A.K. White
asked
Helen Simonson:
Hello Helen, I've only just started your novel but admit to picking it up entirely because it is set in Rye. My husband and I had a brief day in Rye nine years ago and we we would love to go back. Did you find it easy to write about this lovely gem of a town?
Helen Simonson
Hello A. K. Yes, I love Rye because I spent my teenage years there and was enthralled by its sense of history. The cobbled streets, the half-timbered houses, the stories of smugglers and fishermen. I spent all my Saturday job money in the local bookshop where I bought the local authors - Henry James, E.F. Jensen, Radcliffe Hall...I was just back there on book tour and am off again in a few weeks to appear in a Rye documentary. I recommend you return and see how wonderful the restaurants have become! Best, Helen
More Answered Questions
Judy
asked
Helen Simonson:
I'm a huge fan of your books, and I think I saw an email where you were recommending a new novel about to come out. . . but now I cannot recall where I saw it, or who sent it out. If you have recommended a new book, please tell us what it is? And I hope you are working on a third novel!
Penny Farley
asked
Helen Simonson:
Helen, I have, like previous letters to you have revealed, loved both your books and am already looking forward to your third, whenever that might be! But mainly I am writing to you because of a remark you made in an earlier interview....."I have an ever present longing for England." Yes?? I am an ex-pat of many years and I couldn't have said it better myself! Thank you! Happy Independence Day America!
John Witsey
asked
Helen Simonson:
I have just read The Summer Before the War, attracted by the title & subject matter as I have a fetish for the period the book is set in. One of my favourite novels is Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End & I couldn't help but notice a number of parallels: Rye, period of setting, intelligent daughter of professor left in perilous pecuniary circumstances by his death, etc. Was this novel an influence for yours?
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