Romantic teacher goes to top of the class
AVALLEY teacher’s historical romance novel set in Provence has set the hearts of the popular genre’s devotees aflutter.
Valerie Olek – pen name Marie Laval – from Crawshawbooth, has been named a finalist in the 2021 Romantic Novel Awards.
French teacher Valerie is one of five contenders in the Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award category with her novel Escape to the Little Chateau, published by Choc Lit.
Valerie, who has a partner Robert and three children, has lived in the Valley for more than 20 years and teaches French at a secondary school and sixth-form college in Blackburn.
She has written short stories her whole life, from growing up in France, and after coming to live in England, but she will always remember attending a writing workshop organised by Calderdale Libraries.
Author Jean Fullerton gave a talk about her journey to publication, and Valerie was so inspired that she came home and started writing a novel straight away.
In her novel, Amy Carter is determined to make her farmhouse hotel in Provence a success.
She’s put everything into it, and she has something to prove – particularly to the handsome but arrogant owner of the nearby chateau.
Valerie was inspired to pen Escape to the Little Chateau during a family holiday in the South of France a few years ago.
In the lovely little town of Cassis near Marseille, where they had stopped for an impromptu picnic in one of the town’s squares, a fountain with a Latin inscription captured her imagination, and she knew she had the idea for the plot.
Valerie said: “Provence is a wonderful setting for a novel. There are so many hill-top villages and old farmhouses, lavender and sunflower fields, and ancient Roman and Gallic ruins. It was a joy to research the historical background for the story, to learn about the ancient Gallic tribes and their gods and rituals, although some of them are pretty gruesome!”
The winners of the awards will be presented by actor and presenter Larry Lamb in a digital event on March 8.