The Mother's Secret by Clare Swatman #BlogTour @clareswatman @panmacmillan @rosiewilsreads #MyLifeInBooks

Love keeps us together

Sisters Kate and Georgie have always shared a close bond. While Kate enjoyed the freedoms of youth, Georgie remained at home. But now Georgie is grown up, it’s time she started exploring.

Love can tear us apart

Their mother Jan loves her daughters with all her heart. So what if she kept them out of sight when they were young? She just cared for them so much. She wanted to protect them.

What if your life was based on a lie?

Maybe there was another reason for Jan’s protective behaviour? If they ventured too far afield, it might destroy the facade of their childhood. This family’s about to discover that while lies can cause pain, the truth could destroy them all.

The Mother's Secret by Clare Swatman is published in paperback by Pan Macmillan on 22 February 2018, and is the author's second book. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review.

As part of the Blog Tour, I am delighted to welcome the author, Clare Swatman to Random Things today, she's talking about the books that are special to her in My Life In Books.

My Life In Books - Clare Swatman

Winnie the Pooh, A. A Milne

I have a battered old copy of the original Winnie The Pooh story which I’ve had since I was very young. It lost its dust jacket long ago so has always just been a plain brown hardback book, but when I was little I loved that book, it was filled with magic for me. The story of Christopher Robin and his teddy bear Pooh was pure joy, and I always wished my teddy would come to life when I was asleep. You never know, it just might!



The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

I adored Enid Blyton as a child, and the tales of the strange characters such as MoonFace and The Saucepan Man living in an enormous tree were the stories of my childhood. I can remember quite a lot about them anyway, but have since read them to my kids. They’re quite dated and I’m not sure they adored them as much as I did though!


Mallory Towers, Enid Blyton

I said I loved Enid Blyton, and I really did! The Mallory Towers series, set in a girls-only boarding school, sounded such fun these books made me want to go to boarding school!

Forever, Judy Blume

This was a coming-of-age story like no other back in the 1980s. Containing lots stuff about periods, kissing and losing your virginity, it was so racy it was banned at school – which of course made us all want to read it even more!

Sweet Valley High, Francine Pascal

I must have read the entire series of Sweet Valley High, about twins Elizabeth and Jessica, so many times between the ages of 10 and 13 it was crazy! My dad worked for the company that printed the books so I always had multiple copies of the same one, which I gave to my friends to read so we could read them at the same time and discuss them for hours afterwards.



Flowers in the Attic, Virginia Andrews

This was a huge book at my school when we were around 13 or 14. Everyone read it, and it was so shocking to read about the child abuse and incest – it
was a real eye opener, and I went on to read the whole series. It was very different from anything else I’d ever read.



The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

This was the very first Margaret Atwood book I read and the moment I decided I wanted to be a writer. I studied it for English A Level and I loved it. I loved the story, but most of all I loved her writing. She’s such a beautiful writer and storyteller.



Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

This was another book I studied at school, and there was something about it that captured my imagination. I read it over and over again, although it’s been some time since I last read it – there are too many other books to read all the time!

Dr Kay Scarpetta series, Patricia Cornwell

I started reading these in my twenties and it was the first time I’d really read any crime like this. I was fascinated by all the detail of post-mortems, and the fast pace of the narrative, hardly pausing for breath. It was a totally different kind of book and I devoured as many as I could in one go.


Harry Potter series, JK Rowling

I’ve ever really read fantasy or science fiction, it’s just not my cup of tea. So when someone convinced me to read Harry Potter, I really wasn’t sure I was going to like it. But from the very first chapter of The Philosopher’s Stone, I was hooked. I’m thrilled that my kids now love them as much as I do, although I was an adult when they came out – I think it would have been amazing to have had these as a child.


The Hand That First Held Mine, Maggie O’Farrell

This is the very first book I read by Maggie O’Farrell, and I adored it. I love everything about her writing, and I went back and read everything else she’d written. There isn’t one I don’t love. She’s my writing hero.

Clare Swatman is a journalist for a number of weekly women's magazines. 
The Mother's Secret is her second novel.
Clare was Features Editor for Bella and has written for Best, Woman's Own and Real People.
When not working on her next novel, she also writes for her local magazine as well as the travel pages for Take A Break.
Clare lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and two boys

For more information visit www.clareswatman.co.uk
Find her Author page on Facebook
Follow her on Twitter @clareswatman