Why are there no romance novels set in Belfast? Claire McGowan on the potential for genres other than crime to take off in Northern Ireland
Tue, May 11, 2021, 05:54 Claire McGowan
Claire McGowan: “I’m part of the problem, I’ll admit, as it wouldn’t have occurred to me to set a women’s fiction novel in Belfast, had my editor not suggested it.” Photograph: Jamie Drew
Writing in 2003, in an essay entitled Why Crime Fiction is Good For You, Ian Rankin commented that there were almost no thrillers coming out of Northern Ireland, perhaps because violence was still too real there to be entertainment.
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2021 Romantic Novel Awards
TV star Larry Lamb
Announcing the winners was TV legend Larry Lamb, full of his down to earth wit, he entertained throughout, alongside compère author and broadcaster Jane Wenham-Jones.
There were tears, giggles and a few technical hitches but nothing could stop the feel good factor of authors supporting each other. As Milly Johnson said, “It’s like being in a room full of mates.”
Unsurprisingly, one topic that most winners referred to was the difficulties that lockdown had posed – to authors, as well as readers.
Winner of the Katie Fforde debut award Clare Pooley said readers told her that her novel,
Mills & Boon author Karin Baine We met on a night out at the Airport Inn in Templepatrick and while I wouldn t call it love at first sight, we both knew from the start that that was it and we got engaged after three months.
The couple have two grown up sons and Karin has just finished writing her 17th medical romance novel for Mills & Boon. She plans to keep writing as long as the ideas keep coming. George, an engineer, has always been really supportive and encouraging - I think he s hoping for early retirement, she laughs.
Karin (45) began writing around 12 years ago after the death of her mother.