Don’t Blame the Borrowers

In today’s new blog post, I’m sharing my latest column for the Tetbury Advertiser, plus a sneak preview of my new novel, Death at the Christmas Village Fair, which launches on 16th August, and reviews of recent holiday reads.

Tidying the mug shelf in my walk-in larder, I’m mourning the fact that only my favourite mugs ever get broken. I’m down to a single bone-china Cath Kidston, surrounded by numerous unwanted chunky ones. Similarly, I only ever seem to lose my best earrings.

Of course, that’s because they’re the ones I use the most. I must face facts and stop blaming the Borrowers – those tiny folk that live behind the wainscotting, stealing our things while we’re not looking, according to children’s author Mary Norton. Even so, I’m convinced some live in my house.

If you haven’t read “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton, you’re in for a treat

There’s a simple solution. If I use the chunky mugs more often and wear my least-loved earrings more frequently, my best of both are more likely to survive long term.

To be on the safe side, I might stop using them altogether. I already take off my earrings on bell ringing practice nights, since losing a favourite filigree silver heart there. Fortunately, a fellow ringer found it the following week and enquired whether anyone had lost their heart in the bell tower.

The up-and-down arm motion required for bell ringing is a particular hazard to drop earrings. For similar reasons, we’re not allowed to wear scarves while ringing. An unruly rebound of the rope catching anything tied around your neck could hoist you aloft, with dire consequences. Fortunately, the worst I’ve done is to knock my glasses off with my bell rope, jettisoning out of the ringing chamber to land halfway down the nave.

Witnessing the swift, savage power of the rope close at hand was scary. No wonder my bell ringer chums keep telling me different ways to murder someone in with a bell–as story ideas for my murder mystery novels, I hasten to add, rather than for practical use.

In contrast, I never lose or damage my favourite notebooks. That’s because they never leave the safety of the notebook shelf in my study. I kid myself I’m saving the best ones for special occasions, but in truth I can’t bear to sully their pages.

It’s particularly obtuse not to use them when I write the first drafts of my novels by hand. Using only alternate lines to allow room for correction, and under contract for two to three novels a year, I get through a lot of notebooks.

Am I turning into my maternal grandmother? She used to stash her best things away unused.

We only discovered them after she’d died, including a beautiful bone-china cup and saucer I gave her for her last birthday.

To guard against the same thing happening with my notebooks, I must force myself to use them. I know I’ll enjoy writing in them. I just need to designate suitably worthy projects. Drafting my columns for the Tetbury Advertiser, perhaps? That’s one way to encourage me to meet its copy deadlines.

(With thanks to the TA’s editor Mary for her endless patience!) 

Last word to The Borrowers: I spotted this book bag in Glemsfort Public Library while visiting my aunt, and even though I have a huge quantity of tote bags at home, none of which ever go missing, I couldn’t resist.In Other News

I’m counting down the days to the launch of my next cosy mystery novel – and at the time of posting this blog, the fingers of one hand are sufficient…

To be published on Saturday 16th August

Death at the Village Christmas Fair will be published on Saturday 16th August – in plenty of time for the festive season! In this third Cotswold Curiosity Shop story, Alice Carroll is looking forward to her first traditional village Christmas. Each novel in this series is triggered by an object in Alice’s bric-a-brac shop, and this time it’s the turn of a button box – but quite why her collection of buttons is causing havoc across the village, she is unsure. When a missing button is dismissed as a clue to a murder, Alice thinks differently – and soon she’s on the case, withe the aid of her mum, avid knitter Wendy, her wealthy neighbour Robert, and her lodger Danny. Not to mention the vicar’s wife, whose behaviour is distinctly suspicious…

Pre-order your copy on Amazon’s UK store here, from Amazon US here, or at your local bookshop. Also available at many other stores worldwide, in ebook, paperback, hardback, and audiobook. 

Meanwhile I’ve been signing more copies of the first in this series, Death at the Old Curiosity Shop, at The Works in Newport and Gloucester – all fabulous shops with such friendly, helpful staff who are clearly much loved by their customers. You might also spot copies of this book in selected garden centres, thanks to a brilliant deal my publisher has done with these stores. Not forgetting it’s also now available in the latest catalogue of PostScript, the online retailer of discounted paperback books!

I’ll be telling you more about The Works and how they operate in a future post here.

In between times, I’m working hard on a new standalone novel, The Importance of Being Murdered, and have just hit the halfway mark in terms of word count. I’m writing each chapter from a different viewpoint – something I did for the first time in my latest Sophie Sayers story (see below), and which I really enjoyed doing. As I’m used to writing in the first person of one character only, I thought it might be tricky, but it’s come more easily than I’d expected.

Fingers crossed that my editor likes it too – and my readers, when it eventually reaches them!

Plus, I’m getting ready for the next Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival event on Saturday 27th September, on the theme of “Strength of Character”. It’ll be a fun, quickfire day of talks and readings by a brilliant line-up of local authors plus one artist, James Nickells, whose portraits tell amazing stories. To find out more about it, head over to the Festival website at www.hulitfest.com, where you can also find the buying link to book your ticket now.

And finally, if you’d like to sample the opening of my new Sophie Sayers short story, “Saints Alive”, which was published recently in the anthology Fate: Tales of History, Mystery & Magic, edited by Helen Hollick, you can do so on fellow contributor Elizabeth St John’s website, where she shared the opening page of all ten stories.

Read the opening of “Saints Alive” here

What I Read This Week (via Goodreads)

Partners in Grime by Jay Larkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Always a joy to catch up on the latest cases of Aunt Audrey’s Angels, the cleaning company run by amateur sleuth Jenny Brooks. What’s particularly refreshing about this series is that each chapter is a separate crime case – and none of them involve murder. Also, they’re set a few decades ago, so evidence surfaces in the form of good old-fashioned photographs and press cuttings, rather than with online searches and global digital connectivity. A breath of fresh air, providing soothing reading for bedtimes and holidays.

The Underground City: Set Underneath Loch Katerine. a New Translation of the Complete Text With Illustrations. by Jules Verne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cracking traditional adventure story – so pleased to discover it on a trip to Scotland, visiting the very places that inspired Verne to write this book.

This edition is particularly special because it’s published by a local small press in nearby Edinburgh and retains all the original line drawings – so atmospheric. Quite a feat to draw vivid black-and-white pictures of a story when most of it takes place underground in a coal mine!