Emily French

Emily writes for Harlequin Historicals. She enjoys writing about the past, because there are a lot of issues you can raise in a historical novel that become more difficult in a contemporary novel. Her books are set in many different periods: 1204 in Wales, 1640 Wisconsin and 1757 Connecticut through to 1842 Maine and the Manhattan of 1865. Emily's heroines are women who were unable to do the sorts of things they would today, but at the same time they have to be gutsy enough to appeal to today's readers. Historical novels are very popular, she says, because they can help the reader escape the misery of the present. Looking back always looks better than now. But for Emily, married at 17 and a mother at 18 at a time when that was "the done thing", the 21st century is full of promise. It's a time when a woman can do or be anything she wants. Apart from a couple of years with the kids, Emily has kept on working, but she always had a keen interest in the arts. She spent nine years in the theatre, but her husband complained about the noise and the mess of props for plays, so she took up drawing and painting and the smell of turpentine invaded the house. Now, Emily says, her dear heart knows where she is and that she's not turning their riverside home upside down.