Williams, Andrew (23 August 2012). "Chocolat author Joanne Harris talks about her latest novel Blue Eyed Boy". Metro. UK . Retrieved 30 August 2012.

Blackberry Wine: from Joanne Harris, the bestselling author Blackberry Wine: from Joanne Harris, the bestselling author

Her novels are often much darker than the film adaptation of Chocolat would lead us to suppose, and characters are often emotionally damaged or morally ambivalent. Father-figures are frequently absent, and mothers are often portrayed as controlling, harsh or even abusive, as in Blueeyedboy and Five-Quarters of the Orange. Harris favours a first-person, dual-narrator narrative structure, often revisiting past events to cast light on current developments. This generally makes for complex characterisation, and even minor characters are often unusually well developed. Her books have a very strong sense of place, with settings that play as significant a role as do the characters themselves.In 2011, she contributed a short story, Never Cut A Hawthorn, to Why Willows Weep–an anthology which supports the Woodland Trust. This is only one of the many stories she has contributed to charity anthologies. Joe is a powerful influence in Jay’s life. Why? What emotional need did he fulfil for Jay as he was growing up? It does for gardening and wine what Chocolat does for chocolate, it's even partly set in the same town, with some familiar names making appearances.

BLACKBERRY WINE | Kirkus Reviews BLACKBERRY WINE | Kirkus Reviews

What if you could bottle a year of your past? Which one would it be? Which time of year? What would it smell like? How would it taste? It's only a matter of not losing hope completely and let others surprise you, with one foot in the Earth and the other one suspended in the air, letting the wind blow where it has to. The main characters are Joe an eccentric old man who brews wine, gardens, makes pouches of herbs that protect against bullies layman's alchemy he calls it and Jay a young lad who admires Joe and learns much of life from him the story follows Jay into adulthood in alternating chapters. Josephine is the owner of a local café. She first appeared in Chocolat, and in this book she plays a minor, yet significant role. She welcomes Jay to the village and gives him important information about his fellow-villagers.

Trees (4 October 2011). "British Tree Week: Best woodland walks". The Daily Telegraph. London . Retrieved 30 August 2012. Joe’s wine has magical properties to Jay. Why? How does the wine affect his behaviour and his choices? Under the influence of this magical home-brew, Jay finds himself behaving in a more and more erratic way. He buys a house he has never seen in the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes and moves there, ostensibly to write, but in reality to escape from Kerry, the pressures of fame and the expectations of his public. Gentlemen & Players: Shortlisted for the Edgar Award, 2007 (USA) [12] and the Grand Prix du Polar de Cognac (France). [14]