Imogen Clark's Blog, page 2
June 23, 2025
The Bed in the Shed
My new Izzy Bromley title, The Bed in the Shed, is out! Click on the link above to get your copy!
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June 1, 2025
Lake Life
Lake Garda
I’m here on a walking holiday with a friend. I have loved Italy since I first visited in 1986 and today I swam in this lake for the second time. Last time (in 2005) I remember it being warm. Today it was a little more bracing! Lovely once you’re in though!
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May 27, 2025
May’s Newsletter
Hi there.
Well, my biggest baby got married and it was the most joyous, love-filled day I could possibly have imagined. She smiled from start to finish and I couldn’t have been prouder of her. Here the happy couple are just driving away from the church. If you didn’t see it, there’s a little compilation of her friend’s stories over on Instagram here and because I know you’ll all be wondering what I wore, here I am with my family and my new son-in-law.
So now that I don’t have to madly watch the weather app or pray that I will still fit into my dress on a daily basis life feels much calmer!
Book news!Well, the eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted that the new Izzy Bromley title The Bed in the Shed is starting to appear. It will be out on 21st June in paperback, ebook and audiobook and you can preorder the ebook here. I’m delighted to announce that the wonderful Imogen Church has narrated this one as she did the others and has done another fabulous job.
In case you haven’t already seen it, here is the cover and the book description.
Carrie Bradley is done.
Done with the dishes, the laundry, the packed lunches and, most of all, with being taken for granted. So when her husband cancels their family holiday for a boys’ trip to Vegas, Carrie takes a stand – by moving into the garden shed.
What starts as a quiet protest soon spirals into full-blown family drama – with domestic chaos, media attention and a surprising path to self-discovery. With her sister Bex crashing in her guest room and her family in meltdown, Carrie might just find the one thing she’s been missing all along… herself.
Funny, uplifting and relatable, this is a heart-warming story about reclaiming your space – inside and out.
Also out this summer is the new Imogen Clark title, In Another Life, also available to pre-order. I shared the cover with you last month so I won’t do that again but I have a date for your diaries. There will be a launch evening at The Grove Bookshop in Ilkley on Thursday 4th September at 7 pm. Please come along to hear me talk about the book. There’ll be fizz and I’ll be signing copies. (They make great presents!) The event hasn’t yet appeared on the bookshop’s website but tickets will be free so grab one when they’re available.
What am I writing?I’m currently having great fun with the Izzy title for next year, The Glamp Site. I’m learning lots about planning and pigs and getting to know my characters. I’m about a quarter of the way through so far and I’m very much enjoying myself.
And when I have finished that I will be starting the Imogen book for 2027 which feels like a scarily long way away. I have the idea for the book so when I’m not writing about glamping in Driffield, I’m getting to know my characters for that one.
I’m going to be doing a Q and A soon so if you have any burning questions that you want answering please email me at imogen@imogenclark.com and I will add your questions to the list. More information about that coming soon.
Where have I been?This month has mainly been about the wedding but I have also been to Wells and have been in training for the autumn’s big event. I will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in October. At 19,341 ft, it’s the highest peak in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world. I am dragging two friends along with me who I picked for their mental fortitude. (They laughed when I told them that.) My brother in law died a few days before Christmas last year. He was only 56 and had been raising money for Yorkshire Cancer Research so I want to carry on his good work with my walk. Many people don’t make it to the top because of altitude sickness but I’m hoping that I will manage it. More about this in later newsletters.
In the meantime, more wedding photos and a picture of the mountain!
What have I read?Too many books to choose from this month so it was hard to pick my top four but here they are.
Nephthys by Rachel Louise Driscoll is set in Victorian England and Egypt. Clemmie is fascinated by all things Egyptian as a child and learns much about its ancient civilisation. But then her father inadvertently unleashes a curse on the family and Clemmie has to travel to Egypt to try and undo the damage he has done and its a race against time to save her sister’s life. I love ancient civilisations and so I found this book fascinating.
Albion by Anna Hope is a story of family and inheritance. The Brookes are gathering in their twenty bedroomed country estate to bury their father. Frannie, the eldest has inherited the crumbling estate and is trying to do right by it but her siblings all have their own ideas about what should happen to the land and the house, none of which accord with one another. It’s a compelling read about family, class and coming to terms with one’s heritage and I was spellbound.
Flesh by David Szalay is about István, a Hungarian boy who lives with his mother. The story follows his life through school, the army, working in security in London until he is moving among the very highest echelons of society. The story is fast-paced, slipping easily through the decades. István is a charming character who seems a little bewildered by his life much of the time. He trusts people he meets and does his best but does not always get what he deserves in return. I loved how very matter of fact he is about his fate.
Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley is a delightful love story told against the backdrop of the politics of the 21st century Britain. We have Brexit and Covid and Boris Johnson in and amongst the struggles of a woman trying to work and be a step parent and a parent whilst dealing with challenging parents and former partners. It’s a light read but I very much liked the main characters and it was interesting to shine a spotlight on that very turbulent part of our recent past.
And that’s everything for this month. Next month we have the launch of The Bed in the Shed and I am walking in Lake Garda, Italy so expect news of that.
In the meantime, for more please follow me in all the usual places on social media and don’t forget to email me with any questions you would like to be included in my Q & A session.
And so until next month, happy reading.
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April 29, 2025
April Newsletter
Hi there.
I hope you’re well and have had a lovely April. I most definitely have, what with my 30th wedding anniversary and my eldest daughter’s hen night to celebrate. But more of both later.
Book news!
Plenty to report this month. First of all, a newsletter subscribers’ exclusive! As promised on my social media channels, I am sharing the cover for the new book with you before ANYONE ELSE has seen it. To be fair, I always try to do this but my publishers have a sneaking habit of putting the cover out there without telling me and stealing a march. But I’ve checked and this time they definitely haven’t, meaning that you can see it first.
Drum roll please!
Here it is! I hope you like it. I very much do. It’s another new direction for me (hence the delay in its appearance) and we have new fonts too. Sadly, I’m just shy of two million sales so we haven’t been able to add Multi Million Copy Bestselling Author this time but hopefully that will be on the next one!
The book is available to pre-order HERE and it will be out to catch the very tail end of the summer on 26th August. I will tell you a bit more about my inspiration for the book and the story itself nearer the time and will share the first chapter early, so watch this space.
In other book news, I have just finished the main edit of the book coming next, in May 2026 which feels like a terrifyingly long time away but which will be upon us before we realise. My editor and I have settled on the title Model Conduct for reasons that will become apparent in due course.
Over in Italy things are still going well with the book sales, and we have now been contacted by a ‘prominent Italian film producer’ about the rights to Impossible to Forget. Nine hundred and ninety nine times out of a thousand these things go absolutely nowhere but some films do get made so who knows. Maybe it’ll be this one? Fingers crossed.
What am I writing?
As I mentioned, I have been editing Model Conduct, tightening up my characters and increasing the heat of the hot water they find themselves in. I’ve also been getting the new Izzy Bromley book A Bed in the Shed ready, working on both the cover and the audiobook which will again be narrated by the fabulous Imogen Church. No publication date yet but I’m hoping for late June. I’ll let you know as soon as I know.
I’ve also started writing the Izzy Bromley book for next year. It’s called The Glamp Site and I’m having great fun with it. More of that in due course.
Where have I been?
It’s been a very busy month. First I was in Oxfordshire at a fabulous farmhouse for my eldest’s hen night. All my children were there including my son who interrupted his ballet schedule to make a surprise trip over from Croatia. I knew he would be there but my daughter didn’t so the reunion moment was lovely.
Hen nights are far more sophisticated than they were in my day but it was great fun, even the parts I missed because I’d snuck away to my bed! The wedding is in the middle of next month so we’re really counting down the days now.
Then it was our 30th wedding anniversary. We went to Maldives on honeymoon so we decided to go back there this time. Things have changed a lot and most of the staff that we mentioned our previous trip to hadn’t even been born in 1995 😬 but the Maldives is still incredibly beautiful and the people are very friendly and welcoming. Here’s a quick taster of where we were.
What have I read?
Firstly, The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce. I loved this book. It’s a slight departure from her earlier novels, a bit meatier maybe and I preferred it. Vic, a famous artist summons his four adult children to join him at his Italian villa. He has something to tell them but unfortunately he drowns under mysterious circumstances before they get there. What they do know, however, is that he has married a much younger woman who none of the children have met and who now stands to inherit everything. It Italy, the family learns a lot about the mysterious new wife, their father and themselves in this bittersweet tale.
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors is also something of a dysfunctional family book. The three sisters from the Blue family have always been close but when they meet up in New York to sell the family home they discover that each of them has demons that the others weren’t aware of. And then there’s their mother who they blame, possibly unfairly, for much that has befallen them. And what about Nicky, the fourth sister who died tragically young? Without her, they all struggle to find their place in the world. I found it such a compelling read and didn’t want it to end.
Next something very different. The Lamb by Lucy Rose is a folk horror story with very dark undertones. However, the author manages to make the bizarre world she creates feel almost normal by the matter-of-fact way in which the characters approach their diabolical behaviour. It’s a coming of age story told by daughter Margot who lives with her eccentric mother. However, as the novel goes on and a newcomer moves into the household, Margot finds her world spiralling into ever darker places. It’s hard to describe without giving away the plot but it’s an interesting read.
Finally Famous Last Words by Gillan McAllister. The police turn up on Camilla’s doorstep to tell that her husband is involved in an ongoing armed siege situation. But he’s not a hostage – he’s the perpetrator. This doesn’t fit with anything Camilla knows about her husband but then when he escapes and disappears she doesn’t know what to think. When, seven years later, she tries to have him declared dead so she can sell their house and, move strange things begin to happen and Camilla needs to piece all the clues together to work out what happened to Luke. It’s a page turner and even though I guessed much of what was coming that didn’t spoil my enjoyment at all.
And that’s everything for this month. Next month it’s my daughter’s wedding so I’ll tell you all about my ‘mother of the bride’ experience. In the meantime, don’t forget to check out In Another Life and if you want more of what I’m up to you can find me on the usual social media as channels as Imogen Clark Author.
So until next time, happy reading
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April 21, 2025
A room with a view.This is what has greeted me first thin...
A room with a view.
This is what has greeted me first thing in the morning for the last week.
The world truly is a remarkable place, isn’t it?
The post appeared first on Imogen Clark.
April 1, 2025
March Newsletter
Hi
Well, hasn’t spring most definitely sprung? It has here in Ilkley at least. I took this photo of the glorious cherry blossom yesterday. It also hailed several times yesterday too but I think we can gloss over that.
I hope all is well in your world. My month felt quite quiet as I was living it but now that I look back over the photos, I see that actually quite a lot happened. I was at our cottage in Wells-Next-the-Sea for a week, editing. The cottate still isn’t quite finished after the refurbishment. We’re missing some homely touches and we still don’t have a functioning shower (there’s a bath though. I didn’t wash in the sea for a week!) But it felt lovely to be back after six months away.
In other news, I did my first ever hot yoga class! I do quite a lot of yoga already but at home where it most definitely isn’t hot! This one was a birthday party and I did the class in a silly hat with a party popper by my mat with instructions to pull it for my favourite pose. It was really good fun but I’m still not sure hot yoga is for me. Have you done it? What do you think?
Book News!This month’s news is mainly about books that are already out. Izzy is still having a moment in the spotlight, with Table for Five sitting at the very top of the UK kindle charts for a month now. The design brief has gone to the cover designer for the next Izzy Bromley book, The Bed in the Shed and that will be out this summer which is exciting.
Also, the Italian translation of Impossible to Forget is riding high in the Italian charts in both paperback and ebook. As a result, I’ve had an offer for a second Italian translation and a Spanish offer too. One of my dreams is to walk into a bookshop abroad and see my books there. (It would be quite nice to see them on the shelves in the UK too but I won’t hold my breath.)
What am I writing?This month has all been about editing. As many of you know, this is my least favourite part of the process. Because I make my stories up as I write, the initial creation is very exciting for me. Editing them when I know what is going to happen is less fun and I always want to move on to the next project. (I’m not known for my patience!) But I grit my teeth and crack on. So I finished the edit for The Bed in the Shed and am now in the middle of Trust Me (working title only) which will be the Imogen Clark book for 2026.
Then I will have a little gap for my 30th wedding anniversary celebrations and the wedding of my eldest before I crack on with next year’s Izzy book which is all lined up and ready to go in my head. After that I have an idea for the Imogen book for 2027 so that will be the next one to write.
Not really about my writing, but yesterday I did an online Masterclass with screenwriter Abi Morgan OBE.
She wrote one of my favourite drama series of all time, The Split. If you haven’t seen it then I throughly recommend it. It’s a family drama set around a family firm of divorce lawyers and each character has a beautifully crafted story arc. The acting is fab too. Anyway, I’m still hankering after turning The Coach Trip into a film and have an idea for an original TV drama series so I love learning about the craft and one day . . .
What have I read?
I’ve read some super books this month. Here are four you might like.
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche I have read all her novels and they always have important things to say. I think this one is about the abuse of women by men (although that’s not what the Amazon page says it’s about). It’s the story of four Nigerian women, each with different backgrounds, and how they navigate the modern age. As you would expect, they all have strong voices and lots to say. I’ve made it sound a bit miserable but it isn’t. It is hard to read in places, though. There’s also a section set in the pandemic too which is starting to feel a bit like a surreal dream.
The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley This is your classic locked room mystery but no less exciting for that. A group of guests gather for the opening of a high-end wellness retreat. The hotel used to be the summer home of its manager and her family and when dark things start to happen at the retreat, the clues to what’s going on all lie in the past. This is my favourite of hers so far and it felt fresh and compelling.
Other People’s Houses by Clare Macintosh This is the third in the Ffion Morgan series and the characters are now pretty well established. You can read this as a standalone but for all the nuance you might want to read the first two first. At first glance a series of burglaries on a posh road in Cheshire and the murder of an estate agent in rural Wales don’t seem connected but guess what . . .?
The Most fun we Ever Had by Claire Lombardo After saying that books about dysfunctional families are my favourites on TikTok, someone recommended Claire Lombardo and I drank this one in. The Sorensen family has always been close but when a child, born to the second daughter and adopted in secret, comes back into their lives all manner of secrets start to come to light. And the person who holds them all together is the least expected of all.
And that’s your lot for this month. As ever, check out my social media for more stuff. Facebook. Instagram. TikTok. I messed up my Facebook author account this month and it was flying solo for a few weeks without anyone at the helm but I’ve got it back now. Did you notice? I hope not!
Have a lovely month and keep reading.
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March 2, 2025
February Newsletter
Hi!
Meteorological Spring starts tomorrow (or in fact it will have started by the time I send this out in my usual Sunday morning slot.) Winter is my least favourite season. I used to really hate it but the older I get, the more I realise that I can’t afford to hate anything, least of all time, so I’ve pulled back on my winter phobia somewhat. That said, I’m still glad that we’re moving on to warmer days! 🌱
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that my hair has changed colour. Or rather – has returned to the colour of my youth. Having embraced my inner grey since 2019, I finally decided that it was no longer for me. The ‘new’ look is taking some time to get used to (I’m 3 and a half weeks in) but I think it’s the right decision, for now at least. I’ll need to get some new author headshots taken though. Again.
Book news!As ever, there’s lots going on here. This month Impossible to Forget was published in Polish and I approved the cover for the Italian version too. I love seeing how different markets interpret my books and I’m always a little disappointed when they just use the English cover. No disappointments with these two, though.
Speaking of covers, I still don’t have a cover for In Another Life and because of that my publisher has pushed back the publication date to 26th August. I’m very sorry as I know some of you are waiting for it. It is up for pre-order though HERE and they have put the description up on the bookselling sites so here that is to give you a bit of a taster.
From the million copy bestselling author of In a Single Moment and Reluctantly Home comes a gripping novel that asks: how big a lie would you tell to protect the ones you love?
When Loretta Ashton dies suddenly, her family is shattered. As a devoted wife and mother, Loretta was their rock—a woman admired by the entire community. But at her funeral, an unexpected guest turns their grief into confusion. A stranger claiming to be Loretta’s sister takes a seat with the family, only to vanish before anyone can confront her.
The problem? Loretta was an only child.
While the rest of the family dismisses the woman as a fraud, Loretta’s daughter Bronte can’t let it go. She had understood her mother’s early life to be unremarkable, but as Bronte digs deeper she uncovers a web of secrets that stretches across decades and continents, connecting her mother to a family in Sicily and a past Loretta went to great lengths to conceal.
Why did Loretta leave her old life behind? And how far had she been willing to go to keep her secrets hidden?
As Bronte unravels the truth, she faces a heartbreaking question: will uncovering her mother’s past destroy the family she left behind—or bring them closer together?
Expect more from me about the book, my inspiration for it, the locations etc as we get closer to publication as well as the much-fabled cover!
In the meantime, the new Izzy Book The Bed in the Shed will also be out in the summer so expect more about that too. And speaking of Izzy, Table for Five is enjoying a spot in the Top Twenty of the UK kindle chart. It’s lovely to see her up with the likes of Lee Child, Freida McFadden and Rebecca Yarros, the authors of the moment. (For those of you who are new here, I also write books as Izzy Bromley.)
What am I writing?This month I have finished the first draft of the book for 2026, working title Trust Me and so that is now delivered to my publisher. I’ve sent it in a month early so that the editing doesn’t clash with the two big events in my life over the next three months – my 30th wedding anniversary and my eldest daughter’s wedding! Expect more on both of these in due course.
With Trust Me delivered, I then turned my attention to editing The Bed in the Shed. You’ll be delighted to hear, I hope, that the amazing Imogen Church will be narrating the audiobook version. She did such a wonderful job of The Coach Trip and Table for Five so I’m very pleased to have her on this one too.
I’ve also been working on some short stories which I’m planning to publish here via Substack. As soon as one is ready to go I’ll let you know. There might even be a collection in paper form too, assuming I write enough of them to make a collection!
Where have I been?I do hope you’re sitting down because this month I have been . . . . nowhere! I did have a flying visit to Wells-Next-the-Sea to see how the cottage refurb is going (almost finished) but apart from that I have been at my desk in Ilkley all month. Wild! I have been on some lovely walks though.
What have I read?My favourite book of this month isn’t out yet so I’ll tell you about that when you can get hold of a copy too. Here are some others I enjoyed.
We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes is just lovely. It’s one of those easy to read, feelgood books where you know exactly what is going to happen and just sink into it and enjoy the ride. Lila lives with her two daughters and her step-father and all is well until her birth father shows up and starts upturning apple carts left and right. Lila also has a complicated love life and a dog that bites. It all adds up to riotous fun.
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler is also very much a comfort read. Gail loses her job the day before her daughter is due to be getting married. Her daughter is having cold feet, her ex-husband arrives for the ceremony with an unwanted cat and a bucketful of happy memories and Gail, prompted by these events, takes time to reevaluate what she wants from her own life. The humour is dry and plentiful and Anne Tyler’s observational style of writing is, as ever, a joy.
Not actually fiction but I include Adrift by Tracey Williams because it is a story of sorts and it’s just a beautiful book and a provoking read. In 1997 a shipping container containing nearly five million pieces of Lego was lost at sea. The Lego, much of it sea-themed, was lost and has been turning up on coasts worldwide ever since. This is the story of where it’s been found and by whom and the book also tackles gently the difficult issue of plastics in our oceans.
Finally, Confessions by Catherine Airey. The novel opens in 2001 when Cora Brady is left orphaned after her father dies in the Twin Towers bombing. She travels to Ireland to live with her aunt and begins to piece together her family’s complicated history. The story hops across three generations and is quite complicated at times but the authorial voice is wonderful and by the end I felt as if I knew these women inside and out.
And that’s it for this month. Today is my youngest child’s 21st birthday. (Well, that depends on who you ask. He’s a leap year baby and so he won’t have his actual 21st birthday for another 67 years, and I think we should celebrate his birthday the day after the 28th in any event but he disagrees!) Anyway, I’ve been reflecting on what it is to bring your offspring to adulthood now that I can’t possibly pretend that any of mine is a child any more. It’s a sobering thought and one which will no doubt find its way into one of my books in due course.
As ever, you can find me on social media and I have a new platform to tell you about this month. My publisher was keen that I dip my toe into TikTok and so I have done. If any of you are there too then please pop over and say hello. I’m there as ImogenClarkAuthor. I’m still on Instagram and Facebook though, if TikTok isn’t your thing!
Next month I hope I’ll have more to share about In Another Life but in the meantime, have a lovely month and keep reading!
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January 28, 2025
January
Hi!
A very happy new year to you all. I hope you had a lovely festive season and have started 2025 with all guns blazing. It took me a couple of weeks to find the right gear but I’m definitely motoring now. We had snow on the ground for a week here in Ilkley which put paid to a few of my plans but the skies were beautiful with the air so cold and crisp and that went some way to make up for being grounded.
What am I writing?I am racing towards the finishing line with my 2026 book. It’s set partly in present day Cirencester (those with a good memory might remember my trips there last Autumn) and partly in Northallerton in 1979 and I’m throughly enjoying writing it, especially now that its mysteries have finally revealed themselves to me.
Yesterday I had an idea and this morning it dawned on me that that’s what I’ve been writing about all along. Funny how these things happen. I’ve also just found a use for a throwaway line I wrote weeks ago which now is an important part of the plot. How does that happen? It truly is like magic.
The text of the book for 2025 is all edited and ready to go but we still don’t have a title, or cover. (We did have a title but I think we might have changed our minds!) I’m hoping that both will be settled by the end of this month. Obviously, as soon as I know then I’ll let you know too. It’s all very exciting.
I’ve also been writing some short stories. Most writers start with short stories and I have a few tucked away but I’d forgotten how hard they are to write, especially when I’m used to having 90,000 words to play with in a full length novel. A short story needs to get to the point much more quickly and I’m enjoying the discipline of that. Expect news about what I’m going to do with all these short stories in a future newsletter. (Is that what they call a teaser? Sorry.)
Where have I been?The year is only three weeks old but obviously I’ve already been out and about. On New Year’s Day we went to Zagreb to watch my son dancing in The Nutcracker for the second time. He was dancing a different role this time so that was lovely. Unfortunately we missed him doing his big solo part – maybe next year . . . Zagreb was still all lit up for Christmas which was very pretty and it snowed a bit.
Then I went down to Wells-Next-the-Sea to see how the builders have been getting on with the renovation of our cottage. There was real progress and we now have the finishing line in sight which is great. I have so missed having my little bolt hole. (See the picture below.)
This weekend I’ll be in London to meet up with my editor and some other authors to do some marketing work which will be fun. I’m also popping into The British Museum to see an exhibition about The Silk Road, a journey that has long fascinated me. I hope to meet up with some friends too.
January in four pictures!What have I read?I’ve made a cracking start to 2025 with some fabulous books read so far.
In Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner a wealthy business man is first kidnapped and then returned to his family. However, the actual story is about the impact that the kidnapping has on the three children of the family as adults – clue: it’s a lot. The book is darkly humorous, examining Jewish family life in New York, wealth and what it means and, of course, the American dream.
In The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase a patio is to be dug up but exactly what was buried under it twenty years before? This dual timeline story is about Maggie, her little brother Kit and the mysterious Wolf who saves Kit from being run over and thus steps into their lives. When Maggie is barely eighteen her mother disappears. She has no idea where her mother is and so steps up to care for her six year old brother until she returns. Twenty-one years later Maggie is still searching for answers and has to piece the mystery together. It’s real a page-turner with lots of dark characters.
Next is The Wedding People by Alison Espach. Phoebe arrives at a swanky hotel with the intention of killing herself. Her marriage has imploded, she can’t stand her job and her elderly cat has died. It’s all too much. However, there is also a huge wedding party at the hotel that weekend and Phoebe is the only hotel guest not invited. When the bride discovers her intentions she is horrified. A dead hotel guest will ruin the wedding. But as the book continues we learn that it’s not just Phoebe who has some serious thinking to do. The book is beautifully observed and I loved the relationship between Phoebe and the panicked bride-to-be.
Finally, The Saint of Lost Things by Tish Delaney. Lindy lives in Northern Ireland with her mother’s twin sister in a nasty little house built, resentfully, by her grandfather so that the women don’t have to live with him in the farmhouse. Granda Morris is all about passing on his land to the next generation but he hates women and there are no sons. So what should he do? The story follows Lindy both as a middle-aged woman with her many untold secrets but also through her break-for-freedom trip to London in 1985. Books like this make you realise just how much has changed for women since the eighties, particularly in Ireland.
January’s picks.And that’s everything for this month. As ever, there is more on Instagramand Facebook so follow me there if you want to know what I’m up to. By this time next month, I will have finished my current manuscript and will be thinking about what might come next. I have several book ideas but I don’t know which one I’ll work on first. Another adventure awaits me – and then you, I hope.
So until then, happy reading.
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December 22, 2024
Merry Christmas
Well, what a year that was! I won’t bore you with a rerun. It’s all in my newsletters. But what I did want to do was to say THANK YOU! If you’re reading this then I hope you have enjoyed my stuff over the last year and are looking forward to more. Well, me too – I can’t wait to get stuck in.
I have lots of plans for 2025 and I’m going to share it all with you here – the successes but also the failures and the had-a-go-at-that-and-it-didn’t-quite-work-outs. (We all have a few of those, don’t we?)
But in the meantime, please have a lovely Christmas. Enjoy some special moments with your loved ones, remember those who aren’t there to share the day but are in your hearts and find some peace for yourself. And read! Don’t forget to read.
With my warmest festive wishes,
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December 3, 2024
November’s Newsletter
Hi there and welcome to November’s newsletter.
I went to a wonderful Bonfire Night celebration this year. The fire was huge as you can see and the fireworks were spectacular. Here in the UK, we celebrate the foiling of a plot by Guy Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill the king on 5th November each year. The plot was hatched in 1604 and here we still are, burning effigies of Guy Fawkes over four hundred years later. Weird.
Anyway, I hope you’re well and that you are sailing into the festive season feeling calm, or excited or with whichever emotion you prefer. I’m building up to the Big Day slowly but right now things feel kind of under control. I’ve order my tree and made my cake. I’ve even bought the odd present. Remember books make great gifts (especially mine 😉. )Read on for bargain alerts and some top wrapping tips.
What am I writing?This month I’ve been deep in the weeds with the 2026 novel It’s set both in the present day and 1974 and I’ve been mainly working in 1974 recently which takes a little bit of research. I remember the 70s quite well but as I was only eight in 1974 I need to check my details. I also have to make sure I don’t include anything that hadn’t happened yet – songs that hadn’t been released for example, or films that hadn’t yet been made. I included a reference to Blue Jeans magazine but it turns out that Blue Jeans didn’t come out until 1977 so I had to fall back on good old Jackie instead.
As well as that, I have finished the copy edit process for In Another Life which will be out on 10th June 2025. The next stage will be the cover design and proof reading so watch this space for sneak peeks.
Where have I been?I’ve been away twice this month – once to Las Vegas, USA for a Writers’ Conference and once to Zagreb, Croatia to watch my son dancing in The Nutcracker. That happens pretty much every year and it’s a nice way to kick start Christmas.
Las Vegas was eye-opening! I’ve been before but I’d forgotten what it’s like. I find it fascinating and shocking in almost equal measure.
If you’ve never been to Vegas then it’s quite hard to describe. It reminds me a bit of Disneyland because nothing, not even the air you breathe, is real. It’s all about dreams though, much like Disney – kind of!
Las Vegas
This time, I abandoned trying to change my body clock and ended up keeping very odd hours but as I was on my own it really didn’t matter. The conference was excellent – which is good as it would have been a long way to go for a duff one! I learned a lot and came back with a long To Do list for 2025. I’m already thinking what I can do in the new year. It’s too soon to share any details but if I can make it work you’ll be the first to hear.
Then Zagreb was also fun. Sadly they turned the Christmas lights on the day after I left so I missed all the sparkle but the ballet was fab and I was very proud of my boy. He had made this ash tray for when his friends visit. (Yes, sadly it’s still true that some dancers smoke.) I thought it was ingenious
What have I read?There’s been some rereading and lots of non-fiction in my reading this month but here are some new books that I’ve read and enjoyed.
In The Examiner by Janice Hallett a group of mature students embark on a year long masters’ course but by the end of it the external examiner is convinced that one of the group has been murdered by the others. Is he right? It’s a story filled with twists and turns which is told through emails and group messages so it looks a bit like a play on the page. It took me a while to get used to the format but it’s very compelling.
What a Way to Go by Bella Mackie is also about a mysterious death. Anthony Wistern is more wealthy than you can imagine. Unfortunately for him he is also dead, having failed to make it out of his lavish 60th birthday party alive. Furthermore, he can’t leave purgatory until he can explain how he died and he hasn’t a clue. By watching his family from above he has to piece together all the clues and work it out and in doing so learns all kinds of things he might have rather not known. Lighthearted and funny.
The Lost past of Billy McQueen by Neil Alexander is a coming of age story set in Northern Ireland in the 1980s. Billy’s closest friend Connor with whom he was secretly in love, disappears without trace when they are schoolboys. It’s only when Billy returns to his hometown thirty years later and finds a tape that Connor made for him on the day he disappeared that he starts to piece the mystery together. It’s a touching and nostalgic tale with lots of nods to the 80s.
The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell isn’t a new book but it was new to me. Adrian Wolfe has married three times and thinks he has created the perfect blended family. His children all get along, his wives babysit for one another and they even go on holiday together. But then the third wife, Maya dies in mysterious circumstances and Adrian discovers that she was the victim of hate mail so bad that it appears to have caused her to take her own life. As he tries to work out why Maya died, Adrian lifts stones he has never dared look beneath before and we learn that his family is not at all as he thought.
And that’s everything for this month. Don’t forget that books make GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFTS! Two of my paperbacks are on deals at the moment – Reluctantly Home and In a Single Moment – so not only are they a thoughtful present which wraps beautifully (check this wrapping video out! How cool is that?!) but they’re great value too!
Have a fabulous December. I’ll be trying to cajole my builders into putting my lovely little cottage in Wells-next-the-Sea back together. I started a small renovation last month. It’s no longer that small! I’m also going to London for my publisher’s Winter Party which will be a rare opportunity to get together with all my fellow authors. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll also be talking strategies and books with my editor Victoria which is always fun.
Don’t forget to check me out on Instagram for more photos and pop into the very popular Book Café on Facebook which should be your ‘go to’ place for book recommendations. I know it’s mine.
And so, until next time, happy reading.
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