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 ...

Nina is the narrator of my novel, The Vanishing Cafe, and she is searching for answers after the death of her beloved grandmother. She’s asking herself whether life continues after we die, is there more than what we see in this world? Many people are searching for answers in this day and age that lie beyond the five physical senses. How do I know this? Because they tell me! I’m talking about my friends, my clients, friends of friends, even religious people. People seem to want more than the daily grind, many are fed up of trying to make ends meet and feel angry, or even ‘empty at the state of the world today’ - as one friend told me. The endless playground of politics, celebrities and consumerism is affecting many of us. Often we feel meaningless or powerless, but we are not and when we are hungry for answers, that’s when our search really starts. So, the next step is what is it that empowers you? There’s a palpable restlessness out there, people want to know that they belong, that...

Why does anyone feel the need to write a letter, a poem, a novel etc? It’s a way of reaching out to others, a great way of communicating and getting beyond your Self, your own boundaries and stepping into the unknown and of course, it’s an outlet for your thoughts, your imagination and your ideas. As an author, I didn’t know myself how the novel was going to unfold and I started by writing the last chapter first and almost worked my way backwards. I knew how it was going to end, I just wasn’t sure of anything else! There was a pressing need for me to write The Vanishing Cafe after the passing of my mother, a major relationship break up & a whole lot of other issues coming up. The time was ripe to write about a novel that came from the heart and was born out of a yearning and a need to explore the possibility of life after death, the loss of love and the grieving process and a genuine curiosity of other realities beyond our five senses. The Narrator Nina’s search is one that sta...