The Last Train from Paris is now for review up on NetGalley
Click HERE to request a copy
Thank you to everyone who took part in the cover reveal for my second book with Storm Publishing. The book is now up for review on NetGalley, you can request it HERE
I loved writing The Last Train from Paris, it was a real passion project. The novel grew out of family stories, both my family here in the UK and those in France. It was particularly inspired by memories of my mum telling me about being near Paris as a seventeen-year-old on the day war broke out and having to make her way back home on her own as war broke out around her, and then sitting in fear and silence as her ferry was stalked by a German submarine. She didn’t know it at the time, but this was just hours before the first UK boat, the Athenia, was sunk, with the loss of over 117 civilians and crew.
My mum’s stories made a huge impression on me as a child, even though I didn’t really understand, any more than I fully understood my teachers, including Germans, who had been refugees from the horrors of Nazism. They always made me aware of the fact that so much of war, and particularly the stories we don’t hear, is that of the courage and resilience of the civilians, and the women who battle for the survival of those they love, as well as their own, as well as building a new life after the fighting and the destruction is done.
I hope you enjoy following the journeys of Nora and Sabine, and the tale of courage and survival that Iris uncovers, along with the fate of twin girls, born just as the world descends into war ….
The Last Train from Paris
For Iris, each visit to her mother in St Mabon’s Cove, Cornwall has been the same – a serene escape from the city. But today, as she breathes in the salt air on the doorstep of her beloved childhood home, a heavy weight of anticipation settles over her. Iris knows she’s adopted, but any questions about where she came from have always been shut down by her parents, who can’t bear to revisit the past.
Now, Iris can’t stop thinking about what she’s read on the official paperwork: BABY GIRL, FRANCE, 1939 – the year war was declared with Nazi Germany.
As Iris peels back each layer of history, a sensation of dread grows inside her. The past is calling, and its secrets are more intricate and tangled than Iris could ever have imagined.
The year is 1939, and in Paris, France a young woman is about to commit a terrible betrayal…
A beautifully written and addictively compelling historical novel about the terrible choices ordinary people were forced to make in the horrors of World War Two. If you loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Alice Network and The Nightingale, you will devour this book.
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I’m delighted to reveal the beautiful cover of The Last Train from Paris, which will be published by Storm on 23rd October, 2023.
It’s a story I’ve been longing to write, ever since I was a little girl and my mum first told me about studying French near Paris on the day war broke out in 1939. I couldn’t imagine then what it must have been like to have been a 17-year-old English girl, on her own, catching the train to Calais through a country preparing for war and finding herself on a ferry in the middle of the Channel, stalked by a German submarine.
It’s a story that’s haunted me, especially since we found the letters Mum exchanged with my dad in London, and the scribbled note she sent him when she finally arrived in Dover. I also remember visiting her French friends and relatives, some of whom were forced to flee, heading from Paris towards safety with nothing more than they could carry.
And so a story was born….
The Last Train from Paris is up for pre-order HERE
The Last Train from Paris
For Iris, each visit to her mother in St Mabon’s Cove, Cornwall has been the same – a serene escape from the city. But today, as she breathes in the salt air on the doorstep of her beloved childhood home, a heavy weight of anticipation settles over her. Iris knows she’s adopted, but any questions about where she came from have always been shut down by her parents, who can’t bear to revisit the past.
Now, Iris can’t stop thinking about what she’s read on the official paperwork: BABY GIRL, FRANCE, 1939 – the year war was declared with Nazi Germany.
When Iris confronts her mother, she hits the same wall of pain and resistance as whenever she mentions the war. That is, until her mother tearfully hands her an old tin of letters, tucked neatly beside a delicate piece of ivory wool.
Retreating to the loft, Iris steels herself to at last learn the truth, however painful it might be. But, as she peels back each layer of history before her, a sensation of dread grows inside her. The past is calling, and its secrets are more intricate and tangled than Iris could ever have imagined.
The year is 1939, and in Paris, France a young woman is about to commit a terrible betrayal…
A beautifully written and addictively compelling historical novel about the terrible choices ordinary people were forced to make in the horrors of World War Two. If you loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Alice Network and The Nightingale, you will devour this book.
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The Shakespeare Sisters
Today is publication day for the kindle edition of The Shakespeare Sisters, which you can get for just £1.99 HERE
I’ve loved every minute of working with my publishers, Storm Publishing, to bring to life this story of four motherless sisters trying to find their way to escape their father’s determination to marry them off to rich men. His aim being to Arden House, a crumbling Tudor mansion near Stratford-upon-Avon, once frequented by Shakespeare himself.
The sisters find the clues to their own futures in volumes of Shakespeare, a secret inheritance from their mother. These are based on my family’s own leatherbound volumes, complete with Victorian illustrations, that have been passed down the generations. I remember them vividly from my childhood, when they first intrigued me with their stories, even before I could understand the plays.
I’m loving seeing Rosalind’s story of becoming a photo journalist, and following her heart, go out into the world. And I can’t wait to share the stories of her fellow Shakespeare Sisters….
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Today is publication day for The Shakespeare Sisters, published by Storm Publishing, which you can get here:
To celebrate, my publishers have sent a box of personalised brownies, which are both pretty and delicious.
A wonderful way to enjoy the day!
There are plenty of celebrations planned with friends and fellow authors, but today I’m going to enjoy sitting in my garden with coffee (and a brownie, naturally), and just absorb the miracle (and the hard work) of having a book out in the world.
I still have to pinch myself ….
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It’s cover reveal day for The Shakespeare Sisters!
I always find it strange when I hand in the proofs of my latest book, when there is no more I can do but let my beloved baby (who has lived with me, heart and soul, for months, even years), go out into the world.
So today I’m a little sad to say my farewells to Rosalind and the rest of the Shakespeare sisters, Bianca, Kate and Cordelia (for now, at least). But it’s also hugely exciting, as it’s when the world gets its first glimpse of the glorious cover, along with a hint of Rosalind’s story.
I’m loving working with Storm Publishing for my books set during WW2. It’s an era I’ve always been fascinated with, like so many of us growing up in the sixties and seventies, the war formed some of my parents most intense memories, and formed them for the rest of their lives. My dad used to talk about working in London and seeing the barrage balloons go up, to protect the city against enemy aircraft, and knowing the war really had begun. My mum described making her way through the rubble of bombed-out Birmingham as she tried to keep on with her studies, and standing in the garden with her family as they watched the glow of Coventry burning. She also had even more terrifying stories of escaping France the day war broke out – but that’s for another time…
But The Shakespeare Sisters also draws on other memories, of a time before mass media, when village choirs and amateur dramatics were the centre of so many people’s lives. It’s inspiration came from the well-loved illustrated volumes of Shakespeare’s plays that have been passed down the family, and also first gave me a love of stories and story-telling, which soon led to a burning desire to write.
So welcome to the world The Shakespeare Sisters! Next stop, publication day on May 23rd. I can’t wait! That’s when my beloved baby will finally head out into the world!
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