Indiscretion (58 page)

Dear Reader,

Thank you for reading
Indiscretion
. I hope that Alexandra and Salvador's story of love, identity, danger and desire pulled at your heart strings as much as it did mine.

If you did enjoy the story, I'd be eternally grateful if you would write a review. Getting feedback from readers is incredibly rewarding and also helps to persuade other readers to pick up one of my books for the first time.

For news of my next releases, please come and visit me at my website – www.hannahfielding.net or join me on Facebook or Twitter.

Best wishes,
Hannah

HANNAH FIELDING was born and grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, the granddaughter of Esther Fanous, a revolutionary feminist and writer in Egypt during the early 1900s. Upon graduating with a BA in French literature from Alexandria University she travelled extensively throughout Europe and lived in Switzerland, France and England. After marrying her English husband, she settled in Kent and subsequently had little time for writing while bringing up two children, looking after dogs and horses, and running her own business renovating rundown cottages. Hannah now divides her time between her homes in Kent and the South of France. She has written two previous novels,
Burning Embers
and
The Echoes of Love
, which won the Gold Medal for Romance at the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

VIVA ESPAÑA:

What made you decide to set a love story in Andalucía?

While in my early teens I saw a film called
The Pleasure Seekers
. It was set in Spain and I thought it the most romantic film ever. The two leading actors were Gardner McKay and André Lawrence – typical Alpha male heroes who, with the wonderful setting and atmospheric music, triggered my imagination so I wrote my own short story and from that, years later, stemmed the plot for
Indiscretion
.

What is it about Spanish culture that attracts you?

In one word, everything! I grew up in a house overlooking the ever-changing blues of the Mediterranean. My fondest memories are of azure skies, dazzling sunshine and sweet fragranced gardens. Spain is all that and more … Spain is a land of flamboyance and drama. Where else would men flirt with death every afternoon for entertainment? The people are emotional, intense; their culture, their music, their traditions personify passion and fire. Even their national dish, Paella, is a rainbow of vivid colours, with a taste to match. Life is lived to the full. The Spanish seem to be totally in tune with James Dean's immortal words, ‘Live as if you'll die today.'

Have you ever met a real gypsy?

I have always been fascinated by fortune-telling, something that is reflected in all my books, where one way or another either my heroine or hero encounters a fortune-teller: some good, others downright bad.

And yes, I have met a real gypsy, twice in my life. Once in Paris, in 1974, as I was hurrying through the Place de La Madeleine: she was the one who approached me, very much in the same way as Paquita approaches Alexandra in
Indiscretion
. It was a daunting experience: not only did she try to extract money from me but her sinister prediction about someone I knew came true. The second time was at a fair in London's Berkeley Square in 1977, where this time I deliberately entered a well-known gypsy fortune-teller's tent because I was at a crossroads in my life. I was told I would be married within a year and that's exactly what happened!

What is one word you would use to describe
Indiscretion
?

Passion! Everything about Spain breathes passion: the fiery colours of the Spanish countryside with its wonderful vistas, the amazing dawns and sunsets, the rugged but vibrant earth – all so breathtaking they put a spell on you. And then the ardent personality and charm of the Spanish people themselves, their heart-rending music and the intensity with which they live and love.

Passion lies at the heart of this story: the fervent romance that evolves between Salvador and Alexandra, and the trials and tribulations they must endure to win their happy-ever-after – a story that grips your heart as you follow them through a tortuous path wrought with jealousy, lies and revenge.

A WRITER'S LIFE:

Do you base your characters on real people?

I probably do so subconsciously. On my travels and living in various countries I have met so many interesting characters so some of it is bound to come out in my writing. But there is no specific character or situation in my novels that is connected with people or events I've encountered.

Are you like any of your heroines?

All of the main female characters I write about have a little of me in them. I think you write best when you write about what you know. My heroines are, to a certain extent, naïve where emotional experience is concerned, and that is definitely an element that reflects my own naïvety when I was young. I was very protected as a child growing up in Egypt, and the big, wide world came as something of a surprise to me when, in my early twenties, I began to travel. Coral, the heroine in
Burning Embers
, possesses this quality most strongly and her story is a rite of passage. In
Indiscretion
Alexandra also has an emotional freshness that comes through immediately, a quality Salvador, being a conservative Spanish male, finds highly attractive. Her unwieldiness might land her in trouble (as mine did on occasion!), but nevertheless, her innocence is not without charm. Many of the heroines in my earlier books also have an artistic quality that I share.

What made you decide to set your novels in the fifty years spanning the second half of the twentieth century, rather than a completely modern setting?

Because it's a period I know well, and I think I write best when I'm able to tap into my own experiences. Also, those fifty or so years have seen such major changes in society, and there is much to explore in terms of romance in that era. My first novel,
Burning Embers
, for example, is set in 1970, because I wanted to write a traditional love story with a naïve heroine, but one who is very much a product of the sixties social revolution, from her fashion sense and independent nature through to her career as a successful freelance photographer. Also, I wanted to capture the beauty of Kenya at a time when independence was brand new. Venetia, heroine of
The Echoes of Love
, is a professional woman working abroad at the turn of the new millennium; she has some sexual experience before she meets the hero, Paolo, and the modern nature of the times means their passion is free to express itself far more physically than in previous decades. In
Indiscretion
, it is 1950 and the heroine, Alexandra, represents the new ‘liberated and free' woman of the post-war years. Her journey to Spain, though made in order to meet her estranged family, is just as much a journey to discover her real self and escape the straitjacket in which she'd lived all her life up until then, one largely imposed by the social expectations of her time.

Do you have a favourite ‘romantic decade'?

I struggle to choose! I think perhaps the 1960s because it was a time of such social and cultural revolution, with sexy new fashions, daring new musical styles and artists, and sublimely romantic and colourful big-screen premieres such as
West Side Story
. It was a time characterized by new freedoms, and with freedom comes heightened romance.

And your all-time favourite quote?

By Toni Morrison: ‘If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it'. (What better incentive is there to write?)

PACKING UP MY SUITCASE:

What was your first great travel experience?

I was fifteen and my parents, my sister and I took a cruise on the Nile in Egypt between Luxor and Abu Simbel, Nubia, before this great temple's relocation. In those days, Lake Nasser had not yet been created and Abu Simbel stood on the banks of the Nile, all but intact since the thirteenth century BC. While the boat glided dreamily on the Nile, I was drawn by the utter tranquility and sense of history there, surrounded as I was by an ancient world of ruins and the age-old scenery of fields and villages where people were living as they had a thousand years ago.

What was your favourite journey?

I think visiting Seville, Spain, during the Semana Santa, the Holy Week. It is a truly emotional experience that no one should miss.

And your top five places worldwide?

Aswan, Egypt: a felucca trip on the Nile at sunset is a most romantic and soothing experience.

Le Mont Saint-Michel, Brittany, France: a place of wild beauty, full of ghosts from thousands of years of history.

Cádiz la Joyosa, Spain: a white and blue town of pale domes and spires that sing of the sea.

Kenya: for its unequalled safari parks and its fabulous sunsets.

Portofino, Genoa, Italy: because it is quintessentially Italian and embodies all I love about Italian music, fashion, food and the beautiful language.

INSPIRATIONS:

As a writer what inspires you – romantic or otherwise?

Even more than people countries have been my main source of inspiration. For me, everywhere I visit is a new and exciting setting for the plot of a novel. I draw on the richness of its people, its history and all it has to offer in the way of cuisine, language, and customs to create fabulous places where my characters can meet and fall in love. I can say that my books are born of my travels.

You divide your time between the south of France and the south of England – what inspiration do you find from such different habitats?

My nineteenth-century Georgian house in Kent, England, is a couple of miles away from the sea and the rolling countryside around Dover Castle. I love the house because it's my home: the place I always return to, where my children grew up and where I have spent my happiest years. In summer the weather is temperate and balmy, just as I like it; and the garden, with its orchard and its giant beech trees, is a picture postcard. The autumn and winter months bring their own charm. In autumn, when the leaves of our trees turn vibrant yellow, orange, amber and even crimson, I sit under one of those trees, breathe in the pure air and gaze in peaceful silence at the amazing view or go for long walks in the countryside, conjuring up my romantic plots. When it snows, once more the landscape changes and the views of my village are breathtaking. At that time, there is no better feeling than snuggling up in an armchair in front of a log fire with a good book.

For the other half of the year I live in France, on the southern coast of Provence in the county of Var. My house there is a
mas
and has a totally different feel to it than my home in England, being modern with stone floors and delicate voile curtains. I love that part of France because of the wonderfully warm weather, the brilliant colours of the vegetation, the Mediterranean sea with its ever-changing blues and golden sandy beaches, the array of local fish and fruit and vegetables you find at the open-air stalls in the marketplace and the happy-go-lucky, friendly people. For me, my home in France spells sunshine, blue skies, a swim in the sea, and writing in a room with a wide picture window overlooking the amazing ocean.

Find out more at
www.hannahfielding.net

Her award-winning novel

Set in the romantic and mysterious city of Venice and the beautiful landscape of Tuscany,
The Echoes of Love
is a poignant story of lost love and betrayal, unleashed passion and learning to love again, whatever the price.

Venetia Aston-Montague has escaped to Italy's most captivating city to work in her godmother's architecture firm, putting a lost love behind her.

Paolo Barone, a charismatic entrepreneur whose life has been turned upside down by a tragic past, is endeavouring to build a new one for himself.

Venice on a misty carnival night brings these two people together. Love blossoms in the beautiful hills of Tuscany and the wild Sardinian maquis; but before they can envisage a future together they must not only confront their past, but also dark forces in the shadows determined to come between them.

Will love triumph over their overwhelming demons? Or will Paolo's carefully guarded, devastating secret tear them apart forever?