Welcome to In the Margins for November 2025

Hi

I hope you’re well and that you’ve had a lovely November.

This month’s newsletter has a HUGE GIVEAWAY prize in it so please make sure you read to the end to find out how to enter the draw.

Last weekend, I was in Wells-Next-the-Sea in North Norfolk for the Christmas Tide festival. This photo shows Santa coming in by boat to a huge fireworks display. It was wonderful and I’m already feeling very festive as a result.

Book News.

First, you may have seen on my social media that I’ve just hit 2,000,000 readers for the books published by Lake Union. This is such a proud moment for me. It’s been seven years since my first book came out with Lake Union and I’ve loved every minute. The fact that people read my books never fails to astound me and I want to say thank you to you for being one of them. THANK YOU!!!

My big news this month is that the next Izzy Bromley The Glamp Site has a cover and a publication date! It will be on sale on 18th January in paperback, ebook and audiobook (although there have been delays beyond my control in getting the books on to Audible. They are all on Spotify and various other audiobook distributors however if you’re having difficulties getting hold of them.)

So here’s the cover – a world exclusive preview just for you, my newsletter subscribers! ‘And what it is about?’ I hear you cry. Well, you can be the very first to learn about that too.

Emily Brancaster is a success – just ask her.

With an award-winning London beauty salon and plans to expand her business empire, her life is glamorous and glossy. But when her husband’s family sends out a distress call from their struggling pig farm in Yorkshire, Emily and Adam head north to try to help.

Emily arrives with a bouncy blow-out, white wellies and a belief that she can fix anything — but the down-to-earth farmers don’t take her, or her ideas, seriously. And beneath the shine, Emily is determined to prove she’s more than the fluffy airhead they think she is.

With her in-laws unconvinced and the village up in arms about the proposed changes to their way of life, Emily must decide whether to run back to London or fight for her vision of Fox Gill Farm.

Perfect for fans of Cathy Bramley, Heidi Swain and Beth O’Leary – a funny and uplifting tale about resilience, community and finding where you truly belong.

My publishers and I are still not much further forward with the cover for the forthcoming Imogen Clark book although I do know that it is to change title and will no longer be called Model Conduct. As soon as I know more I will let you know but it is still there to pre-order despite its lack of a title or cover!

What am I writing?

I am still working on Seven Days but I have been writing it in Novel November. This is a personal challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Usually I would write around 30,000 words in a month so it’s required some hard work on my part to keep up with the daily count but I can report that I did finish on time.

Having to write at speed is an interesting experience for me. It makes me keep going when I would usually stop because I’d finished my word count for the day, and I have come up with ideas that I perhaps wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t been putting that pressure on myself. I think it also makes me a braver writer – although it remains to be seen whether what I’ve written in Novel November has made it into the final book when I deliver it to my editor at the end of January!

Where have I been?

Well, after all the excitement of Mount Kilimanjaro last month, I have had a far quieter month than usual with only a couple of trips to Wells. I did do some walking around here though. The autumn colours were spectacular.

What have I read?

Ooh, I’ve read some cracking books this month. Here are four of my favourites.

In Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy a woman washes ashore on a remote island after a storm. There is only one family living on the island, there to look after the world’s largest seed bank. But the island is being reclaimed by the sea and the family is keeping secrets about what has happened there in the recent past. It’s a mystery and a love story and a tale about sacrifice and I highly recommend it.

One of Us by Elizabeth Day is about power and corruption and the damage it does, both to a family but also, through politics, to a nation. The book has hints of Brideshead about it with an ordinary boy being drawn into an extremely wealthy and not very pleasant family. As an adult, Martin has grown resentful of how he was picked up and then dumped by his erstwhile best friend Ben and then he sees a way to take revenge. Fascinating and compelling.

Little Wing by Freya North is about a woman who has never really found her place in the world. When Nell’s mother develops Alzheimer’s and starts to deny that she has a daughter Nell is devastated but an odd discovery sets her on the trail of a decades old mystery that will help her understand everything. On the way she meets some wonderful people who help her uncover who she is. It’s set in London and the Outer Hebrides and I wanted to head north to those islands the whole time I was reading – I still do.

Finally BitterSweet by Hattie Williams is a book about coercive control masquerading as a love story. Charlie is a young and naive PR officer at a publishing house and falls in love with an esteemed author, once a favourite of Charlie’s long-dead mother. All the warning signs are there in Charlie’s secret affair with Richard Aveling but despite Charlie’s friends trying to help her, she cannot see how harmful the relationship is until it’s too late. It is a beautifully written story about vulnerability – intense and unflinching.

A Little Survey.

Over the last few months I have been working on branding and my website and as part of that I’d like to ask you about this Newsletter. So if there’s a section that you always skim over or something that you wish I included then here’s your chance to tell me. Just complete the survey and let me know. (It’s very short.)

GIVEAWAY!

And finally – drum roll please! The Giveaway!

When I announced on Facebook about the 2,000,000 readers thing, one of my readers suggested that that might be a good excuse to have a giveaway. She was right and so I’ve put together a gift box filled with lots of lovely things in it which I will post out to the lucky winner. (I’m afraid it’s limited to UK addresses only as it’s too big to send abroad.)

If you would like to be entered in the draw to win then just reply to this email and tell me your favourite of my books (either Imogen or Izzy) and I will randomly generate the winner from the entries. The Giveaway will close on 15th December so that I can send the box out before Christmas. Good luck!

And that’s everything for this month. Please remember to reply to my survey and to enter the Giveaway if you’d like to win those goodies.

In the meantime, keep reading.