Family secrets have kept them apart… could Christmas bring them together at last? During a heady holiday in France, Lori makes one mistake she hopes she can forget. Years later and Lori never thinks of that day - until her mistake makes himself known to her daughter, Ceri, insisting he's her father.
Thank you. It was a mixture of things really: a story I heard (a friend of a friend) who didn’t know who had fathered her child until many years later. Also, I have four grown up children and I’m watching them go out into the world with their own aspirations, knowing that like all humans, they will make bad choices and good ones. I’ve always been fascinated by the actions we take in our twenties, how they have a knockdown effect throughout our lives, and sometimes our children’s lives as well.
I’d been brainstorming wintery book ideas and thought it would be fun to put somebody who is super un-festive in somewhere super festive. I did a little research and found that you can apply to do seasonal work in Lapland, one of the most Christmassy places on earth. From there, I just had to figure out how I’d convince my leading lady, Myla, to make the trip...
I adore writing about the simple pleasures in life, so my books tend to revolve around love, friendship and community, set in beautiful places, as well as dealing with some of the more complex issues – a little grit in the oyster, if you like… (oops, get me, talking about food again!). I do like a plot device that contains a story within a short, specific time span and that’s something that works well for the eternally popular Christmas novel.
Myla is the UK’s least-festive woman. Starting the year she found out the truth about Santa Claus, everything bad that’s ever happened to her occurs around Christmas. Nowadays, she wants nothing to do with this time of year, so of course she would lose the bet with her sister and be forced to put herself forward for a seasonal job in Lapland, welcoming tourists to Santa’s winter wonderland for the holidays.
The most magical time of the year...
Description: For the first time in ten years, Freya is back in the little village of Middlemass for Christmas. The streets might be twinkling with fairy lights, but after the recent loss of her mother, she's never felt less festive.
Elderly widow Sabine knows this will be her last Christmas in her beloved home, Mitras Castle.
Determined to make it just like the ones she remembers from her childhood, she employs Dido Jones of Heavenly Houseparties to help with the big day.
Carmen has always worked in her local department store. So, when the gorgeous old building closes its doors for good, she is more than a little lost.
When her sister, Sofia, mentions an opportunity in Edinburgh – a cute little bookshop, the spare room in her house – Carmen is reluctant, she was never very good at accepting help. But, short on options, she soon finds herself pulling into the snowy city just a month before Christmas.
Christmas is fast approaching at the new Hope Farm. Owner Molly Baker has been convinced to organise an open day to raise some much-needed funds ahead of the New Year, but the nativity tableau is proving challenging. With anti-social sheep, awkward alpacas and a seriously sequined Santa Claus to assemble, Molly is feeling overwhelmed, and in desperate need of some Christmas spirit . . .
I've always loved the idea of quilting and how it brings people together and so when I decided to write a Christmas book set in the village of Butterbury, it seemed a lovely way to tell the story and the tangled web of relationships within one family.