Journal

Notes from the desk.

A few times a season — essays on history, the craft of writing, and the slow ceremonies of a writing life.

Finding the Scent of a Story

Stories are like seeds. How a mysterious neighbour, a Fellini costume designer, and Spain's 'pact of forgetting' planted the seed of The Perfume Garden.

The Beauty Chorus

The Forgotten Beauty Chorus

On Evie, Audrey Sale Barker's lipstick SOS, and the ATA girls who flew Spitfires and Lancasters without radios, arms — or recognition.

On Writing

Rituals of the Writing Desk

From a keyboard balanced on a sock drawer to nine novels in nine territories — notes on rejection, motherhood, and the long road to a finished book.