Nicholas Woodsworth

Born in Ottawa, Nicholas Woodsworth was raised in a Canadian diplomatic family in New York, Saigon, Cape Town and Addis Ababa. Settling in Provence in his twenties, he became a foreign correspondent and staff travel writer for the London Financial Times. He lives in Aix-en-Provence with his wife, Jany.

His new novel, Double Cross, has allowed Woodsworth to place three long-term interests at the heart of an engaging thriller.

Pursuing a fascination with Impressionist painting, he began writing for the FT with a series on the lives of painters in southern France. Cezanne, Van Gogh and Matisse inevitably led him to Marc Chagall, a major character in Double Cross. Equally prominent in the book is the city of Jerusalem, which the author first visited as a child. His interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict led to repeated reporting trips there, and eventually to a longer-term stay and the publication of Crossing Jerusalem - Journeys at the Centre of the World's Trouble. And while reminders of World War Two lie everywhere in Provence, it is his wife's own family history that incited Woodsworth's interest in Vichy France. While some family members participated actively in the 'Maquis' -resistance groups who took to the hills - not all survived Nazi retribution. It is from such searing experience that the drama of Double Cross is drawn.