Helena Halme's Blog, page 17

Five Warming Winter Reads

When the weather gets cold outside, I go all Nordic and get a bit of ‘hygge‘ going, and settle down on the sofa with a good book. These are my current favourite reads to warm up this winter.

When looking for a good book to engage me for a longer period, I usually want the novel to take me somewhere new, different or exciting.

The Affair by Gill Paul comes under the ‘exciting’ category. Diana, a history scholar married to an older academic, travels alone to Rome to work as an adviser on the set of Cleopatra. There she rubs shoulders with the famous (and infamous) actors and actresses. It’s 1961 and the affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Buton is played out in front of her eyes, and at first, this new glamorous life fills Diana with excitement. But as she gets deeper and deeper involved with the Hollywood set, tragedy strikes, and her circumstances are suddenly and dramatically changed. Can Diana avoid disaster and find happiness? The Affair paints an evocative picture of 1960s Rome with its Hollywood actors, as well as the underworld fed by the film business, paparazzi, and the journalists always on the look out for a scandalous story to publish. There is a moral message in this novel, but to me reading The Affair felt a little like watching a black and white film on a small round-edged TV screen. Very retro.

Game by A C Efverman certainly takes you somewhere far away (especially if you live in the UK). Sydney cop, DS Morgan Callaghan, is a bit like Harry Hole of the Jo Nesbo crime thrillers Down Under. He too has a stubbornness to solve the crime whatever the consequences, as well as an impulsive and defiant character. With the addition of a few character flaws, DS Callaghan is easy to empathise with.

In ‘Game’ Callaghan is faced with a serial killer, but due to the forthcoming large sports event in Sydney, he has to keep the case from leaking out into the media and the public, hence making his task to keep one step ahead of the killer impossible. All the while his personal life seems to be imploding. I loved the way Efverman entwined the two strands of the story together, with Morgan’s own life reaching a critical point at the same time as the murder investigation. I also liked the descriptions of Sydney, which were interspersed with very scary scenes while the killer is on the rampage. I found Game hard to put down, and look forward to another installment in the series.

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell ‘A Girl on a Train’ meets ‘The Great Gatsby’ in this psychological thriller set in 1920s New York. Rose Baker works as a typist in a Lower East side police precinct. Hers is a ‘silent job’ as she types up the confessions of murderers, rapists, and other criminals. Brought up in an orphanage, and educated at Astoria Stenographers College for Ladies,  Rose is competent, unfeeling and in possession of high morals until a new typist, Odalie, enters the precinct and her life. In contrast to Rose, Odalie enjoys the finer things in life: she wears expensive clothes, jewelry, and travels everywhere by cab. In spite of their different outlooks on life, Rose become obsessed with Odalie and soon the two are inseparable. Odalie invites Rose to share her luxurious hotel apartment, as well her high life of speakeasies, expensive restaurants, fine clothes and country house parties. But can Rose trust Odalie? When Rose meets the unsavory characters that Odalie calls her friends, and gets deeper embroiled in her illegal and highly immoral activities, Rose discovers that her friend has a secret so huge that she’s prepared to do almost anything to hide it. But can we trust Rose’s first person narration? Is she a little too obsessed with Odalie? What are her true feeling for her glamorous friend? Perhaps it’s Rose whose past is a lie? Read this highly addictive book now; you won’t put it down until you’ve got the last page!

The Candyfloss Guitar by Stephen Marriot. This novella has heart-warming characters in a beautifully written coming of age tale set on a Pilgrimage in Spain. Diego is a young man with a dream. He wants a career in music, which his wise grandfather convinces him to pursue. But as he leaves the small village of San Pedro, he meets different Pilgrims. Each one teaches him a different life lesson. The Candyfloss Guitar is an uplifting story and has a great sense of place and time. From the very first page you feel the heat of the Spanish sun on your face. A great book for a cold January day or a beach holiday.

Green Ribbons by Clare Flynn is a confident and heart-breaking story set in 1920s rural England. The story begins when Hephzibah, a young daughter of an Oxford Don, loses both her parents in a freak tram accident. This terrible event leaves her completely penniless, partly due to her sex. In order to avoid destitution, Hephzibah is forced to leave her beloved Oxford to take up a position as governess at Ingleton Hall, in a small rural village of Nettlestock. But life as a young woman of limited means, and of little experience, in turn-of–the-century England isn’t easy. Hephzibah has to first fight off the unwanted advances of an older, powerful man. She then falls in and out of love, and finally, is faced with a seemingly impossible choice. I was transported to another time and could empathize with the plight of this poor young woman. I can wholeheartedly recommend this novel, especially if you love historical fiction.

I hope you enjoyed my selection of reads to curl up with. Are you reading something you’d like to share? Comment below and share!

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The Englishman Boxed Set

Love Nordic Noir? Now try Nordic Romance!

The first three books in the best-selling tumultuous love story between beautiful Finnish student and handsome British Navy Officer are now compiled into one beautiful boxed set.

A long-distance military romance set in 1980s Finland and Britain, The Englishman series is ‘unputdownable’ and a ‘must read’! Based on a true story, these books will make you laugh, cry and lose your sleep while you race to read to the end.

This box set contains The Finnish Girl, a prequel novella to the series, and the first two novels, The Englishman, and The Navy Wife.

Here are what readers have said about The Englishman series:

“The Finnish Girl is wonderfully intimate and honest, the characters feel real and you can almost smell the sea air of Helsinki.” – Pauliina Ståhlberg, Director of the Finnish Institute in London

“I had difficulty in stopping myself from devouring The Englishman in one go.” – Tania Hershman, award-winning author and poet, and editor of The Short Review

“The Englishman is a love story: the account of the long-distance romance between English Naval officer Peter and Finnish student Kaisa, as this star-crossed couple discovers that Shakespeare’s words are still true, even in the 1980s, and the course of true love never runs smooth. Together, they contend with a broken engagement, long separations, the Falklands War, inevitable cultural differences, and the small matter of a member of the British armed forces wanting to marry a citizen of a country bordering the Soviet Union.” – Kate Allison, founder of The Displaced Nation website

“I automatically give five stars to any book that has me staying up way past my bedtime to read it and abandoning anything else that I’m meant to be doing in order to get to the end, and The Englishman was one of those books.

“No plot spoilers here, but I will say that in The Navy Wife Helena Halme keeps us on tenterhooks right to the last minute, as Kaisa encounters numerous obstacles, including controversial friendships and temptations.” – Debbie Young, author and book blogger

“Helena Halme, a Finn who grew up in Sweden, now writes in English. Her fictionalised memoirs give an insight into displacement, long-distance love, dysfunctional families, cultural differences between neighbouring countries, and the emotional journey of readjustment. The light tones of romance and adventure are deceptive. Halme tackles awkward issues such as family problems, practical bureaucracy and the reality of prejudice. Dealing with identity, conscience, duty, relatives, friends, and the inescapable ties of love, whether benign or otherwise, her books have serious ballast. Yet the stories draw you in and only when you’ve finished a satisfying journey do you realise you’ve learned something.

” – JJ Marsh, journalists, teacher, actor, and author of the Beatrice Stubbs detective series

This boxed set with over 500 pages of best-selling Nordic romance is now available to buy for £3.99 or $4.99, a saving of over 40%. Click here to buy The Englishman Boxed Set now!

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Five tips on writing in a foreign language

How do you write in a language that’s not your mother tongue?

I write in English even though it’s my third language after Finnish and Swedish. Why I do this, is one of the most common questions readers and other writers put to me.

A few months back, The Economist wrote an article titled, ‘Why do writers abandon their native language?‘. I shared this article widely on social media because it explained so well why an author might choose to write in a tongue not her own.

It made me think about my choice of language, and how I make it work

I moved to Britain some 35 years ago, and before that I’d lived in Sweden. My mother tongue is Finnish, but when, as a ten-year-old, I went to school in Stockholm, I learned Swedish in the playground and it soon became the stronger language. Four years later, my family decided to settle back to Finland, and I had to re-learn my mother tongue. All through this time, I was also learning English, and when as a young Navy Wife I moved to Britain I began writing a diary. At first, I wrote in Finnish, but when it became difficult to describe what was happening around me in Finnish, I turned the notebook over and began writing in English from the other end. Soon the English language side took over and I haven’t looked back since.

Of course writing in a language that is not your mother tongue isn’t easy; there are many purely grammatical issues you have to be careful about. Several proverbs and common expressions are also easy to get wrong. I sympathise with Agatha Christie’s excellent character Poirot, who as a Belgian French-speaker often fails in his use of colloquial English, to everyone else’s amusement or bewilderment.

Five tips for writing in a foreign language

Check, check and recheck your spelling, grammar, and any proverbs or common expressions you are using. Do this with the aid of software such a Grammarly, and/or dictionaries. I spend a lot of time checking expressions online, and cross-checking with a dictionary or thesaurus. I also have several books on the use of English language, whether it’s on common proverbs, naval speak or romantic words for body parts.
Read only in the language that you write in. It is very sad, but I have found that if I read books in Finnish or Swedish, my English suffers. This may just be me; I know of other multilingual authors who easily switch languages, but I find that especially when I’m in the middle of a project (which I usually am), I need to keep both my surroundings and my reading English. Even something as small as a visitor from home can be very disruptive to my writing. Of course, the more you read and write in your chosen language the better you will become in spotting the mistakes. Practice makes perfect.
Do use your foreignness to your advantage: My characters are from Finland or Sweden, and all of my books are partly set in these Nordic countries. My use of language is different and reflects my Finnish/Swedish origins. (I hope anyway!). Why not take advantage of this uniqueness to set your books in your native country?  Although I do also write from the point of view of English people, I make sure these passages are carefully checked even before they go to my editor. Which brings me to the next point.
Do have a native speaker check your work before it goes to the editor. Of course, an editor can also do this job, but I find that having a first reader you trust and who knows you well, is invaluable and saves a lot of misunderstandings between you and your editor. (It also saves time which means the editing will cost you less). I am lucky in that my long-suffering Englishman (and husband) still has the time and enthusiasm to read everything I write. He checks the language for any ‘Finnishisms’, but is also excellent at spotting mistakes in the plot and the characters. Even if we sometimes disagree, it is incredibly useful to have him as the first hurdle which the new book has to jump over.
Try not to let your inner critic in the use of the non-native language stop your flow. Remember that the first draft, whether you are a native speaker or not, is just that – a draft. Everyone has their work corrected, so write freely! It is the meaning of the words as well as the language that is important. And only you can write that book!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. If you’d like to sign up to my Readers’ Group and receive a free book, THE FINNISH GIRL as well as bonus chapters from THE ENGLISHMAN series, sign up here.

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An Independence Day Offer!

Happy Independence Day!

To celebrate Finland’s Independence Day, I am giving away a free novella AND two exclusive, unpublished bonus chapters from the first two books in the Nordic romance series: The Finnish Girl and The Englishman.

The Englishman series now has four books:

The Finnish Girl: Can you be too young for love? (Prequel novella)

The Englishman: Can love go the distance? (Novel number 1)

The Navy Wife: Can love stay on course? (Novel number 2)

The Good Officer: Can they love again? (Novel number 3)

5* Reviews for The Finnish Girl

“Wonderfully intimate and honest, the characters feel real and you can almost smell the sea air of Helsinki.” – Pauliina Ståhlberg, Director of the Finnish Institute in London

“Highly recommended if you have already read the other books about Kaisa – or if not, start with this one, and enjoy them in chronological order.” – Debbie Young, Book Blogger and Author of Marry in Haste

Kaisa is the new girl in town – again.

When a messy divorce forces Kaisa’s mother to move to a small flat in an island suburb of Helsinki, Kaisa isn’t looking forward to another new school. But in Lauttasaari she meets Vappu Noren and begins to spend most of her time in Vappu’s large, chaotic house, filled with her three unruly siblings and their friends.

Kaisa doesn’t notice that she is being quietly observed by the friend of Vappu’s brother, a much older, serious boy called Matti.

Matti loves Kaisa at first sight, but he is 21 when she’s only 14. Is Kaisa too young to fall in love?

This tale of young love, dubbed ‘Nordic Lolita’, is based on true events.

To receive the free copy of The Finnish Girl, and the free, exclusive bonus chapters, all you have to do is to join my Readers’ Group. Members of the group receive advance notice of any new releases, book offers and freebies like the ones I’m telling you about now. The next bonus chapter, which will drop into my Readers’ Group mailboxes soon, will be from Novel 2 in The Englishman series, The Navy Wife.

Take advantage of these offers and sign up now!

Tap here to get your FREE copy of THE FINNISH GIRL 
To download the final, unpublished chapter from THE FINNISH GIRL, go here
To download the final bonus chapter from THE ENGLISHMAN, novel one in the series, go here
TO GET ALL THREE: FREE BOOK AND TWO BONUS CHAPTERS, TAP HERE

I hope you take advantage of these offers and enjoy the free stories!

 

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The Good Officer is out today!

It’s Publication Day!

My new novel, the fourth book (but also a standalone read) in The Englishman series, THE GOOD OFFICER, is out today! Hurrah!

These are early reviews I’ve had so far:

Another winning combination of romance in a recent historical setting, with culture clashes between Finnish and English and civilian and military, with a determined yet vulnerable Nordic heroine, dashing stiff-upper-lipped Englishman, plus all the frogs they kiss along the way in their tense on-again, off-again romance.

Helena Halme has the knack of getting the balance just right to keep the reader engaged from the first page to the last, enjoying Kaisa’s turbulent journey as she grows and develops a little more with every book.

An addictive series!

The third novel in the Englishman series did not disappoint. The writing is the best in the series and the characters have matured. The story of Kaisa and Peter twists and turns and does not allow you to stop reading leading to another sleepless night. Well worth the wait and, yet again, leaves you desperate for more!”

Another page turner from Helena Halme! The relationship of the protagonists continues along its rocky path, and you just have to find out what happens next….Will they be a couple by the end?

And it’s only ten o’clock in the morning here in London!

I cannot tell you how excited I feel, as a matter of fact, I was so impatient for today to arrive, I didn’t sleep a wink last night. Around three o’clock in the morning, I started to plot the next novel in the series and that was that. Oh well, I will of course pull myself together for tonight’s celebrations (I’ve been promised champagne by some very good friends). A bit of slappy and nice clothes and I’ll be the life and soul …

Publication Day Offer

I also wanted to tell you that to celebrate the publication of THE GOOD OFFICER, all the books in THE ENGLISHMAN series are now £0.99/$0.99. But hurry, this offer ends soon!

Goodreads Giveaway Ends Today

If you would like to get your hands on a signed copy of the book, don’t miss this chance to enter a draw to win one. Pop over to Goodreads where I’m giving away ten signed copies of  THE GOOD OFFICER. But again you have to be quick, the Goodreads Giveaway ends tonight!

Goodreads Book Giveaway


The Good Officer
by Helena Halme

Released November 18 2016

Giveaway ends in about 19 hours (November 18, 2016)

10 copies available, 472 people requesting

giveaway details »

Enter Giveaway

Want to Be First in the Know?

If you would like to be amongst the first to know about new book releases, book offers and other freebies, sign up to my Readers’ Group. At the moment I’m giving away an exclusive Bonus Chapter from the series’ prequel novella, THE FINNISH GIRL. Sign up here, or tap the image below.

 

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Writing Sex by Patsy Trench

My latest novel, The Good Officer, which is out tomorrow has more sex in it than any of my previous books. The reason for this (without giving too much away) is that my two heroes, Kaisa and Peter, are estranged and so meet other people – and the obvious happens. While writing the novel, I struck up a conversation with a fellow author, Patsy Trench. I found that Patsy has a lot of experience in this area, so I thought it’d be fun to have her talk about writing sex and love scenes as a guest on my blog.

It’s all around us – in the cinema, on television, in that innocent- looking book you picked up in the charity shop. Honestly, a person doesn’t know where to look. Mostly it’s of the frantic kind: the ripped-off clothes, the heaving bodies, up against the kitchen cabinet, the heavy breathing followed by loud groaning. (Filmmakers are so unimaginative.) I mean, please. Could we not just, as someone once said – I can’t remember who but it sounds like Dorothy Parker – skip from the foreplay to the cigarette?

I’ve written quite a lot of sex, as it happens. My first published book, written under a pseudonym, was for the Black Lace imprint. I submitted my first three chapters as a bit of a joke and was then shocked and faintly horrified when they commissioned me to write the whole book, with the condition I remove some of the sex. (I had thought there had to be some form of consummation on every other page.) But I have never written frantic sex. Frantic sex must be terribly hard to write without it sounding faintly ludicrous – hence, I suppose, the Bad Sex Award.

My novel The Unlikely Adventures of Claudia Faraday is all about sex, but there is only one graphic sex scene in it. It features a fifty-two year-old respectable mother of three discovering, as a result of an unexpected event, the joys of sex for the first time. It is set in 1920s Home Counties England at a time when Marie Stopes was writing about the clitoris, an organ of which Claudia and many like her had hitherto been unaware. The idea that sex did not necessarily mean lying back and thinking of England, and that it could be enjoyed for its own sake and not just for the purposes of procreation, was quite revolutionary. Newly awakened, Claudia is first shocked and then intrigued and then shocked at finding herself so intrigued by the unusual sexual behaviour that her recently-opened eyes realise is going on all around her.

An early reader of my manuscript said you cannot combine erotica with humour, but I disagree. Anyway sex is not always erotic, it is awkward and embarrassing and tedious and hilarious as often as not, but you don’t often see or read about that side of it. It can also be sexy and titivating and mind-blowing, and a fascinating insight into another person’s psyche, but you don’t read too much about that either. As for sex for the over fifties, well, who’d have thought a woman – and a man too of course – could still be sexually active in her dotage? I haven’t quite reached my dotage yet but I see no reason why a woman should not remain sexually active, given the opportunity of course and some physical capability, her whole life. But would you want to read about it?

If writing about sex is challenging, marketing it is even trickier. A recent blog I wrote (on my website) attracted the attention only of escort agencies, dildo manufacturers and guides to brothels in Melbourne. I don’t think they read the blog itself, they just clocked ‘sex’ in the tags. That’s a shame, as there’s a lot of interesting stuff to be written about the subject that isn’t necessarily meant to be erotic, or pornographic (God forbid). It is an important part of people’s lives. It can make or break a marriage. It can, in the case of Claudia, transform her life. For the better of course.

The bottom line is sex attracts interest, yes, but not always the right kind of interest. Sex is almost invariably categorised as either porn or erotica (the latter just a more tasteful version of the former – discuss). Perhaps there’s room for another category though I can’t think what it might be called. ‘Sexual revolution’ sounds like a feminist tract; ‘Sex and the older woman’ could be construed as a manual; ‘Sexual awakening’ is more like it, but perhaps a little too specific?

Any ideas? All serious suggestions gratefully received.

Patsy Trench is the author of two books, The Worst Country in the World and The Unlikely Adventures of Claudia Faraday. 

A former actress, a scriptwriter, playscout, lyricist and co-founder of The Children’s Musical Theatre of London, Patsy now lives in London (after a spell in Australia). At the moment she’s spending most of her time writing and researching for book two of her family saga, Making Australia, which features her great great grandfather, pioneer farmer in remote 19th century New South Wales and founder of the stock and station agent Pitt, Son & Badgery.

Patsy also arranges theatre tours for visitors to London, and occasionally teaches and lectures on British theatre.  Her hobby is rag rugging.

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Modern Lovers by Emma Straub – Book Review

I bought Modern Lovers by Emma Straub because I’d read and thoroughly enjoyed The Vacationers by the same author. Moden Lovers is set in Brooklyn, NY and tells the story of two families. Elizabeth is a local realtor, married to a boy she met at college, Andrew. They now have a 17-year-old son, kind and clever, Harry. Their neighbour and another college friend, Zoe, is married to Jane, a talented chef. They run a successful neighbourhood restaurant and are mothers to a beautiful, but  mischievous, teenage daughter, Ruby.

The lives of the college friends are changing, not only because the children are growing up and leaving home, but because a film about their experimental college band is in the making. A song Elizabeth wrote became a huge hit, made famous by another friend Lydia, who died tragically young, at the height of her career. Both Zoe and Elizabeth are keen to sign over the rights to the song, but for some reason, Andrew, who’s private income means that he’s never had to earn a living, or settle on a profession, is adamant he doesn’t want a film to be made about the band, or Lydia.

While Ruby and Harry try to make sense of their newly found adulthoods, old secrets kept since their parents’ college years bubble up to the surface, threatening both marriages and friendships.

Although I loved reading about modern American middle classes, I struggled little with the pace of the book. Just as in a Woody Allen film, which this novel very much reminded me of, there is a lot of introspection, which stops the plot from moving forward. There are emotional discoveries, but very little actually happens in the book.

I would still recommend Modern Lovers as a good read, especially if, like me, you have a fondness for both American fiction and New York.

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The Englishman is now FREE!

To celebrate the publication on 18th November of The Good Officer, the first novel in my contemporary Nordic romance series, The Englishman, is now FREE to download. Tap the picture or go here for the US Amazon page to download the book now.

But hurry, this offer ends on Sunday 6th November!

A Nordic romance – based on true events.

When a young Finnish student Kaisa is invited to the British Embassy cocktail party in Helsinki to celebrate a Royal Navy visit to Finland, she’s not looking for love. After all, her future has been carefully planned: she’s to complete her degree, marry her respectable, well-to-do Finnish fiancé Matti, and live happily ever after.

Enter the dashing Peter, a newly qualified Royal Navy officer. Like a moth to a flame, Kaisa falls head over heels in love with the handsome Englishman. The young lovers steal passionate kisses in the chilly Esplanade Park and promise to meet again.

Kaisa and Peter embark on a long-distance relationship, but in the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War, while the Englishman chases Russian submarines, Kaisa is stuck in Finland, a country friendly with the Soviet Union.

Kaisa lives for the Englishman’s passionate letters and infrequent long-distance phone calls, but her jealous ex-fiancé doesn’t want to let go, and her old-fashioned father hates foreigners. Can Kaisa trust the gregarious Englishman? Wouldn’t she be better off going back to her faithful fiancé?

Can the love between Kaisa and the Englishman last and go the distance?

This Scandinavian romance is based on true events and attracted thousands of readers when first published as a series of blog posts on Helena Halme’s blog.

The Englishman is quite the page-turner, I had difficulty stopping myself from devouring it in one go. All the small details about Finland and Sweden give the book such colour, and I love seeing England through Kaisa’s eyes! Highly recommended! – Tania Hershman, author of My Mother Was an Upright Piano.

Download a free copy of the THE ENGLISHMAN now!

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Helsinki 36 years on …

Today I’m back in foggy London after a very busy, but lovely, few days in Helsinki. (In spite of the wintry weather).

On Saturday before a late afternoon flight, I had an hour or so to wander around the city and revisit places that I’ve written about in my books. I met my Navy Officer, the hero in the The Englishman series which is partly based on my own life, in late autumn, almost to the date in October 1980, 36 years ago. As I wandered along the Esplanade, looking up to the statue of Eino Leino, the Finnish poet, where my Englishman and I shared our very first ‘proper’ kiss, I thought how little the city had changed. It felt as if all that time hadn’t passed. I couldn’t stop snapping away, and thought I’d share these pictures with you. I hope you enjoy seeing Helsinki through the eyes of Kaisa!

The statue of Eino Leino
The imposing Helsinki Cathedral
Tram trundling down ‘Aleksi’ (Aleksanterinkatu)
The home of the famous Fazer Cafe
The Fazer Cafe
Stockmann’s department store
Stockmann’s clock, a popular meeting point
The former Happy Days Cafe (Now Theatre Cafe)
Esplanade Park
Esplanade Park

If you haven’t yet had the chance to read any of the books in my Nordic romance series, now is your chance to grab the first book, The Englishman, for just $0.99! Just go here (US), or here (UK), and download your copy. (The novel is  available on the special offer price in all the Amazon stores worldwide, just follow the link on either site above).

If, however, you have read them all (yay!), and want to make sure you get the fourth book in the series, The Good Officer, dropped straight into your inbox on publication day, you can get the book for just $0.99 too. Now that’s an offer you can’t refuse, right? Juts tap the picture, or here (US) and here (UK). (Again, this offer is available worldwide, just follow the link)

But hurry, this offer ends 20th November!

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Reading in Finland

I will be reading from THE GOOD OFFICER at FinnBrit Language Centre in Helsinki

I’m visiting Finland this week for the Helsinki Book Fair. It all starts tomorrow, but I arrived  here early to have time to visit my father in Tampere, but also to to finalise plans for a literary evening at FinnBrit language and culture centre in Helsinki. On a chilly day, when an early snowfall had been forecast, I was offered coffee and a warm welcome by Harriet Lindeberg-Saapunki in FinnBrit’s beautiful offices on Fredrikinkatu.

FinnBrit is a 90-year-old organisation which encourages cultural exchange between Finland and Britain. They teach English as a foreign language and are the only authorised examination centre for IELTS in Finland, as well as centre for Cambridge English Language Assessment examinations. On top of this, FinnBrit organises social activities, such as a regular book club, parties and other get-togethers.

I’m delighted that I’ve been invited to read from my latest novel, The Good Officer, and to talk about life as an author in London, with FinnBrits on 20th January 2017. If you are in Helsinki that day, come and say hello!

I will also sign copies of my novel, and all the books in The Englishman series will be available to buy at the FinnBrit centre.

More details on the event can be found here, and on FaceBook Event Page here.

Don’t forget you can pre-order The Good Officer for only $0.99 until 20th November. Just tap the picture below and a copy of the book will be delivered to you on publication day.

And if you can’t wait until publication day 18th November, you can read 1st chapter of my new novel now. Tap the picture below to join my Readers’ Group, and I’ll send it over (you can unsubscribe at any time)!

 

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