Jean Cocteau. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Aldous Huxley. Katherine Mansfield. Somerset Maugham. Edith Wharton.

The French Riviera has long been a setting for wealth and romance but between the wars it was also the home for writers from all over the world. For many it was a cheap place to live well; for others the climate was good for their health; while some were fleeing romance, addiction, and even prosecution.

They all found a haven of sunlight and beauty and they all found the space to live in their imaginations and write their masterpieces - but what terrible secrets did they bring with them?

Sunlight and Shadows explores the lives and works of these six best-selling twentieth century writers who lived, loved and wrote in the South of France.

Julia Carter was born in Lincoln to Viennese emigres parents. She read English at Durham University and lives in London with her husband. They have two daughters and four grandchildren and spend summers at their house in the South of France. Sunlight and Shadows is her first book.