We’re delighted to be joined on our blog by Ella Hayes! Ella writes uplifting romances set in the most incredible destinations with introspective, thoughtful characters and the most beautiful HEAs.

Ella is also a former television camerawoman and professional wedding photographer, so we wanted to get a sneak peak into how her photography expertise inspires her writing.

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What inspires a romance? I take inspiration from anything and everything but setting, especially, is pivotal, and always plays a big part in my writing. That might be because, for most of my life, I’ve worked behind a camera lens and so I’m all about the pictures. Painting pictures with words!

When I spent a week on the French Riviera a couple of summers ago (camera in hand, of course) I knew I would find a romance to fit the setting. Cannes, with its connection to the film industry, inspired my decision to write a movie actor hero, but the main thoroughfares of Cannes didn’t tick my romantic boxes so Cannes doesn’t feature at all, other than that I situated movie director, Franc Abdali’s mansion, where best friends Alden and Jules must spend a week faking their engagement, in the hills above the town. (Franc’s house itself was a direct steal from a property I saw being advertised in the window of an estate agents!) I was far more taken with Grasse as a romantic location although, like Alden and Jules, I had no idea about its connections with the perfume industry! When Alden quips, ‘Maybe we should have bought a Riviera guidebook’ I am making a joke at my own expense because I never do the guidebook thing. I like wandering, being led by my eye, and my eye naturally seeks out narrow lanes, and peeling doors, little mysteries off the beaten track, tracks that twist through cool green trees… Like the woodland path Jules takes around the perimeter of Franc’s mansion, and where Alden goes looking for her. In the heat of the day, what could be more romantic, more evocative than cool shade and dappled light?

Saint Tropez was another top location for me. In spite of its glamorous associations and eyewatering restaurant prices, it’s basically an old fishing town with lots of interesting nooks and crannies. I enjoyed the narrow streets and the pastel colours of the modest buildings, and there’s the harbour too, of course. I wanted Alden and Jules to go there, but (cruelly) I made them go at daybreak because I wanted them to wander the streets in the early morning light without many other people around. I could imagine them better like that, which is definitely a hangover from my wedding photography days, when the quality of light and creating that perfect, intimate, romantic moment is your raison d’être.

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One Night on the French Riviera by Ella Hayes

By Lauren Gardiner