'Dreamers, optimists, visionaries, enthusiasts, escapists.' Wendy Robertson declares that all writers are 'Romancers'. 'It gives a rare glimpse of what it's like to be inside the process of writing - the exact moment when the events of a writer's life become the fabric of fiction.' Kathleen Jones 'A moving and compelling exploration of the links between a writer's life and her work. The Romancer should appeal to readers and writers alike. Pat Barker More than just a memoir, this is a master-class on the writing process.' Sharon Griffiths. In this book Wendy Robertson explores the way memory...

The Adventures of Olivia Ozanne First Reader Review - Olivia Ozanne is the writer abroad, the stranger alone, a woman who can see the surface of things and beyond. Well rid of her ex Kendrick and his leather sofa fetish, she comes to stay with her daughter Caitlin. This is post-glasnost Moscow with its fallen statues, burgeoning mafia, newly restored churches, its phones tapped but no longer listened in to, a city that demands hard currency. Through Olivia's eyes we see into the heart of this city and its people. We peer inside their tiny flats into their constricted interior lives, where we...

A young burglar shatters a glass roof and drops in on a vicars wife: a man who loves tin soldiers has a near miss with a knife killer; a young woman - more sinned against than sinning - is hell bent on self destruction; an old woman on the streets sees visions of giants; a woman breaks free from a long and confining marriage; boy learns his craft deep in the bowels of the earth. In these and other short stories in this collection Wendy Robertson combines her preoccupation with issues of identity, survival and the ironies of ordinary life with her ability to tell a good story. 'I think that...

Studs and his lifelong friend Tony have just left school and are up for adventure. Their strong friendship is tested when they go to the city and tangle up with dangerous people involved in drugs and Tony is badly injured. With Tony in a coma Studs teams up with a new friend, Nilva, to hunt down the lids responsible for his friend's condition, He thinks that if he finds them this will bring Tony out of his coma and restore their friendship.

Paulie's Web distils the tragedies, comedies and ironies of women's lives not just behind bars but out in society. In it charismatic Paulie Smith - rebel, ex-teacher and emerging writer - comes out of prison after serving six years. . In the next few days she relished her freedom but struggles to adapt to the scary realities of life 'on the out'. Paulie's reflects on her life in prison and her first few weeks inside and the four very different women whom she first met in the white prison van. There was Queenie, the old bag- lady who sees giants and angels, Maritza who disguises her pain with...

The story of Mary Ann Cotton, an alleged serial killer hanged for murder in 1873, is here seen through the eyes of Londoner Victoria Kilburn, who visits the Durham village where Mary Ann is alleged to have killed her last victim. The disfigured Victoria is drawn to the charismatic Mary Ann, and does not believe the rising tide of scandal that leads to Mary Ann's arrest. In this novel, using existing evidence, Wendy Robertson challenges the received wisdom that Mary Ann Cotton was indeed a serial killer. We see Mary Ann's tragic progress to the gallows through Victoria's eyes, even as the...

In 383 AD a truly great love story blossoms between Magnus Maximus, the Roman leader in Britain - afterwards for five years Roman Emperor - and Elen, daughter of a powerful British king in the place we now call Wales. Magnus is fascinated by Elen, a gifted Seer and healer and a 'pathfinder' whose talented ancestors made straight roads in Britain long before the Romans. As the Roman Empire begins to crumble the love between Elen and Magnus links the sophisticated Celtic culture, with its esoteric rites and rituals with the pragmatic military culture of Rome now imposing Christianity on the...