The house in Berkeley Square that is my model for Malcolm & Suzanne’s house
The house above in Berkeley Square is my model for Malcolm and Suzanne’s house. The Mayfair Affair begins in this house, with Malcolm and Suzanne awakened in their second floor bedchamber by a visit from Bow Street runner Jeremy Roth. Hard to believe it, but The Mayfair Affair will be out in just seven weeks! So excited to have it in the world. For the next seven weeks, I’ll be posting special features every Friday to make the wait go faster, so be sure to check back. And if you haven’t already seen it, London Interlude is out as an ebook, giving a glimpse into Malcolm and Suzanne’s first visit to London.
Have a great weekend!!
Tracy
March 28, 2015 at 6:17 am
It is the perfect house and exactly as I pictured it. I remember driving through the older neighborhoods in London many years ago and thinking how grand the old row style mansions looked. Such a different world but such great escapist fair. London Interlude was very good but as I told Suzanne, I still hate novellas and short stories. I want my books to go on and on…silly, I know. But I loved the way you resolved the dilemma of the documents so that neither Suzanne nor Malcolm were exposed in their work. You do have a clever mind, Tracy…well done!!!
March 28, 2015 at 6:35 am
So glad the house is as you pictured it, Lynne! I fell in love with it when i saw it and actually moved Charles & Mel who originally were going to live in South Audley Street. I wouldn’t want to write exclusively in novellas and short stories – it’s an art to be succinct, an art I do not posses – I tend to want to go on and on and weave complicated plots with lots of characters :-). But I love using novellas as part of the larger tapestry of the series, a way to catch up on episodes and events that don’t make it into one of the novellas. Glad you liked the way the dilemma of the stolen documents was resolved!
March 29, 2015 at 4:29 am
No, you’re not succinct…but that is exactly why I like your books. Let’s face it, Tracy – Dorothy Dunnett was one of the least succinct writers I’ve read and I adore her work, as you do. I like the richness of detail and the journey with the characters which can’t be done in a few chapters. That said, I like your rationale and will keep reading the novellas…because they are a lot like the letters and give us snippets of these people beyond each book.
March 28, 2015 at 12:03 pm
I wonder why you chose that particular house out of all of them in Berkley Square? I enjoyed London Interlude, especially its clever resolution.
March 29, 2015 at 1:36 am
It’s a beautiful house. Georgian architecture was so elegant. I loved London Interlude, although I think I might have said that before. That is one of the good things to come out of the rise of ebooks; the rebirth of the long short and the novella. I have several volumes of 19th century ones by people such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Lousia May Alcott and E.W. Hornung and I had always thought it was such a pity that they disappeared. For a long time publishers didn’t seem interested in anything longer than 2500 words or shorter than 85,000. I don’t like what has been the modern short story for so many decades because you just can’t get attached to characters in 2500 words. But now with ebooks there are so many more options. It is fantastic!