February is the perfect month to read a new novel by Katie Fforde. The bestselling author of books like A Summer at Sea and A Secret Garden (out in paperback this month) has the rare knack of creating heartwarming scenarios and characters you really care about. I once said that her characters are the sort of people you want to be your new best friends – and they really are. ...keep reading
Fans of Trisha Ashley wax lyrical about her storytelling, elegant writing style and original plots. Katie Fforde calls her “one of the best writers around” while Sophie Kinsella praises her “down-to-earth humour”. All of these qualities and more feature in Trisha’s latest novel, The Little Teashop of Lost and Found, which is touching and funny and in parts, very sad. Best of all, it features three stories in one, all ...keep reading
This is the perfect time of year to curl up with a Katie Fforde novel. The temperature is hovering around six degrees (brrrr… I’m still wearing my coat and fingerless gloves inside the house) but I’m sure that spring can’t be far off. The days are longer, the first daffodils have appeared and Katie Fforde’s latest book has hit the bookshops. A Secret Garden, Katie’s 23rd novel, is as fresh as ...keep reading
If I had to choose the perfect writer to cheer me up on a shivery winter’s day I’d definitely go for Katie Fforde. I began reading her new novel, A Summer at Sea, in a hospital waiting room, feeling ever so slightly on edge. Within minutes my whole body had relaxed and my pulse had returned to normal as I was transported to an old-fashioned steamboat chugging through the Western Isles ...keep reading
This was the first year in ages that I didn’t get to the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s RoNA awards bash – and I’m really fed up about missing it. The RoNA awards celebrate the very best in romantic fiction and the party is always fun and ultra-glamorous. The champagne flows, you get to meet some of the best writers, publishers and agents in the business and RNA members’ shoes (from sky-high ...keep reading
Liz Fenwick’s path to publication sounds like a dream come true. She sent her debut novel out on a grey February day, not knowing what to expect, and by the end of the week it has been snapped up by Carole Blake, one of the top agents in the business. But as Liz explained to me, writing The Cornish House, her captivating tale of a rambling manor house and the ...keep reading
Hail, sunshine, a myriad of the nation’s top authors and some delicious cakes – the inaugural Chipping Norton Literary Festival had all these things, and much, much more. Held in one of Oxfordshire’s prettiest towns, this was one of the best literary festivals I’ve been to. Fun, inspiring, friendly, and superbly organised by Emily Carlisle (who only had the idea for the event last August) and her team. I booked ...keep reading
The Romantic Novelists’ Association sure knows how to throw a party. I was thrilled when my invitation to the RNA’s RoNA annual awards dropped into my inbox. For a start, the awards celebrate the very best in romantic fiction, but secondly, the RNA’s bashes are brilliant fun and ultra-glamorous. The (pink) champagne flows, waiters whizz round with elegant canapés and you get to meet some of the best writers, publishers ...keep reading
I adore literary festivals. So I was over the moon when the organisers of the Chiswick Book Festival asked me to chair a talk on romantic fiction by bestselling writers Katie Fforde and Kate Lace. The session was called My Big Fat Summer of Love (an amalgam of their two latest titles – Summer of Love by Katie Fforde and Gypsy Wedding by Kate Lace) and covered everything from how ...keep reading
Romantic fiction often gets slated – largely due, as Joanna Trollope once said, to snobbery and the genre’s pink covers, embossed lettering and “cartoon drawings of cocktail glasses and handbags and ditsy girls falling off their designer heels.” But so much of the criticism is downright unfair. A total of 25 million romantic novels are bought by readers in the UK every year and romantic fiction boasts some of the ...keep reading