Rosy Thornton Talks About Food and Romance

Food and romance: they just go together, don’t they? Like strawberries and cream, or champagne and caviar, they are each other’s perfect complement. What could be better than curling up on the sofa with a good romantic novel and a box of Belgian chocolates?

Both of them engage our sensual side. So perhaps it is no wonder if food plays a significant part in the pages of romantic fiction. What could be more alluring than the sexy hero preparing a sumptuous meal for the heroine? Than the two of them sharing a candlelit dinner, and feeding each other across the table with their fingers?

When I decided to set a novel in rural France, it was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that the local cuisine – along with the landscape – should form a major strand in the atmosphere of the book. The Tapestry of Love tells the story of divorcee Catherine Parkstone, who sells her house in England and moves to a remote hamlet in the Cévennes mountains to set up in business as a seamstress. Her intriguing neighbour Patrick Castagnol, who lives in the house across the little valley from her own, prepares for her dishes in the local peasant tradition, using the produce of the those wooded hills: chestnuts and forest raspberries, trout from the mountain streams, wild mushrooms and wild boar. In turn, she roasts spatchcocked guinea fowl for him with rosemary from her garden, and serves him a fruit tart made with tiny Mirabelle plums which she picks from her terraced orchard.        

The meals which Patrick cooks for Catherine (and vice versa) became, for me, as real and vivid as the characters themselves. When the novel was done, I found that I wanted to recreate the meals for myself, just as Catherine and Patrick had prepared them. So I set about turning the dishes from the pages of the book into reality… and produced, in the process, a set of cévenol recipes to accompany the novel!

I have already shared the recipes with family and friends who have read the book and wanted to give them a try. If any RNA blog readers would like to have a go at conjuring your own taste of the Cévennes, I’d love to share them with you, too. Just send me a message via my website at

http://rosythornton.com/contact/contact.php

and I’ll be delighted to e-mail you the recipe booklet.     

October Releases

Julie Cohen GETTING AWAY WITH IT

Headline Review

28^th  October 

£19.99 (hardback) 

Rebellious stuntwoman Liza Haven finds out what it's like to be the good twin when her perfect identical sister disappears.

Rosy Thornton THE TAPESTRY OF LOVE

Headline Review

14th October (paperback)

£7.99

A rural idyll: that's what Catherine is seeking when she sells her house in England and moves to a tiny hamlet in the Cévennes mountains. Reality, however, proves rather different.

Valerie Holmes CHLOE’S FRIEND
F A Thorpe (Publishing)

Large Print
1^st October
£ 8.99 

Forced to work as a laundry maid, her father has been transported and her mother sent away, the young and spirited Chloe must make her way alone - or so she thinks...'

Janet Woods PAPER DOLL
Severn House
28^th  October
£19.99
Set in the 1920s, perfect daughter, Julia, become a perfect wife – until she falls in love with Martin Lee-Trafford.

Lesley Cookman MURDER IMPERFECT

Accent Press Ltd

£6.99

The seventh of the Libby Sarjeant adventures.

Mary Nichols LORD PORTMAN’S TROUBLESOME WIFE
Mills & Boon
£3.99
Homeless and penniless, Rosamund is forced to marry Harry, Lord
Portman. In return for a comfortable life, she must produce an heir. 
But far from sweeping her into his bed, Harry seems determined to keep
her at arm's length.

Lily Baxter POPPY'S WAR

Arrow

28^th  October 2010

Cost £5.99

Evacuated from London's East End, thirteen-year-old Poppy

Brown enters another world when she is billeted at a grand country house in Dorset.

Gwen Kirkwood HEART OF THE HOME

Severn House
30^th October
£19.99 (US $28.95)
Avril Gray has a promising career until fate intervenes. Dean Scott has ambitions but as a labourer he feels unable to propose marriage. His mother learns Avril's secret and is determined to keep them apart

Helen Scott Taylor A MIDWINTER FANTASY
Dorchester
1^st October
£5.99
Fantasy anthology including stories by Leanna Renee Hieber, L.J. McDonald and Helen Scott Taylor.

Carol Townend HER BANISHED LORD

Mills & Boon

Large Print

October

£14.50 

Disgraced, stripped of his title and lands, all Hugh Duclair has left is his pride.   Will the beautiful Lady Aude, once a childhood playmate, win his heart as she risks everything to help clear his name?

Nicola Cornick WHISPER OF SCANDAL
HQN Books
28^th September
£5.72
Love in a cold climate - Regency historical romance and adventure in London and the Arctic!

Cat Marsters DREAMING OF YOU
Changeling Press (ebook)
29th Oct
Approx £3
Two thousand years ago, Tamenorix of the Segovantes was cursed to live forever as a slave, providing pleasure to whoever wears his torc. A torc bought centuries later by a lovelorn academic for his best friend's birthday.

Annie Burrows THE VISCOUNT AND THE VIRGIN

Mills & Boon
1^st October
£6.99
Continuing the Regency Silk and Scandal Series...Imogen Hebden has the shadow of scandal hanging over her.  Just when it looks as though her last-chance season is going to be a disaster, she gets a proposal from no less a personage than a viscount...in an almost indecent hurry to produce an heir...

Lynne Connolly TEXAS HEAT
Loose-Id
5^th October
$5.50
After days of steamy passion locked in her hotel room with the devastatingly sexy Vin, Annie discovers he owns the company trying to take over her own. Can she overcome his distrust and teach him to share his worries, or is sex all they can share?

Jo Beverley EMILY AND THE DARK ANGEL (Reissue)
NAL, NY
October
$8.70
Everyone in the area is warning Emily Grantwich about her
scandalous new neighbor, but as she's running her crippled father's estate,
what's she to do?

Kate Walker KATE WALKER’S 12 POINT GUIDE TO WRITING ROMANCE (3rd edition)
Aber Publishing
30^th  October
£10.99

Award winning guide to writing romance, revised and reprinted

 

Kate Jackson GO FLY A KITE

People's Friend Special Collectors Edition 2010

16^th  September

£4.99

What can Marianne do with a three year old, a kite and no wind?

Kate Jackson A FRIEND IN NEED

People's Friend magazine

2^nd  October

85p

What's the secret behind Charlie Harmer?

Margaret Blake A FATAL FLAW
Whiskey Creek Press
October
$16.95 print –e-book $6.99
Can Kerensa really trust a copy with the mystery of why her mother shot her father?

Chrissie Loveday ROUGH CLAY

Chivers Large Print
4^th October

£16.50

In the early 20th century Potteries, Archie Barnett follows his dream to become a creator of beautiful things, namely fine bone china but dealing with life is the usual roller coaster.

Chrissie Loveday A LOVE SHARED
DC Thompson

People's Friend Pocket Novels
7^th October
£1.75
Their shared passion for horses brings Sarah and Alex together but working together in their law firm brings conflict that may prove impossible to overcome.

Kate Jackson DATES FOR MY DIARY

People's Friend Annual 2011

16^th  August

£6.99

An unexpected present helps Amanda start afresh.

July Releases

Here are the releases for July from members of the RNA...

Rosy Thornton THE TAPESTRY OF LOVE
Headline Review
8 July 2010

A rural idyll: that's what Catherine is seeking when she sells her house in England and moves to a tiny hamlet in the Cévennes mountains. Her divorce in the past and her children grown, she is free to make a new start, and set up in business as a seamstress. But this is a harsh and lonely place when you're no longer just on holiday. There is French bureaucracy to contend with, and the mountain weather, and the reserve of her neighbours - including the intriguing Patrick Castagnol. And that's before the arrival of Catherine's forthright sister, Bryony?
http://www.rosythornton.com


Janet Gover GIRL RACERS
Little Black Dress
July 8th
£6.99

Fasten your seatbelt! It's a red-hot race to the finish line as two women take on the men in a gruelling car rally through Australia's Snowy mountains - and discover that winning isn't always about being first across the line.

www.janetgover.com

Kate Walker A GOOD GREEK WIFE?
Harlequin, Mills & Boon
2 July 2010
£3.19

He was declared missing at sea – but now notorious Zarek Michaelis has returned and is ready to take control. He wants his business back - but does he still want his wife?
http://www.kate-walker.com
http://kate-walker.blogspot.com/

Rachel Brimble THE ARRIVAL OF LILY CURTIS
July 23rd
The Wild Rose Press
$13.99 print or $6.50 eformat

At the mention of an arranged marriage, Elizabeth Caughley feels her life is over at the age of three and twenty….so she hatches an escape plan. She will reinvent herself as a housemaid. Overnight, Elizabeth becomes Lily
Viscount Westrop wants nothing more than his legacy to be passed to his own son one day. Even though he feels insurmountable pity for the unborn child already, he knows how much pain a broken promise can cause and will do what is right. But with the arrival of his new housemaid, his plans are thrown into disarray. Lily is funny, feisty and the most beautiful creature on earth – Andrew is thunderstruck. But if anyone suspects how much he wants to ravish her and endlessly love her, Andrew’s lineage will be in peril. And he cannot let that happen…
www.rachelbrimble.com

Chrissie Loveday FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE
My Weekly Pocket Novel
July 1
£1.55

Amanda meets rising tennis star, Sacha Manon. They are immediately attracted to each other but she fails to admit she is really seeking an interview for her magazine. A whirlwind romance and the future looks great .. until he learns the truth about her job ...

Chrissie Loveday LEARNING TO LOVE AGAIN
Chivers
Large Print Edition

Following her husband's death at sea, Anna is trying to build a new life for herself and little daughter. Dare she risk allowing another man into her life? Especially one who is a medic on call for the lifeboat service.

http://www.ChrissieLoveday.com
http://www.Rough-Clay.com

Kate Hardy NEUROSURGEON... AND MUM!
Mills & Boon
July 2010
£3.19

Neurosurgeon discovers love in the most unexpected place.
http://www.katehardy.com
http://katehardy.blogspot.com

Liz Fielding SOS: CONVENIENT HUSBAND REQUIRED
Harlequin Romance
July US
She's about to lose everything, he's been left holding the baby - they haven't talked in years, but maybe it's time to call a truce.

http://www.lizfielding.com

Janet Woods SALTING THE WOUND
Severn House
$10.99

Charlotte Honeyman jilts her long-time swain, and on the spur of the moment marries a stranger. His pride damaged, and his matrimonial plans overturned, sea captain Nick Thornton threatens to take revenge. Charlotte's younger sister Marianne, takes pity on Nick and secretly boards his ship, where she meets with an accident. Nick regards Marianne as the perfect tool with which to get his own back, but in the process falls in love. The rift between the sisters widens, and scandal erupts when it becomes apparent that Marianne is expecting Nick's child. Then fate intervenes to change the course of their lives, perhaps forever...

Sarah Mallory WICKED CAPTAIN, WAYWARD WIFE
Mills & Boon
£14.50
Large Print Edition

Evelina's peaceful life is overturned when she marries Captain Nick Wylder - and is immediately widowed! A swashbuckling adventure romance.

www.melindahammond.com

Cara Cooper LEAVING HOME
Ulverscroft
July 2010

'Flora Canning's bags are packed for her new life in New York, but a family tragedy leaves her with her sister's baby, and a mysterious stranger Nate Campbell who has his own reasons for wanting a relationship with Flora and the new baby.'

Margaret Mounsdon LONG SHADOWS
Linford Romance Library

Fiona Dalrymple is shocked to learn that Doreen wasn't her grandmother. Then when she discovers she also has a brother her life changes completely, especially when her new brother disappears and she sets out to look for him.
mounsdma@sky.com
www.margaretmounsdon.co.uk

Rosy Thornton Talks About Being The Law Don Who Writes Chick Lit

Novelist Rosy Thornton tells a bit about the varied life she lives...

Like many beginner and midlist authors, I have a full-time day job alongside the writing, which pays the mortgage and keeps the children in Coco Pops. Some jobs seem to fit quite well with writing romantic fiction, others, not so much – and I’d say mine definitely falls into the ‘not so much’ category. I lecture in Law at Cambridge University.

It means that if you looked me up on Amazon you’d find I have the strangest backlist of any author I know. There are my novels, with their pastel covers in pink and baby blue, complete with hearts and, in one case, butterflies. And then there is the rather less obviously sexy Property Disrepair and Dilapidations: A Guide to the Law.

My life, as a result, divides into two bizarrely contrasting halves – or three, if you count being a mum. (Good thing it’s Law I teach, not maths!)

Take this week, for instance. The university exams are over, and I have been buried for eight hours a day in the office, and one more at home each evening when the kids are in bed, under piles of examination scripts, marking essays on the minutiae of estoppel-based easements and other incorporeal hereditaments. (Don’t ask!). Today I spent five hours in a moderating meeting, debating how much to penalise a student who had approached a question on the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 as though it were on the Housing Act 1988.

But on Wednesday I bunked off to spend two hours with the Cambridge Chapter of the RNA, gossiping over a pub lunch. And for an hour and a half each morning, before getting the children up and making the packed lunches, I have sat at the kitchen table and imagined my way back into the world of my current novel in progress – a retro rom com set in 1980.

You know how it is when you’re writing a novel. That world, those characters, inhabit a space in your subconscious, and for me, I find that they are there with me all day at work, whatever I’m doing. I might be in the middle of a lecture, or reading recent cases in the library, or at my desk supposedly writing my latest academic article, and snatches of dialogue suddenly intrude, or little twists of plot open themselves up, to be jotted down and saved for tomorrow morning’s fiction-writing time.

Actually, the schizophrenia is at its most extreme during university vacations when my day job consists of writing rather than teaching. Then there are the two files on my hard drive: one technical, turgid, thick with footnotes, and the other pure romantic escapism. It can sometimes be hard, believe me, to force myself to stick to my resolution of working only on the former during office hours, and never succumbing to temptation and flicking to the latter instead.

What do people in Cambridge think of my secret existence as a romantic novelist? Well, Cambridge is a fiercely intellectual place, and likes to take itself horribly seriously. There are plenty of colleagues who look down their noses at what I do. The Barbara Cartland jokes do wear rather thin at times, I must admit.

But my salvation is the undergraduates. Unlike my colleagues, they don’t believe that the only books worth reading – and therefore, by definition, writing – are those on the Man Booker shortlist. They think it’s great that I write novels at all, even if they’re not exactly High Art. The Law don who writes chick lit – it’s funny, it’s different. As one student said to me recently, ‘It’s actually quite cool. To be honest, it’s amazing to find a lecturer who has a life.’

I just wish that sometimes I didn’t feel as if I had two!

Rosy's next book - THE TAPESTRY OF LOVE is out on the 8th of July.

A rural idyll: that's what Catherine is seeking when she sells her house in England and moves to a tiny hamlet in the Cévennes mountains. Her divorce in the past and her children grown, she is free to make a new start, and set up in business as a seamstress. But this is a harsh and lonely place when you're no longer just on holiday. There is French bureaucracy to contend with, and the mountain weather, and the reserve of her neighbours - including the intriguing Patrick Castagnol. And that's before the arrival of Catherine's forthright sister, Bryony?

THE TAPESTRY OF LOVE is the story of how a woman falls in love with a place and its people: the portrait of a landscape, a community and a fragile way of life.

For more about Rosy and her books visit http://www.rosythornton.com