A best-selling author, now living in Hunstanton, says town will inspire a future novel

International best-seller Gillian Harvey meets up with Dani Crawshaw to talk about her family's move to the town, and how 'Sunny Hunny' will feature in a book.

I meet Gillian in her new home in Hunstanton, which she, husband Ray and their 5 children moved into 2 weeks ago. There are already some family pictures up, one of their time living in France. In 2009 the author and freelance writer decided life as an English teacher, whilst rewarding, was exhausting, “I came home on a November night and said to my husband shall we just move to France, and he said yeah let’s do it. It was sort of an escape for both of us.”

In France Gillian had her first novel ‘Everything is Fine’ published (she now has more than 10) - but after 15 years abroad they decided to come back last April, opting to live in ‘Sunny Hunny’. “We chose Norfolk mainly because I felt it was quieter, more rural, beautiful, and in that way similar to where the children had grown up. I’d been into Hunstanton before and I’d really liked it.” Gillian adds she’s always wanted to live near the sea, so that was ‘the final icing on the cake’.

The family rented until a few weeks ago and Gillian says the area felt ‘welcoming from the start’, “I think Hunstanton in particular it seems that everyone is willing to chat, there’re lots of nice cafes and lots of places to explore - we feel very new here still but we’re really enjoying it. It’s really lovely and one of the main things for me is that the children are happy at the schools.”

Image courtesy of 'by the book'

And it’s been here, at local book shop ‘by the book’, that the author had her first official signing for her new novel ‘Village Café in the Loire’. 

“Although some of my books have been translated into French and I can speak French, it wasn’t good enough to do a presentation in a book shop, so I never got that in person feeling. One of the first things I did when I knew where we were moving was to contact Adrian at ‘by the book’, and he was really lovely and welcoming.” Gillian adds she’s done a few events since but says getting to meet and chat to people ‘you live amongst is just lovely’.

Image courtesy of 'by the book'

She also says the town will inspire a future book, “I think to write about an area and to bring it to life you really have to know it quite intimately. So I’m looking forward to really using my knowledge of Hunstanton and love of different locations to bring it to life for the reader. The focus will be on the relationships of the people living in the area.”

I ask if we can we expect particular people or places to feature. “I think a lot of my observation is happening without me really knowing it, once in a while there’ll be something and I’ll think that’s really interesting, but it won’t immediately go to oh that can be Henry in my new book. A lot of my characters will be amalgamations of people - a habit someone has or an expression that I overhear.

"I would tend to use the location, so I would mention Hunstanton. But if I use something that’s there, like a book shop, I wouldn’t use its actual name. So people who know will know, but it’s kept it in the fictional world at the same time.”

Her books, that are described as ‘contemporary, uplifting fiction’, are international best sellers, “It was surreal to hold my first novel in my hand, and it is lovely each time one comes out and I get to unbox them, that’s always a really lovely moment. I think a lot of authors aren’t that good at celebrating their successes, they feel self conscious about that - and I certainly do.”

As the family settle into their new life Gillian ends by saying she’s, “Definitely excited to build a home here - I think we’ve done enough moving around now.”

And whilst it may be a little while before Hunstanton takes the limelight in one of her novels (she’s busy writing other ones at the moment), when the time does come I’ll definitely be at ‘by the book’ for the signing!