Illuminations

Questions I get asked

Did I base Rose/Fay/Ailinn on myself?

Well, sort of.  (and yes, this is a repeat of an answer on another page - I was first asked it regarding Illuminations, after all.)

I base all my characters on what I see of the world through my own perverse vision. So even the most horrible ones express bits of me. But they are not me. Thank goodness.

Think of it this way: all my characters are recalcitrant and follow their own paths. They will all do things in the novels that I would not and could not. So it is not a good idea to say "Gillian is Rose" .

PR

The US tour was all about Illuminations and it was during the early days of the Gulf War.  It was great, it was wonderful - and here is the stuff we put online during it.

Travels in a red mustang convertible

Rose, the modern academic who finds such a strange manuscript, has her own webpage. Rose's homepage

People and places

Rose is a Melbourne girl. Here are some photos of those aspects of Melbourne. Don't blame me if they are not scenic - blame her. Rose's Melbourne

Several people have asked me about the addresses in the book.

I invented them. In fact, where Louise lives is actually a bedding shop. Please don't write to these people

I did not invent the coffee and chocolate places on Rose's website. Alan Frew is not fictitious. I asked him about Rose's preferred blend and he says it would be his Espresso Meridionale. My favourite coffees are his Nicaraguan Maragogype and his Yemen Mokha Ismaili.

When I was in France in 1995, I took a bunch of photos related to things in the book. I also have a few from my earlier trip (the exotic part of my doctoral studies) - here are the most interesting of them.

Photos - mostly France.