Author Patricia Wilson talks to us about her latest title The Summer of Secrets and gives us a sneak peek at her upcoming project.
Patricia Wilson was born on the Wirral, Cheshire. She retired to Greece where she renovated a dilapidated village house. While living on Crete she started to write inspired by local stories and the result was Island of Secrets which was a bestseller and published in five languages.
Further books followed - Villa of Secrets, Secrets of Santorini and Greek Island Escape. In 2021 Summer in Greece was published.
Patricia's latest novel, The Summer of Secrets, was published in May 2022 by Zaffre. You can find The Summer of Secrets and all of Patricia's books on our catalogue.
My mother was always my hero. I always wanted to be just like her when I grew up. She was Dutch, the youngest of 13 children. She fell in love with my father when he was billeted with her family in Eindhoven, in Holland, during WW2. She ran away to England when she was 21 years old to marry him. I was born when she was 22, in 1949, the first of seven children. She sewed and knitted all our clothes and I think that was where I got my love for needlework when I was very young.
She had a very strict sense of being brought up properly. Table manners, being polite, and going to church were all very important to Mum. However, she loved a bit of drama and poetry and I remember she was a great fan of Patience Strong who had a poem published every week in Woman’s Own magazine. She wanted to write, but never had the opportunity or the self-confidence. However, she recognised I had some natural artistic skill and always encouraged me to paint and draw.
I remember when she entered my picture in a painting competition run by the Sunny Stories. She made it very clear how proud she was, and I loved that lime light. A few weeks later, she noticed a drawing competition on the back of a box of cornflakes in the Co-op. She bought the cereal (such extravagance) so that I could enter. I remember how marvellous it was to eat cornflakes for breakfast! Before that, we only ever had porridge, which I really disliked.
Yes, I do. I usually start between 4 and 5am, but I take siesta after lunch to catch up on the sleep. I need absolute quiet to get into my story and to feel all the emotion of the situation in which my protagonist finds herself. If a sad scene doesn’t make me cry, then I feel I am failing my reader. So, if I’m in a dramatic situation in my novel and trying to feel every emotion that my protagonist is experiencing, I can’t have somebody phoning me for a natter, or my husband asking if I’d like tea or coffee. I need to stay in the arms of my wounded soldier, terrified for my children and begging god to keep us all alive, you know? Besides all that, my daughter claims I have the attention span of a gnat…. And she might be right. I do tend to absorb, and be distracted by, what’s going on around me.
It’s a great help. I write about the Greek islands, the beauty – history – and tragedy that’s swept through this tiny country over the centuries. The disasters were pretty fierce here, and they could weigh heavily on my mind. I fear it would be easy to become too dark, too depressed, in my writing, but I only have to step into my garden and look around to be thoroughly uplifted. Then I can’t wait to transfer those glorious moments onto paper.
In one word, atrocious. The measures in Greece were much stricter than in the UK, but apparently the danger has passed and now we can move about without carrying our covid status documentation, also the instant 300 euro fines if you were caught without the correct papers have stopped. Enough said about that.
My novels are a shapeshifting mix of tragedy and triumph inspired by Greek history that is brought to our attention by my modern protagonist. This one is no different. The tiny Greek island of Castellorizo, Cass-tell-orr-ee-zow, is a three or four hour ferry trip from Rhodes. Although the entire island is only 5 square miles it has an airport and regular flights from Rhodes too. It’s just one mile from the Turkish coast. In the first instance, the location intrigued me, so I caught the ferry. Wow! What a stunning little place. I’ve been back four times to research and absorb the atmosphere. I’m writing this from the island right now, and still have a list of things I want to do or see here. Today I am hoping to get to the top of the cliff to take pictures, and I still have to go over to Kaş (pronounced Kash) on the Turkish coast, opposite, which is reputed to be a beautiful place.
Anyway, I’m drifting… After the last war, a great tragedy happened here, and some people had a conspiracy theory. They claimed that the British were behind this awful event and actually instigated it to rid the island of its people as they wanted it for a military base. Considering the British had just spent millions keeping those same people safe for a couple of years, this didn’t make sense to me, so that hooked me. It’s taken a lot of investigation to get to what I believe is the truth, but in the end, my novels are fiction, so you have to make up your own mind about the stories behind them.
My 2023 novel starts with Athens in WW2 and moves to a Greek island that I haven’t written about before. An island most popular with the Brits and with strong connections to the UK. There is also a true-life great, Greek, tragedy in the story. I’m always shocked by how cruel man can be. However, the backbone of the story is about art, and a 99-year-old Greek woman, Daphne, who is going blind. She waits patiently for a birthday-telegram from our Queen. The story is about why she should get one.
I’m fascinated by the etchings of MC Escher, what skill! A man before his time. Salvador Dali’s work also captivates me.
Margaret Attwood and Terry Pratchett.
The cookery book. There’s usually plenty of food in my novels, and I do adore a good Greek meal. Writing a cookery book ticks three boxes for me:
I love feeding people. I think that has its roots in coming from a big family.
I get a lot of enjoyment from my photography.
Writing a cookery book is a skill to be learned in itself. So, the challenge is set.
I am steadily testing recipes and photographing the results while my starving husband waits patiently at the table wondering if he will ever get a HOT meal again. The plan is to get the contents and cover done this year, and publish it next year. It’s called, SMASHING PLATES.
I think most people know now that I am dyslexic and before the computer, never knew the absolute thrill of being able to put my thoughts onto paper. I hope my admission encourages those who are hiding their own literacy problems to ‘come out’, without embarrassment, and move on to develop and share their other remarkable skills. I used to condemn those who tut and roll their eyes when they hear someone admit to their writing problem, now I just feel sorry for them and their lack of understanding.
