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On March 26th LEAVING EVERYTHING MOST LOVED will be published—the 10th novel in the series featuring Maisie Dobbs, Psychologist and Investigator. I look back and wonder where those ten years went—I feel as if my first novel was published only yesterday! In today's newsletter, I have some more information on Leaving Everything Most Loved, plus some exciting announcements. So—read on! In the last two newsletters, I shared with you some of the influences that blended in the melting pot to create Leaving Everything Most Loved. Another of those influences came about when I was about twenty-two years of age. It was during my first visit to New York, and being a lover of libraries I went along to the New York Library on Fifth Avenue—that massive Beaux Arts building at the top of 42nd street. There was an exhibition on at the time, "Writers in Exile"—and it was fascinating. There were books, letters and poems by writers from across the globe, penned from a place of exile, whether that exile had come about "... by will, or by compulsion." I thought about ".... by will, or by compulsion" for a long time, considering the many ways people are exiled—and exile can be experienced without even leaving the country. Many of us, through emigration to lands other than that of our birth, choose exile—of course, in this day and age, return is easier for some, but the fact remains that as soon as you elect to live in another country, there is a way in which you remain forever exiled from that first home. Leaving Everything Most Loved has a theme of exile by will and by compulsion. For a woman named Usha Pramal, there was the decision to leave her native India to work as a governess in England, thousands of miles away—and at a time when return was not as simple as it is today. Yet Usha felt there was no choice but to leave when offered the chance, given what had come to pass in her life. When Usha Pramal is murdered, in 1933, Maisie takes on the case to find the Indian woman's killer—and in the process she is drawn closer to the realization that she, too, might have to leave all that she knows and loves, if she is to find within herself a place of belonging. March is Maisie Month is almost upon us—and to mark this pivotal book in the series, here are two of the upcoming treats in store:
And now one more important announcement! Do you remember the terrific NAKED AUTHORS blog? Five authors—and I was lucky to be one of them—wrote daily on "The Naked Truth About Literature and Life." The blog was voted one of the best literary blogs on the internet, but there came the day we decided we'd had an excellent run and it was time to quit while the going was good. But guess what, some three years later, and we're baaaack! Starting tomorrow the Naked Authors blog is up and running again, and I'll be reintroducing us in the first post—so on March 1st, pay a visit to www.nakedauthors.com. In fact, visit us daily—you'll have such a lot of fun! Until the next time, I wish you all well. Jacqueline
LEAVING EVERYTHING MOST LOVED by Jacqueline Winspear, will be published in the US on March 26th* by Harper Collins Publishers. You can pre-order it here:
*Publication dates vary in different parts of the world. |
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Start reading the 10th novel in the Maisie Dobbs series, Leaving Everything Most Loved, now on 
