The English Way of Life

Murder in the Margins, the first book in my Open Book Series written as Margaret Loudon, comes out on October 27. Here is my main character, Penelope Parish, talking about her life in England as a writer in residence at a bookstore in Upper Chumley-on-Stoke.

Hi! We haven’t met yet. I’m Penelope Parish. I’ve written a Gothic novel, and much to my surprise, it hit the bestseller list! Which is all fine and dandy, but now my publisher wants me to follow it up with another hit and I’m totally (and I mean totally) blocked.

So…I’ve taken a writer in residence position at the Open Book bookstore in Upper Chumley-on-Stoke, England. Everyone thinks that the English are just like us--which they are, sort of. But they have their own ways of doing things and saying things I've learned. Instead of a Main Street, they have the High Street; they prefer tea to coffee and have charming names for their favorite dishes like "bubble and squeak" and "bangers and mash."

But I'm managing to get along even though being American seems to be something of a curiosity in this small town where most of the residents have been born and raised.

The town is currently all agog because the red-headed Duke of Upper Chumley-on-Stoke has become engaged to an American romance novelist. Horrors!

So when murder ensues, poor Charlotte Davenport becomes the first suspect. And she begs me, a fellow American, to help her prove her innocence. I’m going to do my best to be of service always assuming I don’t get myself killed first by driving down the wrong side of the street!