Today I’m delighted to feature award winning author Liz Fenwick. Liz lives in Cornwall with her husband and two mad cats. She’s been a global nomad beginning life in Massachusetts before moving to London, Canada, Moscow, Houston Jakarta and Dubai. But Cornwall holds her heart and it’s where she’s set all her novels

Over to Liz

Which 5 pieces of music/songs would you include in the soundtrack to your life and why?

 

Old Cape Cod, the Bing Crosby version, because I spent all my summers growing up and Bing Crosby reminds me of my father and my American roots.

A Groovy Kind of Love by Phil Collins…I danced to my husband to this at our wedding.

That’s Amore by Dean Martin because when my kids were small and I’d lose all patience I’d put it on and dance with them until we were all laughing and in good spirits.

Lost Highway by Bon Jovi…represents my expat life.

Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede. I loved this song when it came out in 1974 and then had the joy of it again and then when it came out on the sound track of Guardian’s of the Galaxy I loved it all over again but this time with my daughter. The song still lifts me up.

 

What 5 things (apart from family and friends) you’d find it hard to live without.

 

Coffee

Chocolate

Wine

Books

Stationary

 

Can you offer 5 pieces of advice you’d give to your younger self?

 

Live in the moment – don’t wish your life away – take time to feel the sun on your face and sand in your toes.

Don’t sweat the mistakes you make as they will make you laugh later.

Be kind to yourself.

Love – love with everything that is in you.

Forgive, next to love it is the greatest gift.

 

Tell us 5 things that most people don’t know about you.

 

I’m shy.

I was once a runner up in a beauty pageant.

I love country music.

I was once encouraged to become a professional golfer

I wished I had studied Irish step dancing as a child.

 

Tell us 5 things you’d like to do or achieve.

 

Become a Sunday Times best seller.

To be invited to my alma mater, Mount Holyoke, as a commencement speaker.

To do a masters.

To visit New Zealand.

To own a house that’s big enough to run writing retreats in it!

 

Thanks for joining us today Liz, great to learn more about you. Personally, curious about the Irish step dancing, does that suggest some Irish ancestry?  (yes, I know – I’m nosy). I think I can say with some certainty that virtually everybody will be with you on most of the things you can’t live without. Here’s hoping that in our current situation, you’re not being deprived. I definitely agree with living in the moment, far too easy to wish your life away and not appreciate the things we have in front of us. Maybe again, this crisis will make us appreciate the important things. I sincerely hope you get to achieve the things on your ‘do/achieve’ list. A base for a writing retreat sounds wonderful as does visiting New Zealand. Fingers crossed! 

 

Liz’s Books

 

The Path to the Sea

Sometimes going home is just the beginning…

Boskenna, the beautiful, imposing house standing on the Cornish cliffs, means something different to each of the Trewin women.

For Joan, as a glamorous young wife in the 1960s, it was a paradise where she and her husband could entertain and escape a world where no one was quite what they seemed – a world that would ultimately cost their marriage and end in tragedy.

Diana, her daughter, still dreams of her childhood there – the endless blue skies and wide lawns, book-filled rooms and parties, the sound of the sea at the end of the coastal path – even though the family she adored was shattered there.

And for the youngest, broken-hearted Lottie, heading home in the August traffic, returning to Boskenna is a welcome escape from a life gone wrong in London, but will mean facing a past she’d hoped to forget.

As the three women gather in Boskenna for a final time, the secrets hidden within the beautiful old house will be revealed in a summer that will leave them changed for ever.

 

 

One Cornish Summer

Against the beauty of Cornwall, a story of two women struggling with their past: one cannot remember hers, the other cannot forget…

When Hebe receives a life-changing diagnosis at only 53, she struggles to make sense of what it will mean for her, her job and the man she loves. With memories slipping away by the day, she flees to the one place she has always felt safe and peaceful – Cornwall, and the house her family spent so many summers in.

Lucy is having her own crisis, and seizes the chance to follow her aunt to Cornwall. Curious about what has driven Hebe there after so many years, she also has to battle with the secret she has kept since her family’s last summer there more than ten years ago.

Both women will learn that memories live in our hearts and that sharing secrets can set you free… But can they find their way back to the things that are truly important to them?

 

 

The Returning Tide

Two sisters and one betrayal that will carry across generations . . .

In wartime Cornwall, 1943, a story between two sisters begins – the story of Adele and Amelia, and the heart-breaking betrayal that will divide them forever. Decades later, the efforts of one reckless act still echo – but how long will it be until their past returns?

 

 

 

A Cornish Christmas Carol

Joy to the world? Not if Abigail Scorrier has anything to do with it. She’s spent most of her adult life trying to avoid the festive frenzy. She loved Christmas as a child in Cornwall: the colourful stockings hanging above a crackling fire, the excitement of what will be waiting for her the next morning. But ever since her life took a heart-breaking turn, she’s buried those memories and done everything she can to avoid her past, her family and most of all, the Christmas season.

But on Christmas Eve, Abigail will have three visitors she can’t ignore, and what they reveal about her past, present and future might just change her life – and mend her heart…

 

 

Under a Cornish Sky

Demi desperately needs her luck to change. On the sleeper train down to Cornwall, she can’t help wondering why everything always goes wrong for her. Having missed out on her dream job, and left with nowhere to stay following her boyfriend’s betrayal, pitching up at her grandfather’s cottage is her only option.

Victoria thinks she’s finally got what she wanted: Boscawen, the gorgeous Cornish estate her family owned for generations should now rightfully be hers, following her husband’s sudden death. After years of a loveless marriage and many secret affairs of her own, Victoria thinks new widowhood will suit her very well indeed . . .

But both women are in for a surprise. Surrounded by orchards, gardens and the sea, Boscawen is about to play an unexpected role in both their lives. Can two such different women find a way forward when luck changes both their lives so drastically?

 

 

A Cornish Stranger

There’s an old Cornish saying: ‘Save a stranger from the sea, he’ll turn your enemy . . .’

When her reclusive grandmother becomes too frail to live alone, Gabriella Blythe moves into the remote waterside cabin on Frenchman’s Creek which has been her grandmother’s home for decades. Once a celebrated artist, Jaunty’s days are coming to a close but she is still haunted by events in her past, particularly the sinking of Lancasteria during the war.

Everything is fine until a handsome stranger arrives in a storm, seeking help. Fin has been left a family legacy: a delicate watercolour of a cabin above the creek which leads him to this beautiful stretch of Cornish water. As Fin begins to pick at the clues of the painting, he is drawn into the lives of Gabe and Jaunty, unraveling a remarkable story of identity and betrayal . . .

 

 

A Cornish Affair

Running out on your wedding day never goes down well. When the pressure of her forthcoming marriage becomes too much, Jude bolts from the church, leaving a good man at the altar, her mother in a fury, and the guests with enough gossip to last a year.

Guilty and ashamed, Jude flees to Pengarrock, a crumbling cliff-top mansion in Cornwall, where she takes a job cataloguing the Trevillion family’s extensive library. The house is a welcome escape for Jude, full of history and secrets, but when its new owner arrives, it’s clear that Pengarrock is not beloved by everyone.

As Jude falls under the spell of the house, she learns of a family riddle stemming from a terrible tragedy centuries before, hinting at a lost treasure. And when Pengarrock is put up for sale, it seems that time is running out for the house and for Jude.

 

 

The Cornish House

When artist Maddie inherits a house in Cornwall shortly after the death of her husband, she hopes it will be the fresh start she and her step-daughter desperately need. Trevenen is beautiful but neglected, and as Maddie discovers the stories of generations of women who’ve lived there before, she begins to feel her life is somehow intertwined within its walls.

But Maddie’s dream of a calm life in the countryside is far from the reality she faces – and as she pulls at the seams of Trevenen’s past, the house reveals secrets that have lain hidden for generations.

 

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