Welcome to In the Margins for December 2025
Merry Christmas to you!
I hope you’ve had a lovely break and are preparing for whatever kind of New Year’s Eve floats your boat. My preferred type is very quiet. I can’t remember the last time I was actually awake at midnight. I‘d rather see the new year in early in the morning of the 1st.
This year, I’ll be in Norfolk as 2026 dawns which will be the first (but hopefully not the last) time that will happen.
Before I get started with this month’s news, a special mention to ANNE GOODE! You won the giveaway after emailing to tell me that your favourite of my books is In a Single Moment but I haven’t been able to get hold of you. Please email me and I can arrange to post it to you.
BOOK NEWS!
Well, my forthcoming book still has no cover but it does have a new title! It will no longer be called Model Conduct and now it is Late in the Day and is available to pre-order HERE. I think I’ve mentioned before how important pre-orders are to authors. This is because it reminds the internet elves to show the book to lots of readers across all the different platforms which means that new people can find it, and that pleases the publishers! So if you can preorder then that would be wonderful.
‘But what is the book about?’ I hear you cry perfectly reasonably. Well, here’s the blurb.
When Harriet Carmichael leaves her husband, she is determined to begin again: new home, new life, a chance to live on her own terms.
A life drawing class seems harmless enough, until she finds herself drawn to Mac, the charming but elusive model.
Her adult children disapprove of her every move, and when Mac—significantly younger and apparently homeless—moves in with her, their suspicions reach fever pitch. Yet there is an undeniable spark between Harriet and Mac, one that makes Harriet question what she truly wants from this new chapter.
While her family is convinced she’s being manipulated by a conman, Harriet longs to believe in his genuine affection. But she has secrets of her own, shaped by experiences she has never dared to share.
So, if that sounds like something you might enjoy, please consider pre-ordering.
And talking of pre-orders, don’t forget that the new Izzy book, The Glamp Site, that I mentioned last month is out on January 18th. You can pre-order that one too!
WHAT AM I WRITING?
Nothing! Having finished writing the Imogen book for 2027, I have downed tools until the new year when I will start on the next Izzy book. I’ve not been dragging my heels in the gap between books though. I’ve been doing a bit of a rebrand!
My website has had an update. You can see it HERE and I’m gradually working my way through all the various social media platforms making them match. My newsletter has a new title too because I wanted it to feel more like something exclusive for you all, rather than just a generic kind of newsletter.
You may recall that last month I asked you to complete a short survey and I’m delighted to report that the responses were all very positive. You seem to like what I’m doing and I will try and incorporate the suggestions you made into future monthly letters.
WHERE HAVE I BEEN?
This month I was in London three times in two weeks! The first was for my publisher’s Winter Party which was great fun. It’s always lovely to meet up with fellow authors for a good chat.
Then I saw The Importance of Being Earnest with Stephen Fry as Lady Bracknell which was very good. And then I saw my daughter as the fairy in Sleeping Beauty which made me very proud.
Just after Christmas I will go to Zagreb to see my son in The Nutcracker which I’m looking forward to very much.
WHAT HAVE I READ?
I read some fabulous books in December. Here are my favourite four.
My favourite book of the month (and quite possibly the year) was My Friends by Frederik Backman. I love all his books but this one is outstanding. It made me laugh out loud often – I was listening so there was a lot of random laughter in the street – but it also made me cry. It’s the story of four teenagers trying to survive their challenging home lives. Where the adults continue to let them down, their friends are always there no matter what. There is so much to commend this book that I don’t really know where to start. You just have to read it for yourself.
The Correspondent by Virgina Evans is another cracker. Told entirely through letters, it’s the tale of Sybil Van Antwerp who has been writing letters all her life, using them as a way of avoiding actually talking to those she loves. As she enters old age, she realises that she has relationships she needs to mend before it’s too late – but how to start. She reminded me a little of Olive Kitteridge, her bark being most definitely worse than her bite.
Murder at Gull’s Nest by Jess Kidd is the first in a new cosy crime series. The investigator, Nora Breen is a former nun who leaves her closeted life to investigate the disappearance of her friend from a seaside guest house. The guest house is filled with an eclectic mix of characters who are being bumped off one by one. I have read all Jess Kidd’s books because I love her quirky style and her witty characters and there’s generally an element of magical realism too. I’m looking forward to the second instalment.
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood is about Thomas who ekes out a living collecting shrimp from the bay where he lives with his mother. He wants more from his life but can’t see any way of changing anything until a stranger arrives with a promise of Hollywood with a film set in the very bay that Thomas knows so well. It’s a short, literary novel and beautifully captures desperation and then hope.
And there you have it! Goodbye to 2025.
It’s been a great year for me and my books. I reached my two millionth reader, Reluctantly Home hit a quarter of a million sales, I was shortlisted for the Kindle Storyteller award – five finalists out of around twenty thousand entries- Impossible to Forget was the eighth biggest selling book of the year in Italy and I signed a new three book deal with my publisher.
This is due in the main to you, my readers, and I can’t adequately express how grateful I am to every single one of you. I feel very honoured to have such amazing support behind me and I hope that we will move through 2026 together too.
Have a fabulous New Year’s Eve and I’ll see you all at the end of January, if not before.
Best wishes,
