On Change Meetings

Caroline won her first National Poetry competition at 10 years old and from that moment dreamed of being a writer. After juggling motherhood with modelling assignments, she founded an Interior Design Company working on many projects in the UK and abroad. Her second marriage to the widowed Conroy Harrowby brought four stepchildren into her life, giving her a wider audience for her imaginative bedtime stories. As a family they all live at the Harrowby ancestral home, Burnt Norton, which famously inspired T S Eliot to write the first of his “Four Quartets”.

Have you ever had that mad moment when you do something crazy and impulsive which adds a completely new dimension to your life? My moment came fifteen years ago when a box Advertisement in the Times caught my eye. I was intrigued by the romantic vision of a ‘Glorious Tuscan farmhouse for sale, set in the hills near Cortona.’ My father had recently, unexpectedly died, and it seemed the perfect solution to use his legacy for the family. I could almost hear him saying ‘go and see it, Caras.’ 

Having persuaded my long-suffering husband to drop me at Stansted after a party, I boarded the plane for Pisa. Two train journeys later I arrived Camucia in the early afternoon. 

 I will never forget being driven from the station and my first glimpse of the ancient Etruscan town on the hilltop above us. I was struck by the exquisite architecture, the colours of the terracotta rooftops, the texture of old stone. I can remember my excitement as we came around the last bend, and walked towards the Via Nazionale, the delicious smell of lime trees lingering in the air. Even my visit to the bank with its glorious muralled ceiling was an experience. Sustained by coffee in the square, I sat on the steps of the medieval town hall watching the locals going about their business. My first glimpse of Lago Trasimeno was leaning over the balustrade at the edge of the town, taking in the extraordinary sweeping view across was the valley, with the vast expanse of shimmering water.

It was love at first sight when I came down the drive to the farmhouse. It was everything it promised to be, becoming a wonderful retreat for my husband and our seven children. Meeting a remarkable octogenarian who I found picking mushrooms in my garden, later inspired me to write my novel, An Italian Affair.

It was Giovanni’s tales about the partisans hiding in the woods during the war and learning of the appalling hardships the locals had suffered at the hands of the fascists and the Germans that inspired me to write their story. Through this, I encountered the wonderful Italian spirit that I love to this day and I know my father would have approved.

It was another chance meeting that inspired my next novel ‘A Paris Secret,’ published this month. I overheard a woman talking to her elderly husband in the supermarket about the ingredients for a Gazpacho. I cheekily butted into their conversation and half an hour later I had been invited to her summer Jazz party, little knowing her husband was the famous saxophonist, Bob Wilbur! 

This led to meeting David Watson, a pioneering heart surgeon at the time of Doctor Christian Barnard. Talking to this fascinating ninety-seven-year-old, I knew the heroine in my next novel would be Sophie Bernot, a young woman training to be a heart surgeon in post-war Paris. I brought Bob Wilbur into the story when Sophie ran into him in one of the Paris jazz clubs.

These chance meetings have been extraordinary, but on other occasions, I have had to actively seek out experts in their field. The only way to track down the celebrated mountaineer Andy Parkin was to travel to Chamonix.

It was worth the effort just to hear his story of climbing up and falling down Mont Blanc. I was able to combine this trip with meeting a delightful monk at the Abbey of Vezelay. I have also found myself in libraries in Paris and the mortuary of an old Parisian hospital. The final piece in this particular jigsaw puzzle fell into place when I met a hedge fund manager at a wedding. His passion for heli skiing led him to show me the footage of his brush with death in an avalanche. I am so lucky to have met all these amazing people by chance or otherwise. I could never have imagined that this small advertisement in the Times could have had such an impact on my life and writing career.

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At school I was the pupil who scribbled stories during maths class, I was also the girl who always got caught!!! Despite my frequent summons to the headmistress’ office, my father continued to encourage my writing. ‘Be a dreamer Caras, write, it is ok.’ He was also the man who insisted on a poem for his birthday rather than a present. I will never underestimate the influence this has had on my life.

Many years later after I had dropped out of law school at eighteen to get married, had three children in quick succession and then remarried a widower with four young children of his own, we moved to his family home, Burnt Norton in Gloucestershire. It was the house and gardens that had inspired TS Eliot to write the first of his Four Quartets, ‘Burnt Norton.’

Living in this extraordinary place, with its unique literary tradition, my aspirations suddenly seem possible. After my first novel Burnt Norton was published six years ago, I was taken on by a new publisher Orion. Three novels later and a fourth on the way, my dreams have come true.

A Paris Secret came out in August 2020, Shadows Over A Spanish Sun comes out in May 2021

Find out more about Caroline on her website https://www.carolinemontague.co.uk/ 

A PARIS SECRET, Caroline Montague

A sweeping tale of ambition and passion in the shattered world of post-war Paris – perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore and Kate Furnivall

1952. In the fragile atmosphere of post-war Paris, Sophie Bernot is training as a heart surgeon. A young woman in a man’s world, Sophie is determined to bury her past and forge her medical career, whatever the costs.

Across the channel, Sebastian Ogilvie is burning with ambition for his first architectural project. As his schemes lead him to France, and to a chance encounter with Sophie, his future seems full of promise.

But when Sophie and Sebastian find themselves entangled in a brief, passionate affair, they each face a choice that will change their lives irrevocably, and a secret that will take years to be uncovered…

Sweeping from Paris to London, to the snow-capped peaks of the Alps, this is an unforgettable story of passion, heartache and forgiveness.

BUY THE BOOK HERE

 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing