LIZ FIELDING

ENDURING CHARACTERS

“More sheikhs, Liz, more sheikhs…”

That’s a quote from my Italian editor, as he sat beside me at a book signing in Matera a couple of years ago. And it’s a fact that of all my books it is the sheikhs who get the most reprints worldwide – and usually with the hottest covers.

This month The Sheikh’s Guarded Heart – the first of the Ramal Hamrah stories featuring Sheikh Hanif and Lucy Forrester – is snuggled up with books by Susan Stephens and Alexandra Sellers under this delectable cover.

Han and Lucy have appeared – and meddled in – the lives of two of Han’s cousins, Zahir and Kalil, so far and they are such fun that I have no doubt that when I get around to writing the next book in the series they’ll be in the thick of that one, too.

Some characters are just like that. They have a life that you can feel continuing beyond their own book. And the fact that Hanif is the Ramal Hamrahn Ambassador to the Court of St James puts him in the centre of my romance world, London.

As readers do you enjoy this continuing contact with characters? Watching Princess Ameerah grow up, seeing Princess Lucy become the woman she was meant to be and Han, still reserved, but serving his country as was his destiny, surrounded by an adored and adoring family.

And if you’ve only glimpsed them in the pages of The Sheikh’s Unsuitable Wife and Her Desert Dream, you can read an excerpt here

LORDS OF THE DESERT – Rescued by the Sheikh is available online from Mills and Boon, Amazon UK and from The Book Depository who offer free worldwide delivery.