No wifi, no phone signal, no car, and high winds closing the footpaths - the whole week was made for an Agatha Christie mystery, and though I didn’t discover a body, I did write 13,000 words of Book 3 in the Double O series. If you’ve been following the newsletter you’ll know this is my third visit, and by now the garret overlooking the magnolia tree is my home away from home. I went straight from Segovia to Greenway, Agatha Christie’s home in Devon, for a week-long writing residency. I explained that in my case, writing is who I am, it’s as natural and vital as breathing, so if I listened to the doubts of others, it would be like denying my need for oxygen. I think this perhaps speaks to the silence of the girls in the audience, and it’s a very difficult question to answer, because there’s so much in the world that tells all of us we can’t be who we are. One question from a girl really moved me: she asked for advice on pursuing one’s dreams in the face of being told they are unrealistic or impossible. I was struck though that at an event about writing powerful women, only boys asked questions, so I was particularly touched by all the girls who came up to talk with me personally afterwards. And I LOVED their questions! From ‘Where do you most like to write?’ to ‘What’s your favourite car?’ - to find out the answers, watch out for the event here.

There were a lot of teenage boys who I think had been told ‘Bond’ and not much else, so I had fun smuggling an hour of feminism into their day, which I’m happy to report they all seemed very on board with. The audience consisted of mainly university and school students. The theme was writing powerful women, and it was the first event to bring my books together like that.

I’m thankful to the British Council for inviting me to join Cristina Ward in conversation about both Double or Nothing and A Wild & True Relation. Hay Festival itself takes place in a former monastery, now a university. If this all sounds like a surreal fairtytale, the castle was reportedly the inspiration for Walt Disney. A restaurateur carved three suckling pigs with a dinner plate because that’s the way his father did it for the king after the war. The citizens of Segovia opened their homes and gardens - and at one point, a 13th century palace- to ply us with more food than I’ve ever eaten in my life. Not only for the aqueduct - which is standing all these years later with no cement, only excellent geometry - but for the layers of history, from the site of a medieval synagogue to Spain’s last Gothic cathedral.

Dancing to casino royale theme