This week’s Inheritance Books are from Evonne Wareham, who writes disturbing romantic suspense.  Her first book, Never Coming Home won the Joan Hessayon award last year. There’s a review here, if you’re interested.

Hi Evonne, welcome to Inheritance Books. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hello – many thanks to Rhoda for inviting me to talk about my inheritance books. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to talk – shutting me up is usually the problem. I also like to read, so talking about books is icing on the cake. When not talking or reading, I also write romantic thrillers for award winning independent publisher Choc-lit. I live by the coast, in Wales, I’ve been a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association in the UK for quite a while and in 2012, I had the honour of winning their Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers, for my first published book, Never Coming Home. I’ve had a lot of fun out of my membership over the years – they know how to throw great parties. Now I’m also a member of the Romance Writers of America and of Australia. Three times the fun, but I haven’t made it to any of their parties yet – although I did participate in a virtual conference in Australia last summer …

I think I had better stop waffling and get to the books.

Yes please. Which book did you Inherit from the generation above you? Why is it special.

My grandmother was an avid reader, who passed the addiction on to my mother and then to me. She got it from her mother, and my inherited book is one that my great grandmother gave to my grandmother. It’s a two volume edition of David Copperfield, with illustrations by Phiz, and it has my grandmother’s name inscribed in it, in beautiful copperplate, written with a fountain pen and real ink, and the date – 1913. So the book is celebrating its 100^th birthday this year. My first memory of a book is associated with my grandmother’s house – it was a Mabel Lucie Attwell annual, full of rosy cheeked children. I think it had been passed over by one of the neighbours for me to read when I visited. The Dickens is special because of the link back to my great grandmother, who died in the flu epidemic in 1918. I didn’t inherit it until my Granny died, but I certainly chomped my way through the classics while growing up – although my preference was for the swashbuckling stuff – the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Three Musketeers.

Which book would you leave to generations below? Why?

I’m cheating a bit with the book I would like to pass on to the next generations as it is actually three books – Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy – The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment. I know that Mary Stewart’s romances, which always embroil the heroine in some sort of mystery, have been a great influence on what I now write, but the Merlin books are in a different category. I love the Arthurian legends. The way she weaves a variety of sources together, then adds a consummate story teller’s intuition to interpreting them, is sheer magic.

I’m not sure my books have magic – but the new one does have a paranormal twist – it’s about mind reading. It’s called Out of Sight Out of Mind and it will be released in paperback in the UK on 7^th March.

I’ll let you leave the whole trilogy. After reading your post, I decided that the Crystal Cave was just the thing I needed now that Merlin wasn’t on TV anymore. So I’ve downloaded it and am reading it at the moment (and I’m loving it). Thank you so much for the recommendation!

Evonne’s new book Out of Sight Out of Mind is published by Choc Lit and is available now. You can find our more about Evonne at her website (www.evonnewareham.com) and on her blog.