Anna Sayburn Lane

Thriller author

Anna Sayburn Lane

February newsletter: treats and recommendations for the winter months.

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January can be tough, can’t it? My theory is that the only way to make it through the dark mornings, dark afternoons and dark evenings is to indulge in plenty of treats.

I had some lovely treats in January. I went to the candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the recreated Jacobean playhouse that stands next to Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, to see a wonderful and very funny play about storytelling. And I had a very special posh afternoon out, with tea at the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly, London, for a friend’s special celebration (see photo!).

But mostly, I indulged in lots of evenings curled up with a good book. It’s what winter evenings are made for.

Free books promotion

I’m sure you could do with some good books, too! Whether you’ve finally made your way through your Christmas stash, or just feel like trying something new, February is a good month for new books.

If you haven’t read my first novel, Unlawful Things, now is the time to try it for free. The e-book available free of charge until Monday 30 January. It’s part of a promotion by the book recommendation service Hello Books. Why not see what other free thrillers they have this month?

What I’m enjoying now

Here are some things that have kept me entertained this month:

MW Craven’s incredibly twisty and well-plotted novel The Botanist. Absolutely addictive! I loved the intricate plot but also the funny and believable detective team.
LJ Ross’s Northumberland-set mysteries, starting with Holy Island. My father comes from the north east of England so I know some of the locations – but fortunately my childhood family holidays didn’t involve quite so much murder.
The BBC crime drama Happy Valley. The series – the third and final – has been an absolute masterclass in acting and dramatic tension. The two female leads, Sarah Lancashire and Siobhan Finneran, and writer/director Sally Wainwright, conjured the most gripping scene I’ve ever watched out of two sisters talking quietly in a cafe.

January newsletter: My favourite books of 2022 and New Year book giveaways

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I’ve had a lovely sociable Christmas with friends and family this year – a welcome relief after the Covid-blighted winters of the last few years. I had a good few books in my stocking too, including the rather wonderful Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I raced through this fierce and funny book with great enjoyment.
Here’s my annual round-up of books I loved in 2022.

Two short and razor-sharp historical novels

Stephen May: Sell Us The Rope. A vibrant, funny and menacing novel set in May 1907, when a young man from Georgia calling himself Koba arrives in the East End of London for the 5th Congress of the Russian Communist Party. The novel vividly conjures up the grimness of London at the time.

Denise Mina: Rizzio. An account of the historical murder of the advisor of Mary Queen of Scots, re-told by a masterful modern crime writer. The build-up, the murder itself and the perilous aftermath are told with heart-stopping pace. Sharper than a serpent’s tooth and highly recommended.

Three books of illuminating non-fiction:

Merlin Sheldrake: Entangled Life. A mind-altering book on fungi, which kept me gripped through a four-hour airport transfer, and changed my outlook on all things fungi in the process. Beautifully readable.

Steven Nightingale: Granada Light of Andalucia. This lyrical travel/history book made me long to return to the Albaicin and prompted me to start writing a Helen Oddfellow mystery set in this fascinating city.

Francesca Wade: Square Haunting. A fascinating history of five extraordinary women finding freedom in Mecklenburgh Square, Bloomsbury between the wars, from Dorothy L Sayers to Virginia Woolf.

Three novels that took me out of this world

Alan Garner: Treacle Walker. A spare, deceptively-simple and wonderfully evocative book. From its pungent language to its vivid images and otherworldly air, this is a book to escape into – and one I’ll be reading and discovering new time and again.

Amor Towles: A Gentleman in Moscow. I loved this spellbinding historical novel about making the most of life. A perfect flavour of escapism, a sense of style and elegance, and a frisson of derring-do.

Francis Spufford: Light Perpetual. The imaginary lives of five children lost in one rocket attack on south London. The prose is luminous, the stories compelling. The opening chapter, describing the scene in Woolworths a split second before the rocket brings instant destruction, is masterful.

Best of crimes

Dorothy Koomson: My Other Husband. A tense, gripping thriller, a real ‘couldn’t put it down’ book with twists you don’t see coming.

William Shaw: The Trawlerman. Another atmospheric and wonderfully enjoyable crime thriller from William Shaw, set on the south coast of Kent in Folkestone and Dungeness. I love the roundedness of Shaw’s characters – good people do bad things, and vice versa.

Pascal Garnier: How’s The Pain? This slice of noir is hilariously jaundiced. It tells the story of terminally-ill ‘vermin exterminator’ Simon, who has one last job to do – and needs a driver. Lyrical, funny, horrifying and unexpected.

Free books to start the New Year!

Money is often a bit tight right after Christmas – so how about some free e-books to load up your e-reader and get you through those cold January nights?

I’m taking part in two giveaways this month. Firstly, my short novel The Crimson Thread will be available free all month in Bookfunnel’s Happy New Year Giveaway, along with lots of other lovely goodies.

Then the first Helen Oddfellow mystery, Unlawful Things, will be free from 27th to 29th January, via Hello Books! Put the dates in your diary and follow this link from 27th Jan.

December newsletter: Helen Oddfellow in Granada, Dickens in Kent and Sherlock in London

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Work in progress
I’ve spent November in the fascinating city of Granada, in southern Spain. Not in reality, alas, but in my head. Granada is the wonderfully evocative backdrop for the next Helen Oddfellow adventure.

I visited in January and fell in love with its hidden alleyways, Arab-style architecture and multi-layered history. I couldn’t resist sending Helen there – but she doesn’t get the relaxing break she was hoping for! She’s soon on the trail of the legendary Book of Nothing, hidden at the time of the book-burnings in the medieval city and reputed to hold dangerous, ancient knowledge…

I decided to write the first draft of the novel in a month-long daily writing sprint, which is a new writing method for me. It was a challenge, but I wrote 50,000 words, around 2,000 words a day with two days off. It’s a very messy first draft, but it gives me a great base to work from.

Dickens in Kent
From Helen in Granada, to Charles Dickens in Kent. Dickens inspired my latest novel Folly Ditch, so I spent a lot of time researching his life. This month I’m giving two talks to local history groups about Dickens’ Kent connections.

Did you know Dickens was caught up in one of the first train crashes? He was travelling in the Folkestone to London boat train (the train that met the boat from France) when it derailed on a viaduct in Staplehurst, Kent. Dickens was in a carriage that was stuck half-on, half-off the bridge, and scrambled out to help other passengers. Eight people died and many more were injured. Afterwards Dickens – incredibly – climbed back into the carriage to rescue the manuscript of his work-in-progress, Our Mutual Friend. Even more intriguing, Dickens was not travelling alone, but with Nellie Ternan, now thought been his mistress. Disasters can unmask secrets, however well hidden.

I’ll be talking about Dickens at Deal’s Astor Theatre on Thursday 15 December, as part of the regular The History Project evenings. Tickets here.

Recommendations: what I’m enjoying now
One fictional character that no-one seems to get tired of is Sherlock Holmes. I enjoyed the latest outing for Sherlock and friends, Netflix’s Enola Holmes 2, which gives us the further adventures of Sherlock’s younger sister Enola, who wants to beat her big brother at the detecting game.
Enola, daughter of an undercover suffragette with a nice line in pyrotechnics, investigates the disappearance of a match girl from a factory where an outbreak of ‘typhus’ is killing off the workers. The film is great fun if you fancy a winter evening lounging on the sofa.
I’ve also discovered another enjoyable Sherlock spin-off. Liz Hedgecock’s A House of Mirrors puts Holmes’ landlady Mrs Hudson centre stage as a redoubtable sleuth in her own right. But is she really Mrs Hudson? Not everything is as it seems in this clever introduction to the series. I’ll be back for more.

History and Mystery promotion
Talking of series, my Helen Oddfellow series is part of the History Crime And Mystery Series promotion with Bookfunnel this month. The promotion is a great way to discover your new favourite series. Find out more here.

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November newsletter: News on my next book, spies in Canterbury and Christmas books

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Work in progress

I’ve been plotting out the next Helen Oddfellow mystery – and it’s time to start writing. I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo, the mad month where writers try to complete a 50,000 word novel in November. The idea is to push myself to get a first draft down on paper. Follow me on Twitter @BloomsburyBlue to see how I get on!

Murder, mystery and spies

I had fun guiding 30 enthusiastic visitors around the beautiful city of Canterbury on my Marlowe, Murder and Mystery tour in October. We visited places connected with the playwright Christopher Marlowe, who inspired my novels Unlawful Things and The Crimson Thread. The city centre is full of Elizabethan-era buildings, and we started at the church where Marlowe was baptised in 1564 (number 10, St George’s, on the map below). We also visited the building where Queen Elizabeth I stayed, before Marlowe joined Her Majesty’s Secret Service…

Would you like to join me next time? I know not everyone can get to Canterbury, so I’m offering a free online tour, on Tuesday November 15 at 20:00 GMT. Please register so I know how many to expect.

Registration here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/christopher-marlowes-canterbury-online-tour-tickets-457056206417

1560 map of Canterbury
A 1560 map of Canterbury

My walk was part of the excellent Canterbury Festival, which brings together musicians, artists, performers and writers for two weeks of arts events. I enjoyed an entertaining talk on women and espionage, by the spy writer Nigel West. Did you know that the Canterbury playwright Aphra Behn, one of the first women playwrights, was a spy for King Charles II, back in the seventeenth century? There must be something about Canterbury writers that makes them into good spies!

Recommendations: what I’m enjoying now

I heard crime writer Dorothy Koomson talk at the Fatal Shore crime writing festival recently and couldn’t resist her latest novel My Other Husband. It’s tense, twisty and tremendous fun. The heroine is a successful crime writer, author of The Baking Detective series. When people around her start dying in ways that resemble the crimes in her books, she thinks she knows who it is – but how can she clear her name?

I’ve been diving into some old movies recently. I enjoyed the wit and style of the 1960s spy thriller The Ipcress File, starring Michael Caine and based on the Len Deighton book. It’s very much of its time, but just the thing for a dark autumnal evening.

Offer: Christmas book bundles

What could be more Christmassy than a set of signed books by your favourite author? I’ll be signing and sending out a limited number of book bundles in December. If you’d like to buy one, two, three or all four books, signed with a dedication of your choice, drop me an email on hello@annasayburnlane.com and let me know which books you’d like. First come will be first served. The cost will be £9 per book plus postage. Sorry, but because of postage costs this offer is UK-only.

Have a great November, and happy reading!

Signing books at my local bookshop

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Photo of Anna signing books in the Deal BookshopAfter more than two years of online events, it was lovely to be invited to sign copies of my books at the Deal Bookshop in my home town of Deal, Kent. I had fun chatting to friends and customers who dropped by to pick up a copy of Folly Ditch, my latest Helen Oddfellow mystery thriller. It’s a friendly place and quite the social hub on a Saturday afternoon! Thanks to David for inviting me, and to all the staff for their help.