Fascinating that your entire family was born in Kenya! How did that influence your writing?

A.M. Stuart Hi! Lovely to hear from you.
There is no doubt that those early years of being born into what was still a colonial society (Kenya became independent in 1963) had a strong influence on the call to write the Harriet Gordon Mysteries.
My grandparents went to Kenya in the 1920s and my mother was born there. My grandfather worked on a malaria eradication programme on Lake Victoria and my great uncle on my father's side was a lawyer instrumental in drafting Kenya's first Constitution.
I am not an apologist for colonialism but I did want to write a story where the characters depicted were not all venal racists... but just people like you and me - with good intentions and a genuine love of country.
I would like to write a story set in Kenya (I have an inkling that Harriet and Julian's ward may follow his hero and go on to be a colonial policeman in 1930s Kenya) but at the moment that is still too close to my heart and writing about Singapore, where I lived as an adult, is in some ways easier.
I hope you are having a lovely day.
Alison

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