Nottingham author Eve Makis talks about her latest novel

With the publication of her latest novel, a feature film on the way and a teenage daughter through to the live semi-finals finals of The Voice in Greece, life is a whirlwind for writer Eve Makis.

After her first book Eat, Drink and Be Married was snapped up by publishers to fill a gap in the market for Greek Cypriot fiction, Eve, of West Bridgford, has penned a further three novels.

Until now her books have had a strong focus on a culture she is familiar with but for her latest, The Spice Box Letters, she set out to explore a minority community living in Cyprus.

As a result, the stirring story of a fractured family shines light on the 1915 Armenian genocide in which up to 1.5m people are believed to have perished.

But Eve never set out to write about the tragedy.

The mum-of-two explains: "I had a loose plot for a story. I decided to explore one of the minority communities in Cyprus and decided to make my characters Armenian – that was the starting point.

"In order to get to know my characters I had to research their history. How had they come to Cyprus? That's when I discovered they'd been expelled from Eastern Turkey, and the tragedy of 1915.

"I interviewed the relatives of survivors, I researched on the internet, I read around the subjects, lots of books, not just history books but books about Armenian folk law and listened to Armenian music.

"I tried to get a three dimensional picture of the culture as well as the history that just wasn't research into the events of 1915 but reading around the subject and the culture as well."

Eve, a former journalist in London and Cyprus, talked to an elderly woman called Azniv Baladouni and well-known artist Vartan Tashdjian.

"Their families were expelled from Eastern Turkey in 1915 and some of their family stories have made their way into the book," says Eve, whose Greek Cypriot parents ran a fish and chip shop in Radford after coming to the UK in the 1960s.

The Spice Box Letters is a tragic yet humorous and romantic tale of a young woman's emotional journey to piece together her family history after inheriting her grandmother's spice box containing letters and a diary written in Armenian.

Eve's cultural references make a big play on food, likely to leave readers with hunger pangs at the thought of shoulder of lamb flavoured with smoked paprika, bulgar wheat pilaf, paklava and sweet mint tea.

Eve, who teaches creative writing part-time at the University of Nottingham, explains: "I think food is a massive cultural identifier. That's why it's important, when you describe a culture, food is quite prominent.

"Food is also a connection to the past. In the book there is the granddaughter missing the flavours she associates with her grandmother.

"It's not food as in just food – it's being part of your history, shaping you. That's why I have made so many references to food.

"I do happen to love food. I like reading about food. It paints a picture of eastern flavours. When I've spoken to people that's what they refer to, that's what stands out, that's what they can relate to...that association of that food rather than something you just fill your stomach with."

While promoting her latest novel, plans are moving forward for book number three, Land of the Golden Apple, to be turned into a feature film.

It will be shown in cinemas in Greece but Eve hopes that it will reach the foreign film circuit so UK movie-goers can see it.

"It's being filmed in July. I wanted it in English but it has been translated into Greek. We did um and ah whether it should be in English or Greek but for authenticity's sake it had to be in Greek.

"There are some very well known Greek and Cypriot actors but they wouldn't be well known here. I don't know them either, so sorry I can't name drop," says Eve, who is set to fly out for the filming.

Before that her daughter Emily, 16, had been due to fly out at the end of this month for the Greek version of The Voice.

She had got through to the semi-finals but sadly the talented young singer has pulled out because of a clash with her AS Level exams. "She doesn't want to miss a year of school," says her mum.

Eve and husband Tasos, who used to play for the national football team in Cyprus and now teaches tactics and technique online, also have a seven-year-old son George.

It was Emily's birth 16 years ago that convinced Eve it was the right time to quit her job as a journalist and write a novel.

Bringing up a young child, it took four years to complete Eat, Drink and Be Married, about a Nottingham teenager who dreams of swapping life behind the counter of the family chippy for a university degree.

Just three chapters were enough to wow publishers. Instead of the rejection letter she was expecting came a request for the complete manuscript.

Mirroring her own strict upbringing as a teenager and parental opposition to her wanting to leave home and study rather than snaring a good Greek husband, Eve says: "It was a write what you know book. It was very much based on my life but also on my generation.

"It's water under the bridge now. I thank them now as it gave me something to write about.

"When I started writing that book it was a bitter tirade against what I'd been through.

"But when I explored my culture and how my parents had come to England and the sacrifices they had made I began to understand why the way they were. That's when the book turned into more of a satire rather than something that was a criticism of what I'd been through."

The Spice Box Letters, Sandstone Press, £8.99. Eve will be giving talks at West Bridgford Library on May 12 at 2.30pm; Southwell Library May 22 at 7pm and Gedling Book Festival on June 12 at 3pm.