Fiona

Valpy’s French romances are like a glass of wine in French sunshine – a perfect summer –

and pandemic escape. But she writes more than romance.

Fiona's best-selling World War II fiction tells stories of remarkable women, generations apart, who use adversity to their advantage and find resilience deep within.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and in Binge Reading this week Fiona shows why her books are the antidote for dark times, and we offer the French Escape Giveaway... three Ebook copies of her chateau romance The French For Always are going to three lucky readers.

An escapist read with the taste of summer on every page…  it’s just what we need in difficult times….  Enter the draw through the Joys of Binge Reading website or the Binge Reading Facebook page.  Offer closes May 9, so enter now.

Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

How moving to France launched a careerThe secret lives of Fiona's neighborsThe Nazis in Paris and their legacyInterweaving romance and historyFiona's thing about Austen booksMoving on from social distancing

Where to find Fiona Valpy: 

Website: https://www.fionavalpy.com/

Facebook: @fionavalpybooks

Twitter: @fionavalpy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fionavalpy/

What

follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for

word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

Jenny Wheeler: Hello there Fiona, and welcome to the show.  It's great to have you with us.

Fiona Valpy: Hi Jenny.  Can I just say from

one binge reader to another, it's great to be here.

Author Fiona Valpy - escapist French romance and World War II drama

Jenny Wheeler: That's wonderful. You're in Scotland and I'm in New Zealand. It's a

time of pandemic, so give out our listeners a picture of where are you sitting

and how has social distancing been affecting you?

Lovely spot for introvert writer

Fiona Valpy: Well, I'm in the conservatory of my house, which is on the edge of a little village in Perthshire in Scotland. And I'm the last house in the village, so I get the benefit of having the community nearby. But I’m also looking out onto my garden, which is full of spring flowers at the moment, such a joy.

Then beyond that there's some fields and trees and hills and I've got the River Tay just down below as well, which I can't see because it's down in a deep valley, but it's always lovely knowing the river’s there.

I'm lucky where I am. I've got the sense of not being too trapped and too claustrophobic here.  I'm also really lucky with the small community that's around because they're so supportive and we've all got together, and we do shopping for people who are in quarantine. 

If anyone needs anything, we will scurry around virtually, electronically, and try and sort that.

The spirit of community rises . .

There was a lovely story the other day of

an elderly lady in a care home.  It was

her birthday and the community group all put their heads together by a computer

and managed to come up with a bagpiper who went and stood outside her window

and played “Happy Birthday” to her. That gives you the kind of idea of the

spirit of community that I'm in.

Jenny Wheeler: That sounds just gorgeous.

Fiona Valpy: It is, it's lovely.  From that

point of view, I'm lucky. I also think that with social distancing, being a

writer, we're quite antisocial people anyway. 

The nature of our day job, if you like, is being quite isolated and working

on our own and having that space to really focus on our writing. In fact the lockdown

that we're in here at the moment has possibly been quite a good thing from my

point of view and I think my publisher would think it's a very good thing

because I no longer have any excuses for not hitting my deadlines.

The French For Love - Book #1 in the "French For" romance series by Fiona Valpy

How did Fiona get writing fiction?

Jenny Wheeler: That’s right.