Winter Downs reprise : Nelli Rees – the Casting #winterdowns #crime #reading

Continuing my reprise of the Winter Downs blog tour  here is the posting hosted by the writer and jazz singer Nelli Rees – originally posted here.

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Jan Edwards has had her new novel “Winter Downs” published (Penkhull Press). Find below more information about the book and the writer, as well as what Jan said when asked, who would be playing the main parts if her book were made into a film or a TV series (you all know my passion for movies!).

This is the reply I got from Jan to my question, who she would like to play the parts if the book were dramatised:

When Nelli asked me who I would cast for Winter Downs as a film or TV series I have to admit to a slight panic; not least because I can never remember names! After a monster Googling session I have come up with a few possibilities for just the main protags on either side. (The full cast would take months!).

As this is a game of fantasy casting I decided that money would be no object and angled that my imagination could come up with – taken from the great and the good in British acting!

Winter Downs the movie would star:

The good guys: Rose ‘Bunch’ Courtney: 30 years old. Dark hair and hazel eyes. More at home in jodhpurs than the designer clothes one of her standing is expected to wear. Very capable, athletic and terribly posh. Michelle Dockery would be the main woman. But Emily Blunt would also be a good fit, or Kate Beckinsale. Though Kristen Scott Thomas is the image I had in mind as I was writing.

Daphne ‘Dodo’ Tinsley – Bunch’s sister: 20 years old but the war has already made her a widow. She is shapely and blonde – young for her age but with a hint of sadness about her. Far more of a classic ‘English Rose’ than Bunch. Emma Watson was an obvious choice. Followed by Antonia Clarke, or Gabriella Wilde?

Chief Inspector Wright : Forty+ years old. Tall, bordering on gaunt with a deceptive calm, which lulls suspects into mistaking him for an ordinary man. Jude Law or Benedict Cumberbatch are my obvious first choices, with James McAvoy as back up.

 

On the side of villainy:

Olivia Tinsley: late 40s early 50s. An elegant woman with an edge, who knows what she wants and gets it. Joanna Lumley would always be my front runner, followed by Anna Chancellor.

 

Percy Guest : one of those men who looks anywhere between 35 and 50. An east end villain, slightly built with a whipcord agility, easy going charm that can switch into menace at a blink. David Tennant obviously! Subs on that team are Jason Flemyng or maybe Danny Dyer.

Now that I have got started I could go on… but five is probably enough

Winter Downs by Jan Edwards, Penkhull Press,ISBN 978-0-9930008-6-7

Available in Paperback and Kindle edition: UK  and US

Latest Interview for Winter Downs at Gaslight Crime #crimefiction #winterdowns #kindle #books

An Interview With  

Crime Author Jan Edwards

We’re (Gaslight Crime) delighted to bring you an interview with writer Jan Edwards, author of the newly published historical crime novel Winter Downs.

I absolutely loved Winter Downs, which takes place in a fascinating time in a lovely part of Sussex that Kipling called our blunt, blow-headed, whale-backed Downs. The perfect setting for the first novel in an atmospheric new crime series. If you enjoy classic, Golden Age style whodunits with engaging sleuths, a twisting plot and a wonderful sense of place – you’re in for a great treat.

Here’s Jan to tell us about Winter Downs and her writing process…

Read the full interview here: An Interview With Crime Author Jan Edwards

Winter Downs Q&A #crimefiction #jennybarber #sussex #janedwards

Continuing  my blog tour reprise:  Q&A originally posted on Jenny Barber’s web page  on 3rd June 2017

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“Winter Downs Blog Tour, celebrating the launch of the ever excellent Jan Edwards’ new book – Winter Downs – a thrilling ride of 1940’s crime fic starring the kick ass Bunch Courtney.   I interrogated Jan to find out more…

Winter Downs is the first in your Bunch Courtney Investigates series – who is Bunch and what can we expect from future books in the series?

Bunch Courtney is a well connected young woman who is set adrift  by the changes that the coming of war has imposed on her, and knows that the life she was brought up to lead will never return. When she stumbles on a murder she discovers a talent and taste for sleuthing as she interacts with the local police force; and with Chief Inspector Wright in particular.

Wise Words : Winter Downs

Here is the latest posting on Winter Downs posted recently with the writer Louse Wise on her Wise Words blogsite

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Secrets about my writing? Tricky. I have always seen myself as, if you’ll excuse the pun, an open book. Or am I?

Much of my short fiction is crime or horror based and there is a sort of a secret thread that emerges from time to time. Sometimes I like to let the bad guy win or at very least escape more or less intact, and in a few of my short horror stories it’s the victim who dies!

We all know that good does not always win even though we might want it to, and allowing evil to triumph in fiction reflects real life, and that’s what I like to do in my writing.

The line between light and dark is often more muddy grey marshland in my fiction. Sherlock Holmes allowed the villain to escape justice on many occasions, either because he felt that the crime was committed for the best of reasons or that the consequences of the arrest outweighed the crime itself.

Leaving the enemy to walk is a ruse best used where there are several offenders to choose from. Kill off or capture one (or more) and leave the last to run off into the darkness with murder and revenge in their black hearts…  Sorry, getting carried away.

In my defence, as the writer, I may want to use a particular villain again, which obviously can’t be done once I’ve killed them off. On the other hand –  I do also like destroying them in spectacular fashion.

Decisions, decisions…

Read more on writers and writing at https://louisewise.blogspot.com

In the News

If anyone takes the Weekend Sentinel around Stoke on Trent –  there is a 2 page article there on Winter Downs and me!  No link to the paper as yet – you’ll need to go out any buy it.

Winter Downs Blog Tour : Shamansland

Jessica Rydill has an interview with yours truly over at Shamansland

“Today it gives me great pleasure to interview author Jan Edwards, whose new crime novel, Winter Downs, launched on 3rd June.

How long have you been writing and how did you get started?

Always a hard one to answer without sounding cliched, but I honestly can’t recall when I first started to make up stories to entertain others. My Monday morning ‘news’ at primary school was always complete fabrication. At senior school my languages teacher could never understand why, after three years of Spanish lessons I still could not speak it – despite spending my lessons with head bent over my books scribbling for all I was worth. The reason was, of course, that I was busy writing westerns and noir crimes to entertain my friends and never once looked at my text books.

My first publication ‘credits’ were in a local magazine called W.I.T. produced in Horham, Sussex, with a circulation of about 50! My first ‘proper’ publication was in Visionary Tongue magazine issue 6 – all of which happened in the mid 1990s.”

read more here

Winter Downs Blog Tour Day 7 : Swirl and Thread

The Winter Downs blog tour is also stopping among the Swirl and Thread blogging pages. with a Q&A on crime fiction and why I do this thing.

“Hi Jan and welcome to Swirl and Thread. I am delighted to be on tour with you today as we discuss your new novel, Winter Downs, as well as finding out a little more about what makes you tick.

Before we get into the writing aspect of your life, may I enquire about your involvement in Reiki. I was intrigued to read that you are a Master Teacher as well as been a Meditational Healer? Could you please tell us a little about this?

Reiki and Meditational Healing is something that chose me rather than the other way around. Meditation is something I have indulged in for many years but I needed help with pain management that did not involved drugs, which sent me to sleep half the day. Various therapies proved to help a great deal and going from ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’ was a logical progression.”  I also have some experience in herbalism but would not practice it without going for the medical degree. As the saying goes, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It is far too easy to mistakenly poison someone – though that knowledge can come in handy as a writer of crime and horror.”

Read  the rest of the Q&A here