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Articles by Melanie Gay

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About Melanie Gay

A former literary agent with three published novels of her own, Melanie retains her life-long love of the written word and recently mastered the Kindle. She is currently writing a historical novel set in 17th Century Britain and Holland. More Posts

A literary journey

    For a few years I wanted to visit Daphne Du Maurier’s Cornwall. Few novelists are so associated withe their locale as du Maurier is with Cornwall, in particular the area around Par. Daphne Du Maurier I succeeded  in reserving a week at Pridmouth Cottage overlooking the cove [...]

July 12, 2014 // 0 Comments

The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair

The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair is a bestseller, having sold 2 million copies and been translated into 18 languages. The author is swiss ,Joel Dicker,  and this is his first novel. He is not yet 30 – a startling career beckons, or does it? The novel begins with a writer Marcus [...]

June 5, 2014 // 0 Comments

The Prime Ministers by Yehuda Avner

Yehuda Avner was advisor, speech writer and note taken for Israeli Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin. This is a fascinating account of each and provides a essential insight into Israeli politics and diplomacy. As he took  the notes  of many a decisive [...]

May 14, 2014 // 0 Comments

Great Lives/Arnold Bennett

Much as I criticise the BBC, I do consider that their arts broadcasting on Radio 4 are of high quality and worth the licence fee alone. Saturday Review presented by Tom Sutcliffe and Front Row are consistent in their critiques. Another programme I enjoy is Great Lives, presented by former Tory [...]

April 30, 2014 // 0 Comments

The Crooked Maid by Dan Vyleta

Dan Vyleta has acquired quite a reputation, which he has done much to foster by comparing his latest novel to Dostoevsky and Dickens. I was initially excited by the thought of a novel set in Vienna in 1948. I have never visited Vienna but I feel I know it well. Weaned on Graham Greene’s The [...]

April 12, 2014 // 0 Comments

Creative writing in Canary Wharf

An old school friend of mine who dabbles with book reviewing married, second time round, a banker from JP Morgan. Over dinner a few months ago I brought up one of my hobby horses – the distance from the written literary written word in the world of texting and tweeting. My argument is that [...]

February 22, 2014 // 0 Comments

When and where the arts flourish

I am reading The Radeztky March by Joseph Roth, one of those large sweep novels, set in Austria at the decline of the Habsburg empire. Vienna has always interested me. At the start of the last century it produced Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, Carl Schnitzler, Egon Schiele and Stefan Zweig. Later [...]

January 10, 2014 // 0 Comments

Happy new year from Melanie Gay

I do not rate New Year’s Eve at all and am happy to spend the evening curled up with a good book. I finally ditched Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness with its extended and tedious description of his family. Enough already. I began the sequel to Morvern Callar by Alan Warner, These [...]

January 1, 2014 // 0 Comments

The Writer’s Voice

The relationship between the author and the subject in fiction is always interesting. It’s natural for the writer to draw on his/her personal experience, but I am more impressed by the novelist that can create a character some distance from their own.  This theme preoccupied me in the last [...]

December 28, 2013 // 0 Comments

The French have it – or so they like us to think

In the cause of keeping our readers abreast of the latest in style, fashion and other matter of women’s interest, today I make no apology for providing a link to the excellent review by Emma G. Keller’s of French Women Don’t Get Facelifts: The Secret Of Ageing With Style And [...]

December 16, 2013 // 0 Comments

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