One Small Thing: Dinah Jefferies
The photo is a talisman. When I have doubts, it tells me I can do it. I can make these changes. The books will work. People will like them. I will enjoy writing them. On the same day I bought a beautiful blue, embroidered, velvet coat, the most expensive item of clothing I’ve ever owned. It too is a symbol. I had chewed over it for a couple of weeks, but that Saturday in August, the sun was shining, I’d just bought the photo and I nipped across to the shop and bought the coat as well. I ignored the niggling voice in my head that said it was too expensive and that I would never wear it. I had fallen in love and I told myself the coat would be fantastic for important events, or exciting literary occasions that lay ahead.
Last autumn I took a course called ‘Unleash Your Potential’. Because of the course I vowed that in 2020 I would get out more, accept more invitations, see more people, take more risks with my writing. I’d been so focused on completing my first six books that other aspects of my life were suffering. The coat is my second talisman. It and the photograph are inextricably linked. Together they tell me I am feeling confident enough in my new books, my health, and in myself. They mean I am ‘worth it’.
Of course, Covid-19 has scuppered the trips to France, the events I had lined up, and the invitations I’d accepted, including one to stay in Tuscany and another to stay on Lake Como. But the picture and the coat remind me that sooner or later I will travel again. I will go on research trips to France and to other undecided places. I have faith in the future. I will wear that coat. And, in the meantime, I am taking risks with my writing and absolutely loving it.
You can find out more about Dinah's writing here. Her books are available at Amazon, Waterstones and Hive. The Tuscan Contessa is out in July 2020.
ONE WAR. TWO WOMEN. WILL THEY BE ABLE TO SAVE THE ONES THEY LOVE?
A sweeping new novel from the number one Sunday Times bestselling author of The Tea Planter's Wife, available for pre-order now
In 1943, Contessa Sofia de' Corsi's peaceful Tuscan villa among the olive groves is upturned by the sudden arrival of German soldiers. Desperate to fight back, she agrees to shelter a wounded British radio engineer in her home, keeping him hidden from her husband Lorenzo - knowing that she is putting all of their lives at risk.
When Maxine, an Italian-American working for the resistance, arrives on Sofia's doorstep, the pair forge an uneasy alliance. Feisty, independent Maxine promised herself never to fall in love. But when she meets a handsome partisan named Marco, she realizes it's a promise she can't keep...
Before long, the two women find themselves entangled in a dangerous game with the Nazis. Will they be discovered? And will they both be able to save the ones they love?
'Dinah Jefferies has a remarkable gift for conjuring up another time and place with lush descriptions, full of power and intensity' Kate Furnivall
