I’ve been posting a series on Facebook on the history of my home village in southwest France. La Guepia Part 1: An Overview La Guepia Part 2: The Albigensian Crusades and the Cathars La Guepia Part 3: The Hundred Years War La Guepia Part 4: The 16th-Century War of Religions
Tag: france
Curling up with a book at Christmas
It’s December! Deck the halls with boughs of holly. Tra la la la la, la la la la. Curling up with a book in the winter holidays, perhaps in front of a logfire and the glinting Christmas tree, and/or in your Christmas jumper and socks, or with a glass of port – whatever appeals to…
Starting to write: Old and new beginnings
My new novel, Love’s Knife, a medieval murder mystery, was published last month. I started writing it 10 years ago during a month-long writing residency in the Pyrenees. It’s been a long time brewing. I just came across a series of blogposts from those weeks of having the initial idea for the novel and am…
Time-Sensitive Historical Fiction
Today is the last day that you can buy my new novel, Love’s Knife, as an ebook on amazon.co.uk for a mere £0.99. The price goes back to its normal £4.99 in 17 hours or so. It’s also available as a paperback. Love’s Knife is a medieval murder mystery set in Toulouse at the turn…
On a Viking trouser-snake
I’ve a crick in my neck, And tend to fall on my head, My trouser-snake is soft, And my hearing’s gone away. The extract above is from Judith Jesch’s translation of a lament on old age by the 10th century Viking skald (or poet) Egil Skallagrimsson. The image is a 19th century French painting by…
Parisot Literary Festival 2024
When I moved to a village in southwest France some sixteen years ago, I thought I would find myself in splendid isolation, with no distractions from writing, but I quickly acquired a writers’ group, then a reading group, and discovered that I was living in proximity to a big literary festival in a small French…
Medieval vielle
I have just emerged from organising the Historical Novel Society UK 2024 conference at Dartington Hall in Devon. The conference had 250 delegates onsite and another 150 online. Speakers included Bernard Cornwell, Diana Gabaldon, Ian Mortimer, S.G. MacLean, Elizabeth Chadwick and Kate Quinn. The chairman of the society, Richard Lee, presented me with this replica…
A busy week: New book, historical fiction conference
Rebekah Simmers interviewed me about organising the HNS UK 2024 conference, which is taking place this weekend in Devon, UK (online tickets are available) and about the publication (yesterday) of my latest medieval novel – my sixth. http://hns2024.com/2024/09/02/conference-interview-tracey-warr/ What next? After the conference, I’m looking forward to a short period of being a slacker! Doing…
Book Launch Interview with the HNS
The cover image shows salt mounds at Aigues-Mortes. The medieval salt trade features in the novel.
Becoming Trobairitz
This week, The Occitan University was in my home village of Laguepie in southern France for its annual visit. The university consists of a packed week of Occitan language classes and workshops and events on Occitan culture, including cooking, dancing, music, history, literature, and radio. The week culminated in a magical street party of impromptu…
Tracey Warr Writing 