Interview With Author BARRY WHITTINGHAM
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Born in England, Barry A. Whittingham is an honors graduate in French language and literature. His first job was as a commercial supervisor with a brewery but he soon realized that beer wasn’t quite his cup of tea. As a French schoolmaster he came to France on a teacher exchange. And he’s never looked back. His fifty years of mainly peaceful co-habitation with the French have given him a rare insight into those things that divide two countries separated by just a narrow stretch of shallow brine but mentally vast oceans apart. He’s recorded some of these differences in his non-fiction work Barry’s Frenglish Folies. A French Dream and A French Escape are Barry’s first two ‘reality fiction’ novels in a planned France Calling trilogy. Barry divides his time between golf, gardening, foreign travel, 19th century French, English and American fiction … and, of course, creative writing. He leads a meditative life with his French partner, Renée, amidst the breathtaking mountains of the Jura region of Eastern France.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
A French Escape is the second novel in my France Calling trilogy. As with A French Dream it belongs to a genre I prefer to call ‘reality fiction.’ For while many aspects of the book have been inspired by my first year in France it has been conceived as no more than a work of fiction whose aim is to entertain and hopefully instruct. Apart from certain obvious exceptions, names, places, entities, events, incidents or descriptions have, therefore, been invented, re-created or reassembled for literary effect.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
None that strike me as being unusual. I prefer to write in the morning when I’m relatively fresh. I tend not to plan too far ahead even to the point of asking myself : ‘What comes next?’
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jane Austen (Emma), George Eliot (Middlemarch), Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary), Edgar Allan Poe (Tales of Mystery and Imagination), Charles Dickens (The Pickwick Papers), Joseph Conrad (The Secret Agent).
What are you working on now?
A French Life. The third novel in my France Calling trilogy.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I find Kindlepreneur very helpful. It was through this website that I learned of the existence of Awesome Gang.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Stick at it through thick and thin both when writing and promoting !
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Things are never as bad as we fear nor as good as we hope.
What are you reading now?
At the moment I’m reading Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m not looking beyond finishing A French life.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
A Shakespeare play (probably Antony and Cleopatra).
The Pickwick Papers.
Middlemarch.
Author Websites and Profiles
BARRY WHITTINGHAM Amazon Profile
BARRY WHITTINGHAM Author Profile on Smashwords
BARRY WHITTINGHAM’s Social Media Links