What was I looking for in my 'choir tour' of England, Scotland and Ireland in April and May this year? I heard over 30 choirs, the most illuminating experience being 3 days of the Cork International Choir Festival. I wanted to study the words these unique groups of people were singing and to discover, if I could, what moved them and made them want to sing each set of lyrics. What was it about the particular words and music together that brought them the greatest satisfaction and commitment, and formed the closest rapport with the audience?

The simplest answer is to give you the lyrics of the song "Points and Lines"--a poem by Aldous Huxley. Set to mesmerising music by much awarded composer Timothy Doyle (b. 1991) and sung with tender sensitivity by Chamber Choir Ireland in the Cathedral of St Mary an St Anne on 2 May 2026, this stood out for me because of three elements: aurally it is a beautiful poem in itself; it explores one clear idea; its power comes from an extended metaphor. One could feel that the composer, the choir and the choir master Gabriel Crouch were profoundly moved by this contemplative piece. So was I. And that's the main thing I learned on the choir tour--there needs to be a unity of feeling and purpose for a choir to really reach their audience.

POINTS AND LINES 

Instants in the quiet, small sharp stars,
Pierce my spirit with a thrust whose speed
Baffles even the grasp of time.
Oh that I might reflect them
As swiftly, as keenly as they shine.
But I am a pool of waters, summer-still,
And the stars are mirrored across me;
Those stabbing points of the sky
Turned to a thread of shaken silver,
A long fine thread.

Aldous Huxley

At present I'm working on a series of 6 tone poems entitled Ocean Australis, with composer Nicholas Gentile.

This is a chateau near the town of Joinville in the Haute Marne region of northeast France. I don't know its name--I saved the image when I was exploring along the wide valley of the Marne with an unlikely hero in mind: a mere private in France's military police corps in the 1730s.

What chances might Cavalier Constant have to uncover anything useful about the rural aristocrats who live in a place like this? The approach on horseback, through the picturesque hills and farms that surround it, then across the well-tended grounds, is not too difficult. But what happens when he fronts up to the grand entrance? Are the privileged people inside these imposing walls obliged to even open their doors to him?

Discover more about Constant's risky investigation in Murder at Cirey on Amazon.

As you know, Murder at Cirey is on pre-order on Amazon and will be released in a week's time. Meanwhile the publication date of Death in Champagne, the next Victor Constant Investigation, is confirmed by Sapere Books: it comes out on 18 September, also on Amazon. If you're new to the exploits of Victor Constant and you're a reader of masters like Bernard Cornwell, Donna Leon and Peter James, you may be tempted by his first adventures. And for lovers of Mary Higgins Clark: an earlier edition of Murder at Cirey was once partnered with her The Melody Lingers On in Reader’s Digest Select Editions. Welcome to the darker side of the wonderful Champagne region of France!

Voltaire, one of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, fought for freedom of thought, liberty of expression and social justice. His works still cause controversy: in 2006 a production of his famous novella Candide, composed in the 20th century as an opera by Leonard Bernstein, was taken off the stage of La Scala because it satirised modern Western political leaders. Revived, Candide was a hit at La Scala in 2007. Also in 2007, Muslim protesters in a town in France tried to prevent a reading of Voltaire’s Mahomet (1741), but the mayor insisted that the play go on, in the name of freedom of speech.

Voltaire also wrote for the opera stage and in the 1730s provided the libretto for Samson by Rameau. He could not attend the first performances because he was hiding out in the remote Champagne province at the time, but his mistress Émilie du Châtelet was able to do so--she was a dedicated opera fan anyway. When she rejoined Voltaire at the Château de Cirey she gave him a report on the performances. I just came across a very amusing video revealing that this 'lost opera by Voltaire' has been revived for the Festival of Aix en Provence and broadcast by ARTE in Europe. The video is in French but the illustrations retell Samson's well-known story brilliantly.

Samson comes up in the first Victor Constant Investigation, Murder at Cirey, which is now on pre-order on Amazon.

On my Facebook and Instagram pages I'm continuing an interview conducted by author Helen Hollick with the hero of Murder at Cirey, mounted gendarme Victor Constant. In the spring of 1735 he was banished by the military police, the Maréchaussée, from Paris to a remote area in the Haute Marne, and then in the first week of summer he was faced with a murder case that because of a dangerous dissension with his superior officers he was forced to solve on his own. 

Here is the latest interview question from Helen Hollick. The illustration is of course a portrait of the redoubtable physicist and mathematician, Madame du Châtelet. Murder at Cirey is currently on pre-order on Amazon.

 HH: Tell me about one or two of the other characters who feature with you in your story. Who are some of the nice characters and who is the nastiest one?

I’ll start with the nastiest one, who is of course the murderer. He is just the kind of man (he would call himself a gentleman, but he doesn’t deserve the title) whom one meets in the top echelons of provincial society, and who takes advantage of his position to feather his own nest and treat everyone with contempt. This one is also intelligent enough to be a cunning conspirator, and ruthless enough to frame his associates for his own crimes. I finally got the measure of him—but I was nearly too late! At the opposite end of the aristocratic spectrum is Mme du Châtelet. But I wouldn’t describe her as ‘nice’, exactly. ‘Spectacular’ is perhaps the word. Here is the impression she made on me when she kindly offered advice on my detective work:

‘Victor took the cue and rose to his feet. He would have preferred to stay and continue the conversation that Madame du Châtelet had carried on with such verve and grace. Her presence and her musical voice animated the room, influencing the currents of feeling and thought in startling ways. Her figure was perfect. Her face, with its well-defined features and glowing eyes, had great powers of expression and she was dressed with a flair that set off her distinctive beauty. But it was not just her person that dazzled him, it was her sheer vitality.’

Hey, this is Cheryl Sawyer, librettist and choral lyricist posting--I've never been so happy to carry a showbag around! Cork City in May 2026 was completely taken over by choirs and choir enthusiasts and I was there to discover how passionate and committed today's ensembles may be to the words they sing.

Answer--those at the cutting edge believe as much in the poetry they're singing as the music, and with their conductors they achieve moments of sublimity wherever they happen to be: on stage in the great City Hall, in churches and cathedrals, in pubs and even in the streets. I was blown away by 30 choirs on my recent trip around the UK. During my three days in Cork I suppose the most illuminating performances for me were those of the Dublin Youth Choir under Lynsey Callaghan, but all were impressive in their way. Hats off!

The hero of the Victor Constant Investigations is a mounted military policeman and in my latest title, which I have just delivered to Sapere Books, he rides from his headquarters in the remote Champagne province to his home quarter in Paris, Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie. There he reports to the Chief of Police at the massive fortress, the Grand Châtelet, which houses seven law courts, a full company of civil police, the morgue for people found drowned in the Seine or dead in the streets, and a massive prison second only to the Bastille.

No one who writes about France in the 18th century has any excuse for getting the geography of their characters' journeys wrong! The maps of the time are incomparable. The section you see here of the famous Turgot map of Paris shows the Grand Châtelet as it stood in the year when Victor reported there, 1737. It's just above the bottom right-hand corner, the big complex with the tall towers that have conical roofs. He accessed it by riding to the right bank of the Seine over the Pont du Change, depicted nearby. The Grand Châtelet stood until the first decade of the 19th century.

Victor's first investigation, which takes place in the remote Champagne, is Murder at Cirey, now available on preorder from Amazon.

Victor Constant is a military policeman, the hero of a series of investigations carried out in the 1730s in the remote Champagne region of France. The first novel, Murder at Cirey, is on preorder on Amazon, from Sapere Books UK. Sapere have just sent me the first cover rough for the fourth novel in the series, Death in an Ideal Landscape, which I have just completed.Sapere's cover is in the style of Murder at Cirey (see in the blog below) and features a map from the same period by the redoubtable Cassini family.

I enjoy researching the real history and locations behind Victor's adventures and very pleased to tell you that in the latest book he has to chase a criminal all the way to Paris. There he checks out the horse markets on the south bank of the Seine, the biggest in France, which happen to be named for Saint Victor, like the nearby abbey. The map of the district shown above is by Félibien, 1734.

The last thing Voltaire or Émilie du Châtelet wanted to see at Cirey in the remote Champagne countryside was a uniform—let alone that of a private in the Maréchaussée, France’s military police corps. But that’s just what Voltaire had to face one morning in 1735, after a young man was shot dead in the Cirey forest. Research at Cirey itself, in the Musée de la Gendarmerie at Melun and on sites like imagesdesoldats.fr gave me a picture of what Voltaire saw as he strode across Émilie’s courtyard to confront Cavalier Victor Constant, the military policeman who made it his duty to solve the murder. While Murder at Cirey is on preorder at Amazon, I'd like to help you see Victor ride into action.

Sapere Books UK are releasing the Victor Constant Investigations series in June this year and the first title is on preorder at Amazon here. I am delivering the fourth in the series to Sapere this month. During an intimate conversation in that novel, a passionate young artist confesses that amongst the art works in Rome she can think of only one likeness of Victor's mouth, in a representation of the Emperor Lucius Verus. The head shown here is held in the Bardo Museum in Turin. I agree with her but only the upper lip is accurate, and to see the rest of the face you'd need to read the novel, which will also be out this year.