Sources of inspiration for anyone involved in the creative process are numerous and often eclectic: the shape of a jam jar, the shipping forecast, handwriting on an envelope, an old boat. Naturally enough, the most powerful influence for me has been the work of other writers.
Some books I have loved:
| China Court | Rumer Godden |
| Far from the Madding Crowd | Thomas Hardy |
| The Poet’s Wife | Judith Allnatt |
| The Alexandrian Quartet | Lawrence Durrell |
| God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| Sons and Lovers | D H Lawrence |
| Moon Tiger | Penelope Lively |
| The End of the Affair | Graham Greene |
| Cry the Beloved Country | Alan Paton |
| Testament of Youth | Vera Brittain |
| Snow Falling on Cedars | David Guterson |
| Captain Corelli’s Mandolin | Louis de Bernières |
| Sea Glass | Anita Shreve |
| The Echoing Grove | Rosamund Lehmann |
| Blackbird House | Alice Hoffman |
| The Kite Runner | Khaled Hosseini |
| The Bay of Angels | Anita Brookner |
| Iris and Ruby | Rosie Thomas |
| The Great Stink | Clare Clark |
| My father’s Fortune | Michael Frayn |
And the poetry of:
W H Auden
Louis MacNiece
D H Lawrence
Jacques Prévert
Seamus Heaney
Wilfred Owen
Dylan Thomas
(These are not definitive lists, of course, and in no particular order)
At the moment I am reading:
The Moon Field by Judith Allnatt
and the poetry of Gareth Owen
