Inspiring My Path

It’s been a tricky process trying to place my novel, The Vanishing Cafe, into any kind of category. It’s not a thriller, hardly a satire, not erotic and definitely not a murder mystery. I didn’t intend it to appeal only to women or older people when I wrote the novel - although I appreciate that it probably does appeal to them more than anyone else, because of its strong themes of emotion, spirituality, a female narrator and death and loss. Then again, I feel like I’m limiting my book by saying that. I wrote it because it felt right - it is based on a real cafe that I used to visit years ago in Soho, although none of the characters are the same and it’s now a dinky little shop, selling mobile accessories- the last time I looked. It’s changeover seems to be rapid, so it may actually be something else by now. The Vanishing Cafe is certainly not in any way similar to Dan Brown or Jean Le Carre or Jodi Picoult, however, it is a book about feeling. It is a coming of age tale for the narr...

The café in my novel, The Vanishing Café, appears to be a small place, tucked away in central London. The narrator, Nina, doesn’t find it special in any way, until she realises that it isn’t an ordinary place. In fact, it is a magical place, where she can read the thoughts of other people (much to her and their confusion) and at one point, the café transforms itself into a temple. Nothing is quite what it appears to be! Often Nina senses her grandmother who has passed over in the café. To complicate things further, only Nina and another regular in the Café, realise that the place is special, holy somehow but not in a religious way. It’s a spiritual journey for Nina, an awakening to her higher truth - after her previous unhappy and ‘shallow life’ - that awakening is similar to our realisation that we have a Higher Self, a deeper connection to ourselves and the Universe. Is there something beyond our five physical senses? Are there other realities, is there anything more after we ...