Words on a Page

    Jenny’s life is at a crossroads. Her  marriage has grown silent since the sudden death of her youngest daughter, and now her eldest and only child has begun pushing her away. Nobody at home seems to need her anymore. At the Royal Mail sorting office where she is the only woman to have stuck with the job, her position is equally precarious. Though her boss can’t fault her work, he has made it clear he wants her out. Undermined at home and at work, Jenny is desperate for something to change.  So, when a postcard from Australia, begging the recipient for forgiveness, but with an incomplete address on the Isle of Wight lands on her sorting table, she does the unthinkable – she slips it up her sleeve and sets off on her bicycle to deliver it herself. If she can’t save her own faltering relationships, perhaps she can help someone else save theirs. Set in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight during the turbulent summer of 1984,  Missing Words  captures Thatcher’s ...

The past few weeks, since the publication of Missing Words , have been a bit of a whirlwind and I am struggling to keep up with everything that is happening at the moment. A few days after the online launch with my cohort from Fairlight Moderns I had my very first LIVE book signing at my local independent bookshop – the fabulous Pigeon Books . Even though Covid restrictions have been almost entirely lifted here in the UK, many people – myself included – are not ready throw themselves into a crowded indoor space just yet, so the book signing was a good alternative to a full-on event with a book reading and clinking glasses of champagne. For three hours, I sat as if enthroned in the comfy chair in the window of Pigeon Books while a surprising number people trooped through the door and asked me – ME – to sign copies of my book. It was a wonderful day, with time to chat to friends I hadn’t seen since pre-Covid days, including some I hadn’t seen for years. And more thrilling still were the ...