🍴Sunday Brunch with Jaffareadstoo ~ Claire Dyer

On this quiet Sunday morning why don't you put the kettle on, make your favourite breakfast and settle down for Sunday Brunch with Jaffareadstoo

🍴I am so pleased to welcome Claire Dyer to Sunday Brunch🍴

🍴Good morning Claire, what favourite food are you bringing to Sunday brunch?

Ooh, that’s a tricky question! My husband and I tend to alternate our brunches between a fry up with sausage patties, potato rostis, baked beans, etc., and smoked salmon, avocado and scrambled egg. I think, on balance, I’ll bring the smoked salmon option as it’s healthier and I can display it more elegantly on the plate!

🍴Would you like a pot of English breakfast tea, a strong Americano, or a glass of Bucks Fizz?

I’m a huge fan of strong coffee, but there’s nothing like a cup of tea at breakfast time!

🍴Where shall we eat brunch – around the kitchen table, in the formal dining room, or outside on the patio?

Let’s have it at the table in the kitchen, unless the weather’s glorious, in which case we could sit outside.

🍴Shall we have music playing in the background? And if so will you share with us a favourite song or piece of music that makes you happy?

Yes, we shall have some music. I think I’ll play a Ludovico Einaudi CD. His music always calms me.

🍴Which of your literary heroes (dead or alive) are joining us for Sunday Brunch today?

I’m going to invite George Eliot as there’s so much I want to ask her about ‘Middlemarch’. To make sure my husband also has someone to talk to, I’m hoping James Clavell will join us too.

🍴Which favourite book will you bring to Sunday Brunch?

I’ll bring ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee.

Arrow
2010

🍴When you are writing do you still find time to read for pleasure? And is there a book you would like to read but haven’t had time for …yet!

In addition to any personal fiction and poetry reading and reading books for my Fresh Eyes clients or other authors to provide endorsements, I read two books a month, one for BBC Radio Berkshire’s Radio Reads feature and one for my Book Group. I also feel I should read ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Bernadine Evaristo as I’ve heard amazing things about it and simply must apply myself to the task!

🍴What’s the oldest book on your book shelf?

I have a set of AA Milne books that my late mother’s godmother gave her in the 1930s. They are very worn but much loved.

🍴Where do you find the inspiration for your novels?

In many different places. Sometimes it can be from a throw away comment someone makes, or a place I’ve visited, or as in the case of ‘The Perfect Affair’, it can be a photograph and a front door. Other times inspiration can come from the characters themselves. They arrive in my head and urge me to tell their stories.

🍴Have you a favourite place to settle down to write and do you find it easier to write in winter or summer?

I’m very lucky in that I have a writing room at home. I grandly call it the garden room as it faces the garden, which is lovely. It can, however, get quite hot and glary in the summer and a bit chilly in the winter! My other favourite place and time to write is early morning when we’re on holiday in Kalkan in Turkey. Sitting on the veranda overlooking the bay before the heat of the day swamps everything is akin to heaven!

🍴When writing to a deadline are you easily distracted and if so how do you bring back focus on your writing?

I’m OK if given a deadline as long as family matters don’t intrude. I was a PA to the HR Director of Hewlett-Packard in a former life and so am used to diary management, juggling priorities, etc. Once a PA, always a PA!

🍴Give us four essential items that a writer absolutely needs?

A laptop, coffee, cats, an imagination.

🍴What can you tell us about your latest novel or your current work in progress?

I have two novels on the launch pad at present. One is a murder mystery where the victim solves the crime with the help of her Initial Contact in heaven; the other is a family saga stretching back to the 1960s and which deals with mental health and motherhood.

Two Rivers Press
2021

Three definitions of the word Yield give meaning to the odyssey undergone in Claire Dyer's third collection: a journey which sees a son become a daughter, and a poet for both of them.

Charting these transitions, the poems take us through territories known and familiar - landscapes of childhood, family and home - into further regions where inner lives alter; outer ones are reimagined.

Whether evoking clinic visits, throwing away old boyhood clothes, grieving over what's lost, these honest and unashamed poems build to celebrate that place at the heart of motherhood where gender is no differentiator and love the gain.

Claire, where can we follow you on social media?

Twitter: @ClaireDyer1

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/claire.dyer.98

Instagram: clairedyerwriter

Blog/web url: https://clairedyer.com/

More about Claire

Claire Dyer’s poetry collections are published by Two Rivers Press, her novels by Quercus and The Dome Press. Her novel, 'The Significant Others of Odie May' is forthcoming from Matador in 2021. She curates Reading's Poets’ Café, teaches creative writing and runs Fresh Eyes, an editorial and critiquing service. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London and is a regular contributor on BBC Radio Berkshire. Her website is: www.clairedyer.com'

🍴Claire, thank you for taking part in Sunday Brunch with Jaffareadstoo🍴

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