minister.

We are not asking for a subsidies, for tax cuts, for grants. We’re actually not even asking for protection. We’re simply asking for fairness – the same rules applying towards intellectual property that applies in other markets e.g. UK, US, Europe, Asia.   And it won’t cost you a cent, not now, not later, to support the call for our Government to leave the clean, productive, happy, tax-paying, audience pleasing Australian publishing industry and its authors alone.

I read in The Age that the cost of a paperback today is about the same price it was more than two decades ago while a federal MPs wage has tripled in that time to nearly $200k.

We are your storytellers…don’t lose us!

Please make a noise wherever you can especially at this Election time. The writers and publishers of Australia thank you.

HOW TO WRITE YOUR BLOCKBUSTER … a practical guide

OUT IN STORE AND ONLINE FROM MAY 27



I have been asked countless times about when I’m going to write a book about writing a book. It’s something that was close to Bryce Courtenay’s heart that I tackle this task and in forcing me to take on the masterclass, he also pushed me harder with the practical guide to storytelling that I was pottering with. He insisted on having the final say too, as you will see from his remark.

Anyway, the point of this is not to big note myself or to suggest that I know all there is to know about writing novels. Quite the contrary, it’s everything I personally have acquired to this point about the creative side of the craft.



I think it’s important to accept that we never stop learning. It is my intent that every novel I write is better than the last. That doesn’t necessarily equate to it being more popular than the last or that it outsells its predecessor (although that trend is highly desirable). No, my intention is that technically I improve with each new release.It means that I bolt the story together more fluidly, that the words follow one another in an even more pleasing rhythm, that the chapters connect more seamlessly, that the characters have more depth and development, that the story packs an entertaining wallop so I never let down my readers, that the plot is intriguing, that the cast is engaging, that the storytelling itself has more grace, more finesse, more oomph! And so it goes. I want everything about the delivery of the latest story to be better than the last one.



If we accept that improvement is a natural progression with each novel then it’s fair to say that I keep learning and thus the practical guide is everything I had acquired and could offer up to March 2015 when I signed it over for publication. No doubt by the end of this year with two more novels under my belt, I may have acquired some new skills.

In fact, most certainly I have because the Christmas 2015 novel is written in first person point of view. That’s a first for me. I have always lurked happily with the omnipotent third person pov but this imprisonment in the mind of one person offered up an array of challenges for me that I enjoyed tackling. I’ll let readers be the judge of my ability in this first person pov but my editor is very happy and that makes me happy.



This guide – and that’s all I claim it to be – is a practical tool to help new writers acquire some confidence and a pathway forward on the journey of their commercial fiction novel, and it cannot replace the masterclass. There is something magical about masterclass; something spiritual if you must, certainly ethereal that swirls around the cohorts and not only binds them but propels them in the right direction. You only have to ask a masterclasser to discover the effect that this week has on their positivity, productivity and their sense of potential within. The bootcamp nature of me in your face each day getting the very best out of you – even if you’re an absolute beginner, can’t be compared to reading a book at home, alone and drawing wisdom from it.



How to Write Your Blockbuster will, however, set you up in a practical manner, for success. It will force you to confront the isolating pastime and mammoth journey of your first commercial fiction novel but with a firm sense of hands behind your back, shoving you forward and whispering encouragement.



It is going to be a helpful companion to writers who cannot get to masterclass for one reason or another. And although, unlike masterclass, it cannot give you that one-on-one, or answer your questions, or show you aspects of your writing that could be improved in various ways, it will add structure to your time at the keyboard and enable you to appreciate that you can go the distance. Its aim is to accompany you on the journey and to assure you that many have trod this path before and you have little to fear except a lack of imaginative storytelling.



It’s written in plain, user friendly style and tries not to get above itself. I do think beginners will get the best out of themselves with a guide like this to consult but even for writers a little further into their journey, it may just trigger the optimism or determination you’ve been searching for.



I do hope this new book helps somewhere on your commercial fiction journey and if you need something a bit more hands-on, I’ll be waiting for you in masterclass.

You can get a copy of HTWYB in good bookstores or online here and I gather it’s already on pre-order:



Bookworld: http://www.bookworld.com.au/books/how-to-write-your-blockbuster-mcintosh-fiona/p/9780143572381

Booktopia: http://www.booktopia.com.au/how-to-write-your-blockbuster-fiona-mcintosh/prod9780143572381.html



QBD: https://www.qbd.com.au/product/9780143572381/how-to-write-your-blockbuster/fiona-mcintosh/

Penguin: http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143572381/how-write-your-blockbuster

Happy writing all. F

My salted toffee and chocolate tart

This was requested on Facebook, so here we go….

Okay, nerves of steel to take the caramel all the way to oozy toffee. If you love making pastry it’s going to be so much better home made. But if you panic at pastry, then use a super top brand such as Careme. It is worth paying that extra for the quality. And if you want to go all the way, make a chocolate pastry with dutch cocoa. You need enough to line a single 24cm tart tin.

Toffee

250ml cream

60g unsalted butter

325g sugar – I used caster but you can use normal white sugar.

Approx half cup water

Approx to taste 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of sea salt flakes. I use Maldon and the quantity is very much to taste.

Ganache

200g quality chocolate – use 70% dark

160ml cream

Make your tart base – keep it thin. I worked with a 24cm tart case and that served eight people with plenty left over because small slices are required. Bake your pastry blind and then bake to golden. If it’s a chocolate version, follow a recipe for baking to perfect crispness. Let it cool.

Begin making your toffee by first putting the cream and butter in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Set aside for the time being and go to the next stage.

In another saucepan (medium), stir the sugar and water over a low heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. You want no crystals in it. Turn up the heat and stop stirring to let it boil. Forget sugar thermometers. This is instinct. It’s going to take about six to seven mins before you have golden caramel and then you have to grit your teeth and watch it all go a fraction scary as your caramel goes into a dark toffee. Now…be ready and remember, it’s frighteningly hot.

Off the heat and very quickly tip in the cream mixture. It’s going to splutter and carry on so I have a tea towel strategically placed to protect my hand holding the saucepan. It will calm down quickly but it does keep cooking a little. Add salt. If you have the nerve, you can put it back on the heat and cook it for another minute as I do to thicken it up. Set aside to cool and go oozy. I left mine overnight but you can tip it straight into your cooled pastry case and put it into the fridge for an hour or so.

To make the ganache, put your chocolate and cream into a small pan and over your lowest heat melt the chocolate until you have a smooth, glossy mix. Leave it to stand and thicken up. I left mine for about an hour.

Pour the chocolate over the toffee and back into the fridge for however long you need. I left mine for a couple of hours.

Let it warm up slightly before serving. I would cut with a hot knife too for clean slices and remember that toffee is going to ooze and take the chocolate with it so back into the fridge with what you don’t eat. Some people like to sprinkle salt onto the chocolate – I don’t. I can’t imagine crunching on salt crystals with this dessert. I just make the toffee salty enough and I’d add some glamour gold leaf for drama if you want to impress but I promise the dessert is going to impress come what may.

I serve with a dash of runny cream to cut through the sweetness but even so it is meant to be a rich, unctuous, totally decadent taste experience … enjoy!

Chocolate Desperation Cake

You will not regret giving this a go. If, like me, you suddenly and desperately need chocolate and can’t find any plus you are trapped with no shops that are close, this is your shiny knight. Just make sure you have about a cup of cocoa on hand. Everything else I reckon you’ll have in your pantry. And it’s easy. One pan, one cake tin. Eat alone, without guilt!

Ingredients

1 cup of water

125 gm golden caster sugar (or white if you don’t have)

½ cup cocoa

½ teaspoon bicarb of soda

125g butter (pref unsalted)

125g self raising flour

vanilla (preferably extract)

2 eggs lightly beaten

Icing – Stir together one cup of icing sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa, 40g butter, about one tablespoon of hot water (go slowly with water – it won’t look enough but it is!)

Throw everything but your eggs and flour into a saucepan and warm. Don’t boil, just make sure the sugar has dissolved. Then simmer it for a couple of minutes.

Cool this. Give it at least half an hour before you add the flour and eggs so that you don’t cook the eggs.

I buttered, floured and lined whatever small round tin I could find. I guess it was 8-9”.

I baked for 40 mins at 180 degrees celsius on normal convection and it was perfect and after five mins cool down, tipped out of the tin easily because I’d taken the trouble with prepping the old tin well.

After cooling to cold I iced.

And then I ate it in desperation and my family agreed it was perhaps the lightest, most delicious, most chocolatey cake I’d ever made.

Winter Fruit Pie

This recipe is from a Lantern recipe book from Penguin simply called Matt Moran. I bake this pie/tart regularly because it is constantly requested by the family and works as a treat or an elegant dinner party dessert. Can be served warmed or room temperature. And much of it can be done well in advance. Perfect!

Ingredients

45g dried apples

40g dates

100g dried pears

150g dried apricots

150g prunes

100g dried figs

ground allspice

ground cinnamon

120ml brandy

200g caster sugar

2 large egg yolks

40ml cream

salt

jar pref homemade of apricot jam

Pastry

750g plain flour

450g unsalted butter

100g icing sugar

1 egg

Tip all dried fruit and teaspoon of the spices into a bowl, add brand, enough hot water to cover the fruit, then cover the bowl and leave to soak for 24hrs in the fridge.

Make the pastry using a food processor – whizz flour, butter, sugar until you have breadcrumb consistency. Add egg with motor running until the dough forms. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest for a couple of hours in the fridge.

Roll out half the pastry and line your tart tin of about 27cm. Rest in the fridge…and let your tart case rest too ☺ Roll out the other half to roughly 5mm thickness and cut into 1cm strips using a zig zag cutter if you must.

Right, pre-heat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Strain fruit but reserve liquid. Chop fruit roughly and set aside Put reserved liquid into a saucepan, add sugar and heat, stirring until the syrup turns golden brown. Moisten the fruit with a little of the syrup.

Spoon fruit into the tar shell and lace the strips. Don’t get too precious about this. Whisk egg yolks and cream with a pinch of salt – just lightly – and brush over the top of the pie. Bake until golden brown…depending on your oven, around 40 mins.

While the pie is still hot, bring apricot jam to boil with 150ml of water, then glaze your creation in it.

Serve with either thick cream or vanilla ice cream. It’s going to serve at least eight and up to ten people.

My Veggie Burgers

As promised at Facebook, here is my version of veggie burgers. Someone told me that to add three tablespoons of peanut butter to achieve a lovely nutty flavour. I tried it and it was lovely but that is an option.

Ingredients

1 x can of chick peas drained and rinsed

2 zucchinis grated

2 medium carrots grated

2 large pods of garlic minced

2 small eggs or one extra large

2-3 slices wholegrain bread

2 ears of corn cooked with niblets removed

1 medium onion chopped fine

Curry paste of your choice – I used my mum’s but buy your favourite, the richer the better

Fresh mint and parsley chopped – the more the merrier

Lemon zest and juice

Seasoning – salt flakes, freshly ground black pepper

Sauce

Cup of Yoghurt

Generous tablespoon of Tahini

Sweet chutney or chilli sauce

Method

Fry onion until transparent. Add the carrots and zucchini and fry until they are soft. About five mins. Tip everything into a strong colander and drain, pressing down to remove any juice. Leave to dry while you get on with the rest.

Throw the bread into a food processor and whiz up to fresh breadcrumbs. Add garlic, lemon zest and juice, herbs and blend. Add drained vegetables and blend. Add a can of chickpeas and blend but not to a mash as slightly thicker pieces help to bind. Tip everything into a large bowl and add the curry paste, egg, corn and use your hands to bring everything together. This is optional so use your discretion…I add bran, wheatgerm and/or some sort of fibre. I would happily throw in a fistful of rolled oats. I would throw in some nut meal…anything I have in the pantry that adds texture, flavour and fibre. Season to taste.

With slightly damp hands form into patties. Place on greaseproof paper on a tray and I like to chill these right down. In fact if time permits, freeze them. You’ll thank me for how well they’ll cook later.

To cook, put some sunflower oil or similar in a non-stick fry pan and shallow fry on medium heat from frozen if you wish but make sure you let a crust form. Don’t fiddle or nudge them or you’ll lose that crust! Turn over after about six to seven minutes and fry on the other side. Remember everything is essentially already cooked so you’re browning and heating through as well if frozen.

Drain and serve with super healthy buns with some lettuce/tomato and a hefty dollop of the sauce. Add some chutney.

Alternatively, forgo buns and serve with a salad.

These happily keep frozen or in the fridge for a couple of days.

BOOK CLUB NOTES FOR THE FRENCH PROMISE

If you’re reading The French Promise in your book club, you may enjoy having these conversation points to prompt your discussion and to get the conversation ranging. Enjoy and thank you so much for reading this novel of mine. F



Book Club Notes for The French Promise

1. Discuss the prologue of the novel. Do you think it was an effective opening to the story? How did it affect you as a reader?

2. Was Max Vogel wrong in defying Lisette’s request and bringing his discovery to the attention of Luc nearly two decades after the end of WWII?

3. Discuss the tragic events at Clifton Beach in Tasmania. What would any mother do in those circumstances?

4. Do you think Luc Bonet is a tragic literary figure or a heroic one?

5. Is every adult character in The French Promise damaged as a result of WWII?

6. Were you pleased to see Luc find love again?

7. Was Luc’s decision to hunt down von Schleigel justified? What would you have done if you were in his shoes?

8. Discuss the ways in which Jane helps Luc and Jenny to heal past wounds. In what ways do they help her do the same in return?

9. Discuss the different promises that are made throughout the novel. How many of them are kept?

10. What do you think might happen to these characters next? Fiona deliberately left the ending of this story open so readers could make up their own minds.

BOOK CLUB NOTES FOR THE LAVENDER KEEPER

For all you wonderful book club members who may have read The Lavender Keeper, here are some discussion points to get your book club gathering off to a lively start. Thank you to everyone in your club and do send me a photo of you all with the book and I’ll publish it! Don’t forget names please.

Book Club Notes for The Lavender Keeper

1. Was it fair to recruit young women, like Lisette Forestier, as spies during the war? Discuss the dislocation, fear and loneliness such women experienced and the courage required.

2. Could you have played Lisette’s role in WWII for king and country?

3. Do you sympathise with the Maquis and the other collaborators in the novel, such as Monsier Fougasse and Madame Marchand? Do you think the author does?

4. Was Luc justified in killing Milicien Landry? Can there ever be justification for playing judge and executioner?

5. Discuss the two main settings of the novel – the Luberon, ‘like a laughing country girl’, and Paris, the ‘chic woman’. Which one appealed to you more?

6. Was Colonel Markus Kilian a hero or a villain?

7. In your opinion, did Lisette choose the right man?

8. Do you think Lisette took her responsibilities one step too far and crossed a moral line?

9. Have you ever met a more evil literary villain than Captain Frederic von Schleigel?

10. Discuss the symbolism of the lavender in this story.

The inspiration for Tapestry – an historical timeslip

The idea for this novel came from reading an account of one of only two escapes from the history of the Tower of London, beautifully written like a wonderful series of vignettes by Nigel Jones in his book called Tower. Do read it for all of its grisly, brilliant, historical tales.

Anyway, I was so enchanted by the tale of courageous Lady Nithsdale, who by all accounts, was fragile of health and yet she undertook the most audacious and inspired escape on behalf of her husband that was so daring it was comical in its simplicity. How she ever found the nerve to pull it off is extraordinary and I can only imagine how terrified she was that night, on the eve of her husband’s beheading, and the willpower it took to keep a straight face, an iron nerve and achieve the ‘misdirection’ to get her husband out of Britain’s most feared fortress. There was no match for the Tower of London in Europe but a tiny Welsh woman, married to a Scottish earl and driven by her love for him, made mockery of the British Crown.

I had to use this story. I knew as soon as I finished reading about her daring that I wanted to wrap fiction around it and I remember telling my agent that I could feel some magical fiction of a timeslip novel working really well. At first he was horrified that I was about to tamper with British history with fantasy but hopefully no one can be offended by the story that began to wrap itself around the Earl and Countess that clashes modern Britain with early Georgian Britain in a timeslip that felt so right as I crafted it.

The first place I went researching was London and I was so lucky that my agent knew the Chief Constable of the Tower, Sir Richard Dannatt, who together with his wife, made me feel so welcome in the Queen’s House – their home in the Tower. I had to keep pinching myself that I was seated in the house built in the reign of Henry VIII that was custodian to many famous prisoners including Guy Fawkes, Lady Jane Grey, Sir Thomas More and the Earl of Nithsdale of course.

I walked along the rooftop that Elizabeth I strolled, I sat in the window overlooking Traitor’s Gate that William ‘Braveheart’ Wallace and many other prisoners accused of treachery were brought through, I stood in the hallway and stared out over Tower Green, I sat in the council chamber where Guy Fawkes refused to name his accomplices before being taken for several days of torture and I walked down into the dungeon of the building to see where Thomas More was imprisoned before he was executed. Finally I got to walk through today’s cosy guest bedroom that once served as a gaol cell for William Maxwell, Earl of Nithsdale and from where his courageous wife first hatched her mad, wonderful, comical plan.

It was the most extraordinary experience that any writer of historical fiction could be given especially being able to immerse myself in the very rooms that my story took place some three hundred years earlier. And if that wasn’t quite enough I had a private showing of the Crown Jewels – gobsmackingly beautiful – and was a VIP standing right next to the Constable as he took the salute during the fabulous nightly Ceremony of the Keys.

An unforgettable day and I attribute much of the story’s atmosphere to that marvellous afternoon and evening in the Tower of London with the Dannatts when the tale of Lady Nithsdale and my own Tapestry came alive in my imagination.

CHEWY CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

These are not meant to be fancy-pants treats but a simple, delicious indulgence so you don’t need exquisite, expensive chocolate or to fuss about salted or unsalted butter. Go to your pantry/fridge and use what you find.

INGREDIENTS

85g butter

225g dark chocolate – 70% is ideal

¾ cup soft brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

2 large eggs

¼ cup plain flour

½ cup toasted, chopped almonds (or similar)

½ cup dried cranberries (or similar)

I realise everyone has their own preferences so how you make up that cup of nuts or fruit is entirely up to you. I like almonds and cranberries but you may prefer walnuts and raisins. Or you may not like dried fruit and prefer a cup of hazelnuts. Or you may not want nuts and prefer just chopped apricots or similar.

MAKE YOUR BROWNIES

Approach with energy. This is an easy but hand beaten recipe. Follow the instructions carefully because as I’ve discovered, the secret is in the vigorous hand beating. If you’re lazy about it the brownie mix won’t look silky and voluptuous before it’s baked and then you’ve already doomed yourself to a crumbly version.

Preheat the oven to 350/180

Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment

In a medium saucepan and over a low heat melt the butter.

Add the chocolate (faster if chopped) and stir until it is melted and smooth.

Remove from the heat

Stir in the sugar and vanilla until combined.

Beat in the eggs by hand one at a time.

Add the flour and stir with determination until your mix yields to your supremacy and becomes smooth and glossy. It will begin to pull away from the side of the pan. This is going to take a minimum of one minute so go for it. Time yourself or count slowly but don’t cheat. It’s going to look odd at first, as though it’s separating and then like nasty sand but just keep going for it and ultimately by the end of your determined minute you’ll be amazed at the thick and glossy mix you’re suddenly rewarded with. If you don’t want lacklustre, cakey brownies this is the crucial step.

Stir in the chopped nuts and your fruit or whatever you’ve chosen to add.

Pile your brownie mix into your lined pan and it should look like this…slick, thick, glossy.

Bake until the middle just gives/is almost set. This will be no more than 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow the brownie to cool fully in the pan (as it will keep cooking).

I could tell you that your fabulous brownies will stay delicious for nearly a week and will certainly freeze but why would I when I know they’ll be swallowed as soon as you’ve sliced them into neat chunks? If you can be bothered they look chic when dusted with icing sugar and I’m sure could turn into an amazing dessert with a ganache, or indeed as a mix in to jazz up ice cream. Personally I can barely wait for them to cool and despite my own advice I usually start hacking away from minutes out of the oven … but they are worth waiting for. Enjoy!