Q: Are all the Clara Vine novels available in the States?
A: The second, third and fourth in the series are available, published by Ballantine Books. I’m hoping that Black Roses and Solitaire will be published in the USA and Canada soon.
Q: Will Clara Vine ever appear on the screen?
A: Fingers crossed! The series is currently under option for a TV series to Hillbilly Films.
Q: Is there a sixth Clara Vine novel in the pipeline?
A: Yes, Clara’s adventures will continue in a story set in Hamburg, London and Vienna in both 1941 and 1937. But I have another novel to finish first.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: I’m writing a standalone novel, provisionally titled The Typewriter, with a narrative split between the 1930s/40s and the present day.
Q: Is Clara Vine based on a real person?
A: No, but I was inspired by the diaries of several contemporary women who visited Berlin in the 1930s and recorded their impressions of Nazi Germany.
Q: Why do you like to write about espionage and spies?
A: All the elements of life that novelists usually address – love, loyalty, betrayal, hope, sacrifice – are compressed in the universe of the spy. We all, to some extent, live double lives and present different faces to the different people in our worlds. But spies live a constant double life. They are always on stage, always acting a role, and there is always a marked gap between what they think and what they say. It’s this gap that interests me.