Quantum of Solace

A big win in Lisbon + new adventures in screenwriting

Dear Reader,

Thank you for your kindness and support in the last few months as we experienced two losses in our family. It has been a time of grief and change, mourning my beloved mother-in-law, Vera, and our beloved grandmother, Marika, both women of immense heart and commitment to family and society.

If you’d like to learn a little about my grandmother – whose work as a historian and campaigner inspired my love of research – The Guardian published a beautiful obituary, which you can read here.

I’m pleased to say regularly scheduled programming from girl with the golden pen will now resume, and I have so much to share with you – a big win in Lisbon, writing for the screen and Ian Fleming’s advice on hotels.

Taking Marika to the London Review Bookshop to see Testament published.

Delivering Double O and celebrating in a hotel fit for James Bond

I am happy (and relieved!) to report that the final manuscript of the third title in the Double O series is now with my publishers. I can’t wait to share it with you in 2026 – I think it’s a fitting end to what has been a life-changing trilogy for me.

How best to celebrate no more edits? A hotel called The Editory! Which is exactly what my husband Nick arranged as a surprise on our impromptu visit to Lisbon, booked after Arsenal Women reached the final of the Champions League. The Editory is a stunning new hotel carved from a waterfront monastery-turned-railway station.

The Editory, Lisbon

As Ian Fleming writes:

When in doubt, Bond always chose the station hotels. They were adequate and it was better than even chances that the buffet de la Gare would be excellent. And at the station one could hear the heartbeat of the town. The night-sounds of the trains were full of its tragedy and romance.

Having taken this advice as gospel truth when I was a teenager, I was abnormally excited to discover we could feel the trains rumbling through our floor. But the real selling point is the view. Waking up to the glittering Tagus River, I felt like Johanna Harwood on a luxurious mission. Expect to see this hotel in something I write very soon.

Arsenal Win the Champion’s League

As you’ve subscribed to a newsletter about writing, I can only presume you’re dying to hear the details of the game. Arsenal’s opponents were the most feared team in the women’s game, Barcelona, who beat Chelsea – considered the best team domestically – 8-2 on aggregate in the Semi Finals. If hopes were not high, belief was, and it absolutely paid off. We only went and won the thing! And not by a narrow margin, not by a miracle, but convincingly, resolutely, beautifully.

If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen MY ABSOLUTE EUPHORIA. Watching the team I’ve supported all my life deliver this historic victory was so beautiful I actually felt weak at the knees, like the heroine of a Regency romance.

It was all the more meaningful because we went as a family to watch Arsenal Women play after my grandmother died, and we sang the club’s anthem ‘The Angel (North London Forever)’ by Louis Dunford along with a sold-out crowd. The song is a tribute to my neighbourhood, where as a recent immigrant to the UK my grandmother bought our house, giving us a home and a future. To sing ‘North London Forever’ in Lisbon with nine thousand die hard travelling fans moved me deeply, delivering the best sport can offer: joy, comfort, togetherness, release.

From Lisbon With Love

I’d never been to Lisbon before but will certainly return. Tiled facades shimmering like fish scales, avenues awash with the purple blossom of Jacaranda trees, which you carry under your feet to public squares where white paper tablecloths flap in the sea breeze outside tascas serving grilled sardines, salted cod, pickled tuna – and dragonfruit cocktail, delicious. Also expect to see someone drinking that in something I write very soon.

While I fell in love with the intricately painted tiles on the houses and the sudden intrusion of a Baroque church or Ancient Roman theatre, I was also completely besotted with the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, which spans a converted nineteenth century power station and a contemporary building that looks like a swelling wave, or a peeping eye, with a tiled roof cresting towards the suspension bridge over the river. From which roof you could very easily have a foot chase across closely packed terracotta tiles. Also expect this in something I write very soon.

Live, Laugh, Lisbon (sorry)

Screen Time

Speaking of writing, paid subscribers can read on below to hear about a new adventure in my work: moving from page to screen. I’m currently working on a few TV and film projects. Though I can’t name them, I’m excited to share this new world with you.

And for founding members of girl with the golden pen, I’m also pleased to say the US paperback of A Spy Like Me is now in! If you’d like a dedicated signed copy for your collection, please let me know in a comment or message.

Thanks so much for sticking with me, folks, it means the world x