Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs novels immerse you so deeply into 20th-century British life that you could get lost in the past. Just ask the author. “I was sitting in my office, working away; air conditioning was on.
I’m in London on a foggy, cold day in winter, and I thought I’d better stop for a bite to eat,” says Winspear during a Zoom interview a few days before the June 4 publication of her latest book, “The Comfort of Ghosts.” “I came out of my office into the garden, and went, ‘Oh my god!’ I had a real culture shock.” Turns out, that dank London fog had all been in her imagination.
She was at home in 21st-century California. “I was in Ojai writing. I’d had the curtains closed because, you know, it’s bright and sunny out there and it was a very hot day,” says the British-born author who has lived in the United States for 34 years, mainly in California and the Pacific Northwest.
SEE ALSO : Sign up for our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more “I just was so immersed I didn’t realize where I was. It’s easy to do that, but I guess I’m so well-practiced now that I can really drop into the era I write about. I can drop into the story.
” However, the author says she isn’t planning to drop in on Maisie Dobbs anymore. After 18 books about psychologist and investigator Dobbs and her supporting cast of characters, Winspear announced that “The Comfort of Ghosts” is the final book of the series, which she beg.