Blog Tour ~ The Silent Fountain by Victoria Fox

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting today's stop on 

The Silent Fountain Blog Tour 

It's with real pleasure that I introduce the author, Victoria Fox

Hi and welcome to Jaffareadstoo, Victoria and thank you for spending time with us on your blog tour. 

When you were planning The Silent Fountain what came first the idea or theme, the plot, place or characters.  Did you base any of the characters and places on people and places you know?

Italy came to me first. I had always wanted to set a book in Italy, in particular the Tuscan countryside surrounding Florence, and I knew, for this book, the setting would be key. I wanted somewhere with a very definite atmosphere. As soon as I decided on Italy, I could picture the crumbling, dilapidated Castillo Barbarossa. I could imagine the overgrown gardens and tangled rose bushes; I could smell the lemon groves.

The Silent Fountain is a bit of a ghost story, so I liked the idea of events unfolding in a rundown, but once very grand, mansion. This led me to the character of Vivien Lockhart, a one-time movie star, who herself was once very grand – until a shocking family secret made her too afraid to step out of the house. I like the idea of faded glamour both in settings and characters, because it begs the question: What happened here? What changed? What befell these people, to turn their lives upside down? The fountain at the front of the Barbarossa was once its glittering centrepiece. Why, then, hasn’t it been used in decades? And why does its owner insist on keeping it filled?

It’s strange, when planning, how one notion can lead to the next. Once I had Vivien at the Castillo Barbarossa, I started thinking about the events that had brought her there: an Italian love affair, a scandal buried deep in the past and a tragedy that would change everything. We first meet Vivien in the 1970s, and it isn’t until close to fifty years later that she finally faces the truth she’s been hiding from. Also hiding is Lucy Whittaker, my contemporary lead, who escapes London in the wake of a shattered romance. Lucy finds work at the Barbarossa – and a lot more besides. Strange sounds come from the attic. Vivien will never meet her in person. She glimpses a woman by the fountain, but when she goes to confront her no one is there…

I haven’t based any of the characters on people I know (although there’s probably a bit of me in Lucy). I have, however, been inspired by some of my favourite set-ups in literature: the glamorous first wife in Rebecca; the terrible love triangle in Jane Eyre; even the dark, irresistible danger of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (even if my Heathcliff is Sicilian). I love to explore the friction between duty and passion.

The Silent Fountain is my seventh book and it’s definitely different to the stories I’ve written before – my previous novels have been high-octane blockbusters set in the celebrity whirlwind. But the important things remain the same: powerful female leads, enticing, escapist settings and plenty of drama and romance. I hope readers will step straight into Italy every time they open the book – but that they’ll be glad to step out of it again, back into the real world, leaving the ghosts of the Barbarossa far behind.

You can find out more about Victoria and her writing on her website by clicking here

Find on Facebook or Follow on Twitter @VFoxWrites

Blog Tour runs 1st - 9th March #TheSilentFountain

My thanks to Victoria for answering my question and for sharing her thoughts about The Silent Fountain.


Thanks also to Olivia at Midas PR and the publishers HQ for the invitation to be part of this blog tour.

The Silent Fountain is out on the 9th March 2017

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