Dancing With Spies

Today I am relaunching Dancing with Spies. This is a completely revised and re-edited edition of the novel first published in 2011. The novel is entirely a work of fiction and doesn´t set out to portray anything which actually happened in and around Dubrovnik in autumn 1991 at the start of the Yugoslav Civil War. It is an attempt to give the reader some impression of the atmosphere in the Old City and the feelings experienced by holiday-makers who inadvertently got caught up in the hatreds between the various ethnic groups who were packaged together into Yugoslavia after the first world war.

This is also the first time I´ve tried to write a novel from a woman´s point of view. I wanted Caroline to be feminine and at the same time to have the courage and strength to fight for what she believed in. I felt it right that, given her previous experiences, she would struggle against weakly falling for the hero, but that she would commit herself fully when she felt she had chosen the right man.

My second wife and I had a very complete, loving relationship, and many of Caroline´s emotions and responses to problems were based on advice she gave to me. Of course I accept that other women may experience these things in a completely different way. I only hope that readers will agree that Caroline is a woman they can believe in.

I believe that chapter 31 is the best love scene I have created in my writing career. I would be interested to hear from any readers who have details of love scenes which they consider to be better.