Books

Do you like stories about quirky characters, unlikely friendships and a plot which keeps you guessing? If so, you might enjoy my debut novel, Braver. Incredibly, this was shortlisted for the Society of Authors’ ADCI Literary Prize. We had a wonderful afternoon and evening at Southwark Cathedral celebrating with the writing community and other shortlisted authors. Many congratulations to the winner, Nicola Griffith with Spear and to runner-up, Fiona Scott-Barrett with The Exit Facility. I was so happy to be there, to meet so many gifted people and to hear Val McDermid’s inspiring keynote speech.

It’s hard to believe that my quirky little book has been shortlisted for two awards. I had many rejections and non-replies before Fairlight Books took it on. If you are a writer, be encouraged…

Women’s Prize for Fiction Best Reads feature

Braver, published on the 30th June 2022, was shortlisted for The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s Best First Novel Award 2023! This has blown me away and I’m so grateful. Braver is available from all good UK bookshops and online. You can see the book cover below and there are details in the press release from The Bookseller (also below). You can buy the book online here.

Braver is about unlikely friendships and heart-breaking decisions. With themes around mental health, identity and the need to belong, Braver explores how a local community responds when something threatens its very heart.

Here is the press release about it: –

Last November my book of short stories, Winter Lights, was also published by Fairlight Books. The book is a series of snapshots into the lives of a group of different people in a small town in the run-up to Christmas and New Year. More detail from the press release in The Bookseller.

I’m so grateful to LoveReading for this wonderful review. And for giving it a Star Book Award. Click here to read.

I love stories with festive feels as long as they’re well written and not shmaltzy, if you know what I mean. But I don’t have time sit down much in the run-up to Christmas what with everything else going on. I’ve read all the short story collections I can get my hands on and was looking around for more a couple of years ago when it occurred to me I could write one. Winter Lights is what I came up with.

The stories are about the mixed emotions the season can bring – joy, fear, small pleasures, sadness – and how that sense of anticipation can be affected by memory and loss. But just like the winter lights, subtle or bold, that decorate our streets and towns at Christmas, hope can be found even in the darkest places.

My novella, The Evenness of Things, is available in paperback or as a kindle download from amazon.co.uk and other amazon marketplaces. It’s about what happens when a woman buys a house without telling her husband. Intrigued? Please have a look at the reviews on amazon. I hate doing this publicity stuff (it’s so un-British) but, honestly, these days authors just have to, or they don’t sell many books. So I’m wiping the sweat off my face here and trying to be that un-British person deep inside me (maybe). Then I’ll go and have a nice cup of tea.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I haven’t been that great at writing it this year but that is about to change. Famous last words? I hope not…