The Interviews By Lou – Questions answered by various actors, a presenter, authors

The Interviews

Conducted by Louise Cannon (Lou), featuring various guests, whom I am eternally grateful for giving the opportunity to interview them.

Ever wanted to know more about what inspires authors to write? What’s behind the written page? Behind the scenes of an actor’s life as they take to the stage? Plus much more? Here, I have 22 interviews I have created and conducted with authors, actors, a presenter from both sides of the Atlantic. Also included are a couple with blog tour organisers, where you’ll learn more about what this entails and an extraordinary secretary.
Get comfy and cosy with a cuppa, sit back and see what people have divulged for you. All interview answers are exactly as people have told me. So many genres, you may be inspired for what to read or who to look out for on a stage or TV.
Check out the links. They’ll open in a new tab, making it easy for you to navigate back to this page.

Actors/Presenter/Authors

Fern Britton on The Daughter’s of Cornwall, part of her family’s life, letters and more. The review also weaves through and more… Interview Here

Robert McNamara on the play – Report to An Academy By Franz Kafka, performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and more… Interview Here

Vanessa Heron on being The Secretary of the Oscar Wilde Society, how the society came into existence, her favourite play, how to join and more… Interview Here

Ronald Rand – Solo Transformation On Stage on getting into character, his acting, his book and his charitable works, and more… Interview Here

Laura Loane – The first interview I conducted. She talks about books, acting, disability and more…. Interview Here

Authors

Cecelia Ahern on PS. I Love You, Postscript, Freckles, themes around health and more… Interview Here

Matson Taylor on the Evie Epworth books. Discover more about what inspired him, his job out-with being an author and more… Interview Here

Lotte R. James on The Gentleman of Holly Street, the strong themes and advice for historical fiction authors… Interview Here

Anna Willett on The Newlywed where she talks of special crime squads, keeping writing fresh, getting into the psyche of the setting and more…. Interview Here

Val Penny on Hunter’s Chase, setting the book in Edinburgh, combining dark themes with humour and more… Interview Here

Isabella Muir on A Notable Omission, writing crime fiction, the fun of research, the 1970’s and more. Interview Here

Miriam McGuirk on Second Chances, the importance of finding new opportunities after seismic life changes occur, the importance of communities and their hubs and more… Interview Here

Jeanine Englert on Conveniently Married to A Laird, writing historical romance, the class system, marrying out of convenience and more… Interview Here

Viv Fogel on Imperfect Beginnings, writing poetry, an art installation, her birth mother, the noise and the silence within her writing and more… Interview Here

Candi Miller on Salt & Honey, Africa, Culture, Charities and more… Interview Here

Lela May Wight on Bound By A Sicilian Secret, the importance of relatable, gritty themes being included in romance, the inspiration behind the main character being Sicilian and more… Interview Here

Bobby Twidale on De-Ja-Vu, being a former teacher, engaging boys in the education system, writing complex relationships and more… Interview Here

Sarah Rodi on Claimed by the Viking Chief, writing about the Viking period, devouring books in the library, servitude and marriage and more… Interview Here

Tani Hanes on Puppily Ever After, writing a ‘coming of age’ story, values in the book relating to real life, pets and more… Interview Here

R.L Baxter on Blue Lunar and the Apex Grail, writing fantasy, building fantastical worlds, his varied career and more… Interview Here

Paul De Blassie III on Goddess of Everything, the mother/son relationship, the supernatural and his other job of Depth Psychology, the healing of the human mind Interview Here

Simon Van-Der-Velde on Backstories, his “office kimono”, the inspiration for short-stories, his ‘desert island’ books and music and more… Interview Here

Thank you for taking the time to read the interviews.

If you work in the world of stage and theatre or in the world of books and would like to be interviewed, then please do get in touch via my Contact Form

#Review By Lou of Good Friday By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda @ZaffreBooks #CompulsiveReaders #TeamTennison #BlogTour

Good Friday
By Lynda La Plante

Good Friday is a high octane book with the complexities of Jane Tennison moving life and work and the IRA.
This is part of the prequel to the original series of Prime Suspect, all written by Lynda La Plante.
Discover more in the blurb and then my review as part of Team Tennison below.

Blurb

BEFORE PRIME SUSPECT THERE WAS TENNISON.

Every legend has a beginning . . .

During 1974 and 1975 the IRA subjected London to a terrifying bombing campaign. In one day alone, they planted seven bombs at locations across central London. Some were defused – some were not.

Jane Tennison is now a fully-fledged detective. On the way to court one morning, Jane passes through Covent Garden Underground station and is caught up in a bomb blast that leaves several people dead, and many horribly injured. Jane is a key witness, but is adamant that she can’t identify the bomber. When a photograph appears in the newspapers, showing Jane assisting the injured at the scene, it puts her and her family at risk from IRA retaliation.

‘Good Friday’ is the eagerly awaited date of the annual formal CID dinner, due to take place at St Ermin’s Hotel. Hundreds of detectives and their wives will be there. It’s the perfect target. As Jane arrives for the evening, she realises that she recognises the parking attendant as the bomber from Covent Garden. Can she convince her senior officers in time, or will another bomb destroy London’s entire detective force?

Review

All carnage breaks out in Covent Garden Tube Station as innocent people’s worst nightmare occurs for real, with the IRA suspected for the terror attack. The pace gathers momentum from that point, as does the emotions of horror and sadness all mixed together, along with the desire to discover what happens next, from a policing point of view. Jane Tennison was witness to it all.

Tennison has moved up in her career to being a fully fledged detective, having now completed her CID Course at Hendon, she then joins The Dip Squad, which is illustrated in the book as it focuses on train lines. Her colleague, Brian Edwards moved to The Flying Squad, which was Tennison’s preference.

Tennison is also making moves to get her own flat to live in and the conversations around this with her parents will be familiar to many.

Good Friday is an excellent and highly charged book that I absolutely recommend.

#Review By Lou of Monotone Masquerade By George Veck @VecksGemsFilms #Mon0toneMasquerade #PsychologicalThriller

Monotone Masquerade
By George Veck

Monotone Masquerade packs a punch and makes you sit up and care in this coming of age psychological thriller.
Find out more about this short novel in the blurb and my review below.

Blurb

Fifteen-year-old Justin Billings wants nothing more than to break the destructive chain of enmeshment clouding his deliberately sheltered adolescence. However, autonomy is fiercely chastised in the Billings household. Justin’s newfound dignity threatens his scheming single-mother Wendy’s benefit scam, of which Justin’s fabricated autism diagnosis serves as an integral cog.

Determined to flee Wendy’s unbearable psychological abuse, Justin wittingly enters the north Wales care system. Unbeknown to him, only compounding his brittle vulnerability. While desperate for independence, engrained self-abhorrence sees him perpetually preyed on by society’s wolves. Local tearaway and fellow resident, Darcy Quinney, sniffs his diffidence from a mile off, and gleefully assumes Wendy’s puppeteer role.

Review

Monotone Masquerade is hard-hitting in its themes of growing up, vulnerability and abuse. The writing is strong in what unfolds is a powerful psychological drama where you can only hope it turns out alright in the end.

Justin Billings is 15, son of Wendy, who’s crime is abhorrent. She isn’t just deceitful, she is a scammer. Her latest scheme is to fake that her son has autism, thus also harming him in the process, as well as well as the welfare system. Just when you think there’s going to be a bit of respite for Justin, who then unwittingly goes into the Welsh care system, another curveball is thrown in. It isn’t as safe and happy as he had expected as he meets some more unsavoury characters.

The characterisations in the book are well-drawn, easily creating an emotional connection between them and the reader. Justin’s story particularly tugs on the heart strings.

People will be able to relate to or empathise with the story that is told on some level. It also provokes the reader to hope for something positive to happen, which makes it quite a compelling read.

Buy Link: Amazon

*Thanks to George Veck for inviting me to review honestly, in-exchange for an e-book.

#Review By Lou of Topaz By Richard Robinson @TheTopazFiles @SpellBoundBks #TOPAZ @between_pr #BlogTour #Thriller

Topaz
By Richard Robinson

Get ready for an edge of your seat read and travel back in time to the 1990’s, Northern Ireland in this politically charged espionage thriller.

Blurb

It’s the summer of 1995. The US Peace Envoy, Fred Martinson, begins to broker a peace deal for Northern Ireland. The world holds its breath as the first tentative steps are taken. Jones, an 18-year-old from suburban England, has stumbled through education and yearns to be a football reporter. He is offered a place at Milton College, a former secretarial school with a clandestine partnership with GCHQ in seeking the communication stars of the future.

Before he knows it, Jones has been recruited, paired with Jenny Richmond, who is every bit his equal, and sent to Northern Ireland to undertake skills development and resilience testing with the Young Communicators Unit (YCU).Training becomes a matter of life and death when a group of trainee spies learning on the job are betrayed to their death, and their most promising member, Isadora Brown, is taken hostage. MI5 and YCU are sent a video of her reading demands by a mysterious organisation called Red Line.What if a group of young trainees were forced onto the frontline to deal with one of the most sensitive issues in UK history? What if political relations were so sensitive at the end of The Cold War, that only a group of deniable students could change history and keep super powers from ruining the first steps of a peace deal in Northern Ireland?It’s a race against the clock to find and free Isadora, and make sure the US peace talks aren’t sent up in flames.But who, exactly, is betraying who?

Review

Betrayal, espionage, this book is packed full of it all. The sharpness of the writing seers through the page, creating a compelling read.

Lots of people remember Northern Ireland in the 1990’s and this book sends readers right back there. There is the atmosphere of those times when politics was sitting on a knife-edge.
There is a peace deal to be done in 1995.

Jones hates heights and isn’t exactly enamoured by his job doing labouring. It doesn’t exactly suit him. Change that he wasn’t expecting came upon him. He is recruited alongside Jenny Richmond to go to Northern Ireland to be part of the Young Communicators Unit.

Tension builds with the sharpness of the writing and as the espionage becomes increasingly dangerous, to the point where a spy is captured. It all shows how challenging brokering a deal for peace is, as well as how precarious it is at times.

#Theatre Post By Lou of – Strong Wind @SCENATHEATRE #StrongWind

Strong Wind
By Jon Fosse
Artistic Director, Robert McNamara

In US Theatre Now

The temperature is dropping, the nights are drawing in and there’s moment of lull. All the fun of Trick or Treating is over and it isn’t quite Thanksgiving or Christmas, the solution may just lie within theatres. So, why not take a moment to pause and treat yourself to a night of premier theatre performed by SCENA. There is even a sale on until November 9th, 2023. See details below, including a link to tickets.

Strong Wind – November 2-26 2023 at DC Arts Center, Adams Morgan.
Wed – Sat 7:30pm Sun – 2:30pm
2438 18th St. NW Washington, DC 20009

Strong Wind is a surreal, tragicomic tale. A man who has been away a long time peers out the window of the flat he shares with his wife. But is this still his home… and is this still his life? Or does he belong to the past — a spectator of his own abyss?

This is the story of one man’s attempt to return to a life where nothing is certain.

Playwright Fosse is the most performed living writer in Europe—and the 2010 winner of the coveted Ibsen Award.

Buy Tickets Here: Strong Wind

*Please note I am not affiliated to the play, nor the theatre company.

#Review By Lou of Secrets of Villa Amore By Carol Kirkwood @carolkirkwood @HarperCollinsUK #SecretsofVillaAmore

Secrets of Villa Amore
By Carol Kirkwood

Cosy up against the storm, Carol Kirkwood has been showing on BBC Breakfast Weather and be transported to those hazy days of summer sunshine and fun with her third book: Secrets of Villa Amore. As with previous books, they are standalones. Find out more in the blurb and my review below…

Blurb

The new sun-drenched summer read from the bestselling author and TV presenter By the glittering shores of the Mediterranean, two families gather for the wedding of the year.

Carina is marrying her childhood sweetheart, Giorgio. He isn’t the person she thinks he is.

Hollywood starlet Edie is the dazzling bridesmaid. She’s hiding something that could destroy her best friend.

Mother-of-the-bride Philippa is stunned by the arrival of a lover from her past. Can her marriage survive?

As the guests gather under the azure skies of the Amalfi coast, scandal and intrigue are waiting to be revealed, and one of the guests will do anything to hide the truth …

Get swept away by Carol’s compelling page-turner, you won’t want to put it down.

Review

Carol Kirkwood “sent” readers to a Greek Island then to The English Riviera and this time around, let’s join in the ride to the glitz and glam of the Villa Amore on the Amalfi Coast. Feel the heat radiating from the sun in azure skies and the rich atmosphere as you turn the pages and meet childhood sweethearts, Carina and Giorgio. It all sounds sweet and so perfect, except it isn’t. It’s full of drama as key people want to be elsewhere and secrets start to emerge and it all becomes rather messy and with it with scandal. Kirkwood knows how to twist things and knows people can’t resist a scandal, so that’s what she presents in this book, along with enough charm to ensure you’re already hooked and then reels you in even more because of course you just have to find out what happens next, with the amount of intrigue created to see what other secrets and lies there are to emerge. It seems everyone has something to hide or thought not to come back into being in their lives. Suddenly, not all seems so perfect after all in the world of “how the other half live.” There is also, at the heart of this, as well as secrets of course, is friendship and well-drawn characters and the setting is almost a character itself in a way, not overly descriptive, but enough to pull you there and keep you on the Amalfi Coast until what is a satisfying ending.

*Thanks to Harper Collins for providing an e-book.

Perhaps also consider taking look at sites such as Bookshop.org to buy.
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Please note, I am not affiliated in any way to the website I’ve chosen to feature here and my review is my own opinions.