This is the blog of Victoria Clayton. I spend much of my days working at my novels. Otherwise I am gardening, thinking about gardens and plants and about interior decoration and the decorative arts generally.This blog is where I can put some of that thinking into words, as a diversion from the hard work of composing fiction.
My thanks to Walter Inkster, the Devil’s Artisan for the charming printer’s ornament that heads the homepage. I have used other of his decorations on my main website: www.victoriaclayton.co.uk
Victoria Clayton 
Dear Victoria, I came across your blog whilst looking to see when your next novel is out. I have just finished your latest one, A Girls Guide to Kissing Frogs, which I enjoyed immensely.
I came across your novels a few years ago by chance, and loved them immediately, they are some of my favourite ever novels. I enjoy their pace, the characters and most of all the fact that they are beautifully written.
I note that you are interested in interior decoration, I am a designer/maker, I make luxury cushions and scarves, my website is as above. With best wishes, and looking forward to your eighth novel, Helen M Chatterton
Dear Victoria,
I just wanted to let you know how much I love all your books. I am just re-reading running wild for the 4th time, how I long to live in Pudwell.
Please never stop writing more and more books.
Yours with much thanks,
Dan Howard
Well, it’s nice to know you spend your spare time thinking deeply about gardens and interior design. These are aspects of your novels that are really enjoyable, and I also admire the industry of your heroines – very inspiring. Can you say something about your interest in the much-neglected seventies? Why are your books situated in that time – don’t change a thing – just explain more, if you can.
And what’s happening with Marigold steps out? I can’t find it anywhere.
Dear Victoria,
My son gave me “Moonshine” as part of my Christmas gift. I live in Canada, but I was born in Leicestershire and grew up in Northamptonshire. I went to school in Market Harborough in the late 50’s with Richard Clayton, are you by any chance related?
I haven’t finished “Moonshine” yet but so far, I love your work.
Kind Regards,
Jean
Dear Ms. Clayton,
I wanted you to know that I have been reading the Winter of Enchantment to my third and fourth graders for 35 years. Every year it is their favorite book! I’m glad that it is now back in print.
Sincerely,
Diana Dodson
Dear Victoria,
I have just re-read Out of Love, and I’m now waiting for the bookshop to fulfil my order of Past Mischief… Can’t wait!
Your turn of phrase is a true delight as is your descriptions of events, places, and people. You introduced me to my favourite word – deliquescent – (when describing something as mundane as sausage rolls when Min and Daisy first meet after a 15 year separation!).
Looking forward to finding out what Daisy did next too!
Thank you for giving me such pleasure in what you write.
Robin Ballance
Just to say that I have just had a reading fest of your novels, re-reading them all at once in order. The way you have developed ideas and characters is delightful. More please. They are books that stand a second reading. Great fun. Thanks
Dear Victoria,
I have just finished reading “out of Love”, and a delightful experience it was too. I was ridiculously pleased that Daisy didn’t run away with Robert at the end (it pleased my moral sensibilites) and it was wonderful how you wove so many literary references into the narrative. Jolly good read, which has brightened my weekend no end :)
I have just ordered “Running Wild” from Amazon, and expectantly wait its arrival.
Regards,
Autumn x
I have already read some of your books and just found the “Girl’s Guide” in a local bookstore. It’s a great novel and I liked it just as well as all the predecessors. Please, keep on writing novels, they’re fantastic stuff! Greetings from the continent.
Victoria I have just read your book ‘Dance with Me’ and I have cried and laughed out loud in equal measure. I have now ordered another two of your books. Your descriptions are spot on. I keep thinking of the dogs when Viola and Giles run towards the house in the pouring rain and the dogs appear ‘half their size with legs like sticks’ – that description is so right – I quoted it to my husband while we ate out tonight, and couldn’t help laughing. The people on the next table thought I was very odd, I’m sure.
As a tentative writer myself,(one novel finished, another begun), I really value good writing that ‘paints a picture’ and your writing does that. Thank you. Lizzie
dear Victoria Clayton,
I’m looking forward to your new novel! I’m sure I’m one of your biggest fans in belgium, I have all your books and I’ve read each of them at least 4-5 times….in fact every year I start all over again and each time I find it so so very nice to read the story! Because of your books I was convinced to by a AGA!!! So I realy hope to read your new book very soon!! kind regards, Ghislaine, Sinaai, Belgium
Hi Victoria,
I first read TWOE in 1969. I was 9 years old, about the same age as Sebastian, and fell as madly and unconsciously in love with Melissa then as he did..although he did manage to beat me to it by jumping into the Enchanter’s well with her! Mad though it might seem, I probably also fell in love with you a little too at that time, imagining you as some wildly creative Rapunzel in your windmill in Tunbridge Wells (although at nine, my tongue might have been slightly tied!). I’ve been lucky enough in the mean time to have kept my original copy and to have to read and re-reread it over the years, both for personal ‘enchantment’ and, in more recent years, to carry your own beautiful enchantment to the many primary school children I’ve taught since I qualified in the 1980s. Indeed, only this week, a little girl named Aoife, a 10 year old student, proudly showed me her copy, newly arrived from Fidra.
When the spring bulbs begin to poke their heads above the soil I think of Ver. When dark days overtake me I remember the insidious trees in the Grey Forest; when frost crackles under my feet I still shiver just a little at the thoughts of all-seeing gaze of Hiems himself. And when Winter comes in, and it’s time for toast and tea and firelight in the library, I think of you.
Thank you so much. Dickens would have loved you, and though I’ve never met you, so do I!
Your biggest fan, Ger (51 and a half!) X
Dear Ms Clayton, Thank you for ‘Stormy Weather’. Its kept me sane whilst waiting, over a couple of days this week, for a trip to Cape Verde which never materialised, due to an excess of sand on the airport runway at the other end.
I’m sorry for other people that it hasn’t made it into ‘print’. But happy to read it on a Kindle; happy to read it in any format at all really, since I’m very appreciative of your style, characters, settings and subjects. Its the combination of never wanting the book to end and being desperate to find out what happens next!
Particularly fond of the clearly deranged Roza.
Best Wishes.
Dear Victoria Clayton,
This is the first fan letter I have ever written. I have all your adult novels and reread once a year. I never tire of them,they make me happy. I am from Wales but have lived in Las Vegas, Nevada for forty odd years. All family still in U.K. so I still consider it home and visit frequently. I so enjoy your blog…. also the first I have ever read. I am devastated that Stormy Weather is not in print. I got a kindle and read it but I library your books. I refuse to give up hope for a future print edition. Thank you for the wonderful escape you provide, it’s amazing to see that you really live the kind of life you write about. Thank you for that too. With thanks and admiration, Carolyne Myers, Las Vegas, NV 2012
Dear Victoria Clayton,
I just finished reading “A girl’s guide to kissing frogs”, and it has impressed me enormously. I just couldn’t stop reading it, and finished it at 3 a.m. this morning.
Thank you very much for writing it, the book means a lot to me.
I can’t wait to read your other work
Best regards, Inez – Belgium
Hello Victoria. Greetings again from Nova Scotia. I don’t have the foggiest idea if this is the correct way to leave you a message but here goes … I wrote to you a year ago-ish about my 89 year-old mother-in-law (who exclaimed after reading one of your novels for the first time that it had “saved her life”)and also that I was having a difficult time finding your books in Canada. Well, I did finally get my hands on A Girls Guide to Kissing Frogs as a birthday gift for Marjorie … which is today! Since Marjorie didn’t kill me for telling you her age in the previous email, I’ll say that today is her 90th. She was beyond thrilled to receive the book. I get to read it next. Thank you! Love the blog … I signed up to receive your postings. Helen Painter, Aspotogan, Nova Scotia.
Hello Helen, yes, the message got through and I’ve just found several more terribly kind messages from other people at the same site. There’s no excuse for my feeble grasp of technology. And heavens, my neglected blog! Thank you so much for your encouragement and please give Marjorie …if I may call her that …my best wishes for a joyous birthday. I hope it’s warmer in Nova Scotia than it is here in Northamptonshire, no snow but a penetrating wind. Tiny, breaking buds and raucous birdsong are cheering, though. Hope you like Girls Guide to K. F…what a ghastly title. I wanted to call it Marigold Steps Out but there’s no arguing with publishers, Victoria
Dear Ms Clayton, I have read three of your books; Dance with me, Running wild and A girls’ guide. I liked them very much and I would have bought your other books as well, but unfortunately they are unavailable. I live in Hungary and I usually buy English books here or from Bookdepository and I can’t understand why your books are unavailable in print! I am not a fan of e-books and I would prefer to read your paper books. Can you advise me where I can buy your books?
All the best
Gizella
Dear Victoria
Do you rememenber me? You told me stories, you taught me to read and to press on, I have always remembered. I would await the day that I would have to cross through the Gransden meadows to the warmth of the big white cottage, the beautiful garden, its a dream that keeps on. I`m proud to have befriended a great author, little did I know at the time. Keep up the good work.
With love
Lulu
I have only just discovered your writing. – I am transfixed by the wonderful way you paint such an fullsome picture, of your characters. Full of depth and coloured with words. I have read Past Mischief and just this moment finished Out of Love, both of which I have enjoyed immensely. I have just ordered used copies of two more of your books( all I could get) and wait in anticipation for them to drop through my letterbox. I have rarely come across a writer that keeps me wanting to turn the page, but thank you very much for your observations and understanding of human nature and its light and dark side. Please never stop writing!
Just wanted to say thank you for one if my all time favourite books, the Winter if Enchantment. Had it since I was a kid in the UK and now approaching 40 it’s still on my bookshelf here in Melbourne. It’s a magical book. Best wishes, Adam.
Please don’t stop writing novels. I’ve enjoyed each one of your books and am getting tired of waiting.
You are my favorite author please please have a new novel soon