Authors Electric

Previously published twelve years ago, I was talking about why we 'celebrate' Bonfire night ... Yesterday was bonfire night (she says, writing this in early October) and we’ll have just finished celebrating witchcraft and terrorism. And I’m not talking Hallowe'en here, which after all is a recognised pagan festival, even if it has been hijacked by commercialism. But what else do you call a celebration of the day somebody tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament? Not to mention the fact that we celebrate it by letting off our own explosive devices – either privately at home or at an organised display – and by burning an effigy. It’s all positively medieval, isn’t it? And yet we stand with our sparklers watching Guy Fawkes on the bonfire and oohing and ahhing at the fireworks, and nobody apparently thinks this is wrong in any way – apart from the pet-lovers and the health-and-safety people, that is. Why? It’s not a part of our culture, nor is it a religious festival of any ...

Cotswold cosy mystery novelist Debbie Young Writing a series of seven seasonal cosy mysteries, it was a no-brainer to make the second novel, T rick or Murder? , focus on Halloween and Guy Fawkes' Night - two traditions that divide my characters (and my readers) into different camps. In Trick or Murder? , the strange new vicar makes his mark on the sleepy Cotswold parish of Wendlebury Barrow by banning the PTA Halloween Disco. Realising he may have alienated his congregation before his first service, he tries to redeem himself by inviting them to an impromptu Guy Fawkes' Night party at the vicarage. Naturally, mayhem ensues, during a fun romp that celebrates both traditions. A fun seasonal read for October Post-publication, I asked friends which occasion they prefer, and why - asking only British friends because, beyond our shores, Guy Fawkes is unknown, which I allude to in the opening chapter of the book. (I also explain what it is during the course of the story...

When I started planning the cosy mystery series I'm currently writing, I thought I had a bright idea: I'd make the seven books span the course of the year. What's not to love about writing a book for all seasons, and then some? Whatever the time of year, I'd have a topical book to tout. Summertime for Sophie Sayers Given that my Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries are set in a small (fictional) English village (no surprises there), its residents are naturally very conscious of the seasonal changes, and their social calendar dictated by the time of year. That's just how it is in the small (non-fictional) English village in which I've lived for the last 26 years. Here in my real life village, I'm so much more aware of the passage of the seasons than when I lived and worked in and around London. Working in a city centre, I was more likely to spot the season by what was in shop windows , rather than by the appearance (or disappearance) of lambs an...

Today is traditionally 'Bonfire Night', or 'Guy Fawkes Day', when there are bonfires in fields and back gardens and we let off fireworks and bake potatoes in the embers.  I have lovely childhood memories of family parties on the farm.  My father would kill a chicken and my mother would cook up a big roast dinner.  We saved up for weeks to buy fireworks from the village shop - Bangers and Silver Fountains, Roman Candles, Rockets in milk bottles, and Catherine Wheels that we nailed to the fence. My brother liked the Jumping Jacks that sprang about with a bang and a snap - that is until one of them landed in the biscuit tin he'd kept his fireworks in and they all lit up and went off at once. I remember running from  a rocket that had a horizontal trajectory across the stack-yard, and my father had to pour a bucket of water on another Jumper that landed in the hay. We had no sense of danger in those days.  The only thing that made me feel uncomfortable was the Guy....