Jeannie Johnson

Outside my Window is a Malaysian blog with writer Susan Abraham's personal perspective on books and writing. For this post, she interviews British novelist Jeannie Johnson who has a base in Malta. She spoke to Susan about the joys of life as a writer of the romantic period saga:

"Bristol is the city grew up in and although I no longer live there, it is part of my past, testament to the fact that we take some of the places we know with us throughout life. My parents also grew up here. It was from my mother I inherited the gift of storytelling. From my father I inherited a love of reading and the opera..

As an author with a view to dreaming visionary ambitions, I see myself earning enough so that my husband can retire. My aim and my husband's are for us to retire on our yacht in the Mediterranean. In July, we're sailing from our berth in Malta to the Greek islands. We'll be there a month. Not sure what books I'll be taking for my summer reads though. But I'll probably be writing one that someone will be sure to spring a deadline on..

At the moment, I'm just attending to the final edits of the latest Jeannie Johnson before submitting to my literary agent. Where the Boys Are starts off in a home for unmarried mothers and ends up in the seige of Malta in 1942 - it was the most bombed place on earth and I know it very well...