Eleven Days by Laura Thompson #bookreview #elevendays #laurathompson @bedfordsq.publishers #agathachristie #nonfiction

 

In December of 1926, Agatha Christie vanished. Eleven days later, after frenzied media speculation, she was discovered alive and well. A century on, there are questions that have never been answered.

Now Christie biographer Laura Thompson seeks to penetrate the story of the greatest mystery ever created by the greatest ever mystery writer. ​​ In a new approach, Thompson undertakes a re-enactment of Christie’s movements: from the moment of driving away from her marital home, to the abandonment of her car and her arrival the following night at a Harrogate hotel. Based on conversations with people close to Christie – including her interviews with Christie’s only child, Rosalind – Eleven Days includes entirely new information about Christie’s first marriage.

Eleven episodes examine every aspect of the famous disappearance, seeking – as far as is possible – to penetrate the blank space in Agatha Christie’s long and brilliant life, which leaves her ever more emblematic of the genre that she defines.

Eleven Days by Laura Thompson was published on 27 August 2026 by Bedford Square Publishers. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

THIS REVIEW WILL BE PUBLISHED IN THE SEPTEMBER EDITION OF THE MATURE TIMES

Very few literary mysteries have captured the public imagination quite like Agatha Christie’s disappearance in December 1926. 

In Eleven Days, biographer Laura Thompson revisits this mysterious episode with such sensitivity, real insight and careful research.  This is a fascinating account that is as compelling as the fiction Christie created for her readers.

The author carefully reconstructs Christie’s movements during those missing days. She draws on contemporary accounts, personal interviews and some fresh material, including conversations with Christie’s daughter, Rosalind. The result is a wonderfully absorbing expose that shines new light on a story which, almost a century later, continues to intrigue readers around the world.

Elegantly written and beautifully paced, this is a book that can easily be enjoyed over an afternoon, and it leaves a lasting impression. It’s such an accessible narrative,  whether you are a lifelong Christie admirer or discovering this remarkable story for the first time. She presents the evidence with fairness and allows readers to reach their own conclusions, and never loses sight of the woman behind the headlines.

More than just a recounting of a famous disappearance, Eleven Days is a thoughtful portrait of Agatha Christie at a pivotal moment in her life. The reader is reminded why she remains one of Britain's most enduring literary figures and why the mystery surrounding those eleven days refuses to fade.

Stylish, intelligent and so engrossing, this is a rewarding read for anyone who enjoys biography, literary history or true-life mysteries. Highly recommended.

Laura Thompson won the Somerset Maugham Award with her first book, The Dogs. 

She wrote a biographical study of Nancy Mitford, Life in a Cold Climate, and a group biography of the Mitfords, Take Six Girls, which was a New York Times bestseller. 

She has also written two books about real life murders: A Different Class of Murder, about the Lord Lucan case, and the CWA Dagger-nominated Rex V Edith Thompson. 

Her memoir of her publican grandmother, The Last Landlady, was nominated three times as a 2018 book of the year. 

She lives in southwest London.

Split Second by R C Bridgestock #splitsecond @rcbridgestockauthor @orendabooks @randomthingstours #virtualbooktour #dylanandmann

 

What if one moment – one split second – changed everything?

When a firearms officer shoots a suspect dead and wounds another, who later dies in hospital, the official line is that the sun was in her eyes. Her body cam failed. Known only as Officer X, her anonymity is meant to protect her – until a judge releases her name and a media storm erupts.

Detective Superintendent Jack Dylan and DI Charley Mann are called in to determine whether it was a justifiable use of force – or something darker. And when it's revealed that Officer X knew the victim, and her brother died of a drug overdose linked to the same woman, the case becomes charged with personal and political tension.

As pressure mounts, a vulnerable witness dies and a lost phone surfaces with a photograph and a message that could unravel everything – and reveal the truth about what happened that day.

Split Second brings Dylan and Mann together for the first time, in an investigation that will test their instincts, their loyalties and the limits of justice itself, as both detectives must decide how far they'll go – and what they're willing to sacrifice – to uncover the truth.

Split Second by R C Bridgestock is published today; 27 August 2026 by Orenda Books and is the first in a new series. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this Virtual Book Tour 

It's been quite some time since I last read a book by R C Bridgestock, I've enjoyed their books in the past. This husband and wife writing as R C Bridgestock bring such a wealth of knowledge to their writing. I was delighted to hear that they were pairing up DS Jack Dylan and DI Charley Mann; characters from their previous two series, to begin a brand new, Yorkshire based police procedural series. 

I have enjoyed every single page of this tense, fast moving and original novel. The premise is really intriguing. A police firearms officer shoots dead the driver of a car, the passenger later dies in hospital. All incidents such as this have to be investigated internally and Dylan and Mann are put on the case. 

Officer X, the female officer claims that the sun was in her eyes, she had no idea who was driving the car. Further investigations discover that there is a link between X and the dead woman driver and this adds more layers into what should have been a straightforward case. When a judge identifies Officer X as Abi, the threat of revenge is large. 

The characters are created with such care; from the school children who bunked school and witnessed the shooting, to the vulnerability of Abi and the care shown by Kat; the officer tasked with supporting her. Each and every one of them are realistic, playing such an important part of the story. 

Split Second is a tense, thought-provoking police procedural that explores the difficult line between justified force and personal motive.  Bringing Detective Superintendent Jack Dylan and DI Charley Mann together for the first time is a brilliant move.  The investigation develops into a compelling examination of justice, loyalty and the pressures facing those tasked with policing the police. The authors steadily introduce new evidence and conflicting motivations, keeping the truth tantalisingly out of reach.

A combination of police procedure, moral dilemmas and personal stakes, Split Second offers plenty for crime-fiction readers to get their teeth into. It’s an absorbing investigation that asks whether one split-second decision can ever truly be understood once everyone has their own version of what happened.

Former Head of CID Bob Bridgestock is now an international best-selling author, along with his wife Carol, who also worked for West Yorkshire Police. 

The couple, who write under the pen name of R.C. Bridgestock, were voted the eight best crime writers of all time by WHSmith Readers. 

The writing duo created the character DI Jack Dylan, a detective from Harrowfield, with nine books in the Dylan series. 

In 2020, they launched a new series featuring a strong Yorkshire female, Detective Inspector Charley Mann. 

The couple were the storyline consultants/police procedural on BAFTA winning BBC1 police drama Happy Valley,Scott & Bailey and The Beast Must Die, as well as other police dramas.

The Maternal Element by Kate Nicholls #VirtualBookTour #TheMaternalElement @kate_nicholls_official_ @saltpublishing @randomthingstours #BookReview

 

Siberia 1833.

Forty-one-year-old Maria Mendeleeva is enduring her seventeenth pregnancy. Her husband Ivan has lost his sight, and her brother Vasily has left their grandfather’s glass factory in ruins. The factory Maria hungered for as a child. On the brink of poverty and her family’s only remaining hope, Maria must find a way to make the factory viable. She must find the power to bring her grandfather's dreams back to life. She must make the glass sing.

The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva – mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements – is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.

The Maternal Element by Kate Nicholls was published by Salt on 15 June 2026. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Virtual Book Tour 

I've been really enjoying historical fiction recently and The Maternal Element is another wonderful read that has taught me so much. There are some historical figures whose names are everywhere, yet the names of the people who supported them are unknown. In The Maternal Element, Kate Nicholls turns her attention to Maria Mendeleeva, mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements and gives this remarkable woman the recognition that she really deserves.

This is a fabulous, immersive novel. Maria is a woman living in a society that has very definite ideas about what women should and should not do. She is a wife and mother, she has had seventeen pregnancies. She is also extremely intelligent, curious and determined. When circumstances threaten her family, Maria refuses to simply accept what fate appears to have decided for her.

The author brings Maria  to life so vividly. She is formidable, certainly, but she is never presented as some impossibly perfect heroine. There are frustrations, difficult decisions and moments when the demands placed upon her feel almost overwhelming. Her complexity makes her so compelling. Her determination to secure education and opportunity, both for herself and for her children, is particularly powerful.

The setting is really so  impressive. The cold, the distances, the isolation and the sheer physical effort required to keep a family and a business going are wonderfully described. I was especially fascinated by the glass factory and the descriptions of the craft itself. There is something almost magical about the transformation of raw materials into something beautiful.

This is a substantial, sweeping historical novel, but at its heart is a very intimate story about motherhood, ambition, sacrifice and the hunger for knowledge.

I knew Dmitri Mendeleev's name before opening this book. I didn't know Maria's. Thanks to Kate Nicholls, she is not a woman I will easily forget.

Kate Nicholls was born in the UK in 1954. 

Raised in a theatrical family, she had a successful acting career but gave it up to study evolutionary biology. 

She raised and homeschooled her five children while researching lions in the Okavango Delta. 

A passionate believer in liberal arts education she founded a homeschool company in 2011. 

She lives happily in Rome where she studies, teaches and writes overlooking the Tiber. 

She is the author of Under the Camelthorn Tree (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2019).

What The Ocean Keeps by Laura Wilkinson #VirtualBookTour @laura_wilkinsonwriter @randomthingstours #WhatTheOceanKeeps #BookReview

 

The war’s over but for Alma and Jack the fight for love and freedom has only just begun

North Wales, 1918

The guns in Europe have fallen silent but for Alma peace brings only hardship in the Welsh seaside town she calls home. After welcome independence as a munitions’ worker, she is trapped by a painful arrangement with Bron, the man who saved her family from destitution. And for Jack, a Canadian soldier who fought for Britain, it means degradation in the overcrowded, feverish repatriation camp where thousands wait for the chance to sail home.

When Alma and Jack meet in the shanty town which serves the camp, they fall passionately in love – and their romance becomes the one chance of escape. But dreams are fragile. Bron wants Alma for himself. Ships across the Atlantic are delayed time and again, Spanish ‘flu spreads and the men – their sacrifice and bravery in the trenches ignored – are rebellious.

Inspired by the true events of the Kinmel Park mutiny, What The Ocean Keeps is a heart wrenching, unforgettable love story that weaves a woman’s search for freedom with a soldier’s struggle to return home as the world reels in the aftermath of World War 1 and pandemic.

What The Ocean Keeps by Laura Wilkinson was published on 7 August 2026 by Ginger Sky. My thanks to the author who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Virtual Book Tour 

There are some books that sweep you so completely into their world that, for a few hours, everything beyond the pages just disappears. What the Ocean Keeps by Laura Wilkinson was one of those books for me. Beautifully written, so very moving and atmospheric, this is wonderful historical fiction.

Set in North Wales in the aftermath of the First World War, we are introduced to Alma and Jack, two people longing for freedom in very different ways. Alma felt independent once; through her wartime work in a factory, but this changed once peace arrives. Jack, a Canadian soldier waiting at Kinmel Park for the seemingly endless journey home, has survived the horrors of war but discovers that peace brings its own indignities.

Oh, how I loved these two.

The author makes their relationship feel so believable. There is tenderness, and also passion, and some uncertainty. I became really invested in them and their hopes, while being painfully aware of just how this may not turn out well. 

This is so much more than a love story. The historical backdrop is fascinating and, at times, deeply upsetting. I knew nothing about the events surrounding the Kinmel Park mutiny, and the author brings this neglected piece of history vividly to life but the the research never overwhelms her characters. The overcrowding, frustration, illness and growing anger among men who had already sacrificed so much are almost tangible.

Alma is a particularly wonderful creation: spirited, intelligent and determined to have some say over the direction of her own life. I kind of fell in love with Jack too, and the supporting characters give the novel additional richness and depth.

What the Ocean Keeps is tender, immersive and enormously compelling. A story of love, freedom, sacrifice and hope in the uncertain aftermath of war, it really is so moving. Historical fiction at its most absorbing, and a novel I won’t forget in a hurry.

Laura is a novelist, creative writing tutor, and structural editor with a career spanning
fifteen years. 

She is the author of seven contemporary novels for adults (two published under a pseudonym) including That Night in New York, Crossing the Line, The Family Line, Redemption Song, and Skin Deep, published by Headline Accent and Legend Times. 

Her short fiction has appeared in magazines and anthologies throughout her career.

Ghost Notes by Doug Johnstone #virtualbooktour #ghostnotes @writerdougj @orendabooks @randomthingstours #theskelfs #scottishcrimefiction

 

The Skelf women have been keeping their heads down, running the family’s funeral directors and private investigation businesses. But when a woman collapses at her husband’s funeral and is saved by Dorothy, she finds herself drawn into the murky world of ‘grief tech’ – a booming new industry that creates digital avatars of the dead.

Jenny’s latest case – a simple blackmail job for an old school friend – quickly spirals into chaos as the woman’s tangled love life pulls Jenny towards dangerous old habits. 

Meanwhile, Hannah and her wife, Indy, are confronted by the unexpected arrival of Indy’s ex-boyfriend, claiming to be dying and eager for the Skelfs to arrange his funeral. But his arrival uncovers more ghosts from the past, and threatens to upend everything they’ve built.

As their cases collide and their personal lives spiral, the Skelfs face danger from all sides. How far will they go to protect one another, and what will it cost to finally silence the ghosts? 

Warm, tense and full of heart, Ghost Notes is another masterful instalment in Doug Johnstone’s award-winning, addictive Skelfs series, and the stakes are higher than ever…

Ghost Notes by Doug Johnstone is published today, 13 August 2026 by Orenda Books and is book seven in the Skelfs series. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this Virtual Book Tour 

I really enjoy crime fiction series, I'm a huge fan of fiction set in Scotland and Doug Johnstone is one of my all time favourite authors. Just the thought of a new Skelfs book is fabulous, but actually getting my hands on a copy and reading it is one of the best experiences ever. There are crime fiction series and then there's the Skelfs - with apologies to all of my other beloved series, but this one is my firm favourite. 

I remember clearly, reading the first chapter of the first Skelfs book; A Dark Matter, in 2019 and getting hooked. I am still a Skelfs addict, a Skelfaholic 

Once again, there are multiple turned down corners in my proof copy of Ghost Notes. This author can see right into the heart of me, as a reader. Some of his observations, especially from a woman's point of view are astonishingly sharp. Jenny's middle-age invisibility was one that really resonated with me, I really love the fact that his female characters are strong, forward thinking and empathic, but also with flaws and issues that shape them.

So, to the plot.  The opening scene is at a funeral, as it often is, and as is common with the Skelfs, an incident happens at that funeral that sparks off an investigation that plunges Dorothy into a whole new world.  There's a new industry - powered through AI - and providing digital avatars of dead people. This is supposed to be soothing, a way to deal with grief, but Dorothy discovers that, like most things, it's a murky, dark, dangerous place and needs to be stopped. 

Whilst Dorothy is dealing with tech giants and a grief stricken family, her daughter Jenny has taken on what seems to be a pretty simple case of blackmail. However, she too stumbles into something far bigger and before long there are dead bodies and also incredible temptation. 

And then there's Indy and the mysterious arrival of a blast from her past.  Her wife Hannah begins to wonder if she actually knows Indy at all, as more and more about her past is exposed.

This is not a long book, yet it contains so much. The author cleverly layers each plot by having each chapter narrated by one of the women. This works incredibly well, keeping the reader on their toes and maintaining interest in each strand of the novel. 

It's hard to find new words to describe this incredible series, after all, we are on book seven now so I've talked about it seven times.  It's fair to say that I have never ever been let down by this series and this author. His handling of modern day issues; the social injustices of the world, the realities of advanced technology,  and also the love and warmth of family is second to none. I adore this series and heartily recommend it. 

Doug Johnstone is the author of twenty novels, many of which have been bestsellers. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while Black Hearts was shortlisted – and The Big Chill longlisted – for Theakston Crime Novel of the Year.

Three of his books – A Dark Matter, Breakers and The Jump – have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. 

Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral home. He’s also been an arts journalist for 25 years. 

He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. 

He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club and lives in Edinburgh

with his family.

Wasteland Girls by Anna Bailey #virtualbooktour #wastelandgirls @annabaileywrites @doubledayukbooks @alisonbarrowbooks @randomthingstours #bookreview

 

Wasteland Girls is a collection of lyrical, incisive and luminous stories by the Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall Bones and Our Last Wild Days.

These stunningly powerful stories explore the wildness and beauty of the American heartlands, a place where lives are lived on the margins, but also where there is dignity, hope, revenge and restitution.

In 'Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water', which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, Texan man Ready drives through a divided US to see his dying brother. Wasteland Girls, the title story, is a powerful tale of a family of hoarders, of magic and revenge. In Yukon 1940, a woman sits beside the body of her husband in a remote cabin, trapped by the frozen sea. The Girl in the Ground follows a woman who suddenly reappears after twenty years of absence, but for whom the past is a void. A widower meets a man who should died many times.

Deeply atmospheric and soulful, the stories in Wasteland Girls are inspired by the author's experience of living amid the beautiful but often ferocious remote landscapes of the US, and among the wild and secretive people who inhabit them. In the vastness of the wilds, anything can happen...

Wasteland Girls by Anna Bailey was published on 30 July 2026 by Doubleday. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Virtual Book Tour 

I really enjoy short story collections and have no idea why I don't read more!  I read and reviewed Anna Bailey's debut novel Tall Bones here on the blog back in 2021 and really enjoyed it. I've been looking forward to this anthology for a while 

This beautifully crafted collection of short stories is atmospheric, emotional and utterly captivating from the very first page.

Inspired by the author's experiences of living in the remote American heartlands, each story introduces people whose lives have been shaped by that same isolation, hardship and hope. The characters feel completely real and seem to carry their pasts with them while also trying to find a way forward. It takes real talent to create such depth in so few pages, yet every story feels complete and so satisfying.

The sense of place is simply superb. The author's America is vast and wild, but there is beauty threaded through every landscape that she writes about. Whether set in snow-covered wilderness, forgotten towns or remote communities, each location feels alive, and are as memorable as the characters themselves. I was completely immersed from beginning to end.

The prose is stunning. There is such a lyrical quality to her writing that makes every sentence a pleasure to read, yet it never feels too much, or too wordy.  The stories flow effortlessly, there are moments of tenderness, there are dark themes, and each one lingers in the mind long after you've turned the final page.

Although every story stands perfectly well  on its own, together they form a wonderfully cohesive collection. I didn't want to reach the end because I wanted to spend a little longer in each carefully created world.

Wasteland Girls is a collection to savour, one story at a time. Beautifully written, deeply moving and filled with unforgettable characters, it is a wonderful showcase of Anna Bailey's storytelling talent. This is a book I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

Anna Bailey is a Sunday Times bestselling author from Gloucestershire. 

Their debut novel, Tall Bones, inspired by their experiences living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, was nominated for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and Goldsboro Glass Bell awards, as well as the Prix Nouvelles Voix du Polar. 

Their short stories, based on their travels through rural America, have been dramatised for BBC Radio 4, including ‘Long Way to Come For a Sip of Water’, which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. 

They live in Bordeaux with their wife.

A Farmhouse in France by Rachael Lucas #virtualbooktour @rachaellucas @randomthingstours #authorinterview

 

When Daisy Lewis inherits a crumbling farmhouse in rural France from the father who never knew she existed, she expects nothing more than paperwork and problems. What she finds instead is an overgrown orchard, a village full of people who knew her father better than she did, and Patrick - an infuriatingly handsome neighbouring farmer, who definitely doesn’t speak English… until he does.

Daisy’s life has been swallowed up with trying to keep her Yorkshire pub afloat. France was supposed to be a detour - one quick summer trip to sort out the details, sell up, and leave. But life has a way of happening when you’re busy making other plans…

A heartwarming, sun-filled later in life escape - full of romance, second chances and a setting you'll fall in love with!

First in a brand new series set in the heart of France, by the internationally bestselling author of the much-loved Applemore series.

A Farmhouse in France by Rachael Lucas was published on 3 August 2026. As part of this #RandomThingsTours Virtual Book Tour, I am delighted to welcome the author here to Random Things 
She's kindly answered some questions for us. 

Interview with author Rachael Lucas

The premise of A Farmhouse in France begins with an unexpected inheritance. What first sparked the idea for Daisy's story, and what drew you to set this new series in rural France?

The story idea came from a conversation with a neighbour here in France, who told me about a woman who’d inherited a little house from a father she knew nothing about. It grew in my head, and at the same time I was thinking about how it would feel if – at a certain age – you were given the chance to completely change your life but doing so would mean taking a leap into the unknown. I’m constantly drawn towards the idea of women rediscovering themselves, and it’s a theme that I keep coming back to in my writing.

I fell in love with France when I spent a summer here when I was seventeen, and dreamed of having a little house in the countryside one day. It took more than thirty years but we got there in the end, and the rural landscape is so beautiful that it’s lovely to write about.

Patrick makes quite the first impression - especially with the language twist! How much fun did you have developing the chemistry between Daisy and Patrick, and what makes them a good match despite their differences?

I think they’re both of an age where they know what they don’t want – and maybe needed a little bit of help to realise what they do, and that’s the joy of my job – I get to give them a little shove in the right direction. It’s funny because Patrick is pretty disenchanted and sees rural life as the cause of heartache and problems and meanwhile Daisy is falling in love with the place and seeing all the possibilities that it might offer, and watching as they realise why they feel that way was fun to write.

Your novels are known for creating places readers want to escape to, whether it's a small English village or now the French countryside. How do you go about bringing a setting to life so vividly on the page?

I have no idea! I think I’ve always been – ever since I was a child – a person who notices tiny little details about a place, and the feelings and the smells and the atmosphere of the places I love seem to soak into me so when I’m writing them it’s as if I’m there and I’m just describing how it feels. So when I’m writing about walking the stony track that leads up through the sunflower fields to the village I can close my eyes and feel the sun on my back and the crunch under my feet, and hear the distant hum of a tractor somewhere in the distance… and it just comes out through my fingers!

You've written more than twenty novels across both adult and young adult fiction. Has your writing process changed over the years, or do you still approach a new book in much the same way as when you started?

I am a LOT more disciplined and less chaotic now, which is a relief I think for everyone who lives with me! When I’m writing I have a rule that I have to write my words before I do anything else, and I tell myself that if I do a minimum of 1000 that will do. More often than not I end up writing more. But what hasn’t changed is the way the stories grow in my head – I spend a lot of time with the characters and settings living in my mind before I actually write anything so when I do write it looks like it’s very fast, but there’s often been months of thinking and what-iffing.

Readers often say your characters feel like people they know in real life. How do you build such believable communities, and do any of your characters ever surprise you as you're writing?

They surprise me all the time! It’s one of the most amazing things about writing – in A Farmhouse in France I had no idea that Margot, the older woman who befriends Daisy, was going to be Scottish, nor that she’d grown up in Applemore where my other books were set. It just fell out of my fingers and somehow she was there, fully formed. I feel like there’s a sort of soap opera going on in my head all the time – all the Applemore characters, and all the others I’ve written in the past, are all sort of there in the background doing stuff all the time.

This is the first book in a new series. Without giving too much away, what can readers look forward to as they return to this French village in future books?

The next story is set in the tiny little chateau that’s been renovated by Charlotte, an American woman who arrived in the village a while before Daisy. Her plan is to run retreats there, and the first one she does is a group writing retreat where four women come together for a week that will change all of their lives.

After such a varied career - from the Carnegie-nominated The State of Grace to bestselling feel-good fiction like the Applemore series - what continues to inspire you to sit down and write the next story?

I honestly don’t know! It’s like a compulsion – I keep writing because the stories keep appearing in my head. As I’ve grown older, I’m more interested in the choices people take, and the courage it takes to make leaps into the unknown, and less about straightforward romance stories, and luckily my readers don’t seem to mind. I like to think that I’ll be writing even when I’m in my eighties and beyond!

Rachael Lucas is the author of heartwarming, feel-good women's fiction set in small towns full of characters who feel like friends. She writes about friendship, family, and women in later life discovering happiness - and every story has a sprinkling of sweet romance.

Rachael writes her books at the kitchen table - all four of her children are grown up now, but with some of them still living in the family house and everyone coming and going, there's always something going on. The whole family of six are working together to renovate an old farmhouse in the middle of France, so summers are spent surrounded by sunflowers and pretty Limousin cows!