Welcome to In the Margins for September 2026
Hi there.
Happy birthday to all my fellow September-born people. Oldest in the school year, at least here in the UK, and so forever at an arbitray advantage. 😉
I celebrated my birthday last week and it was a biggy so I made a proper effort and had a lovely time. If it’s your birthday this month too then may I wish you many happy returns as well.
Book News
I’ve been hogging the charts down under this month. Late in the Day has been on promotion in Australia and seems to be going down rather well which is lovely to see. For those of you waiting for a promotion on the book in your own neck of the woods I imagine you won’t have long to wait. The first UK and US promotions of a new book tend to follow hot on the heels of the Australian one so keep an eye on my social media or you can sign up for Amazon’s daily newsletter which will tell you about all the book deals in your favourite genres.
Moving from Imogen to Izzy, The House Sitter now has a definite publication date. It will be out in ebook, paperback and audiobook (although Audible might be a little later due to its peculiar vagaries) on – drum roll please – 🎉 Sunday 6th December!
You can pre-order the ebook or paperback now if you’d like. And don’t forget, a book makes a GREAT and inexpensive Christmas present, especially a lovely feelgood story like this one, so if you know someone who might enjoy a few hours of relaxed ‘me time’ you could order it for them now and tick them off your Christmas List! 🎄
What am I writing?
I’m currently in a bit of a gap between books. I haven’t yet delivered We Were Three but I’m already playing with ideas for the next one. Like most authors, I have a notebook of ideas that I collect as I go along. Often all I have is a short paragraph or even just a sentence that begins ‘A story about . . .’
Then, when I need an idea I will flick through my book and start to think in a bit more detail. Not all the ideas turn out to be enough for a whole book. Sometimes I spend ages thinking about a story but then go on to reject it as either unworkable or just not appealing enough. I have to live with whatever I choose night and day for months on end so I can’t go into it with anything less than burning passion!
It’s funny when I look through the book, though, because I can see the single sentences that have gone on to become bestselling books. For example I came across:
‘A story where four generations of women are living in the same house . . .’
‘A story based in a conversation café . . .’
‘A story about a woman who leaves her miserable husband and sets out on a massive voyage of self-discovery . . .’
I’m sure if you’re a fan you’ll recognise which books these ideas kicked off but what about this one?
‘A stalker starts hanging about ouside a home, peering through the windows. He comes back night after night and frightens the family. Eventually they work out that he has some connection with the house.’
This was the catalyst for one of my books and actually came from real-life when one of my daughters had a stalker at their student house. Can you guess which book it became? I will say that the final story drifted quite a long way from here but you can see the connection if you look hard. If you want to win a signed copy of a book of mine from my stash then email me with your guess and I’ll send it to the first correct reply. (UK only I’m afraid.)
Where have I been?
Well, this month I had a mad-cap trip. My husband and I went to Palma . . . for the day! We flew out on the first plane and back on the last so we could go and visit our daughter whose ship docks there every Tuesday. She’s on a nine month contract and it’s been far too long since we’ve seen her so off we went.
It was great fun, looking round the enormous ship that is her home and then watching the technical rehearsal of that day’s show before flying back.
I was also in London for my birthday. We went out for afternoon tea with all the children baring the ship-based one and then my husband and I headed down to the south coast to fuflil my request of sleeping in a treehouse. To be fair, it was quite a smart treehouse attached to a lovely hotel and was more canopy-adjacent than actually in a tree but it was still great fun. We also went to Hurst Castle. Who doesn’t love a bit of Tudor history?
Here are a couple of snaps from the trip.
What have I read?
September is always a big month for new releases and this year is no different. Here are some that I enjoyed.
Firstly, We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman. Reading the new Richard Osman has become a highlight of my September over recent years and this one didn’t disappoint. I wasn’t sure about his new series after the first one but, as with The Thursday Murder Club series, it seems to take him a book to get warmed up. I thoroughly enjoyed this second one. The characters are now well established and adorable and the plot was properly twisty. I love his humour too which makes his books highly enjoyable for me.
Agrippa by Robert Harris is very different. I inhale Harris’s Roman novels as a rule and have read them all more than once. This one is similarly comprehensively researched and offers a fascinating peek into Roman life as well as having a great story. I found Agrippa himself (clearly more soldier than politician, and painted as a man of deed not thought) less appealing than Cicero but the intrigues of the Roman senate were front and centre and still resonate in the 21st century.
Our Noble Selves is Kate Atkinson’s latest. Set around the Festival of Britain, it follows former War Correspondent Harry Flynn who takes a job helping to set the Festival up with a rum bunch of others who all have wars of their own to get over. Harry accidently stumbles into a secret service plot which almost has him thrown in prison as the fall guy for the mysterious murder of a French femme fatale. It has all Atkinson’s wry humour as well as being an intersting historical piece.
And finally Big Little Truths by Lianne Moriarty. This is a sequel to her hit book Big Little Lies and she says it stands alone but I think you’d get a lot more from the story if you’ve read the first one. We meet Maddie, Jane and Celeste ten years on from the dramatic events at Pirriwee Primary School. They all have different challenges facing them and the children have all grown into confident teenagers. As well as being a cracking read with a page-turning plot, I really enjoyed catching up with all the characters. I do hope she writes another!
And that’s it for this month. Don’t forget to email me if you know which book came out of the idea above. If you happen to be in Norwich why not come along to see me interviewing multi-million copy selling crime writer JM Dalgleish at Waterstones on Wednesday 28th October? Tickets avaible here.
I’m constantly being told that social media is all important. I’m not so sure but I do enjoy posting photos of where I am and what I’m up to (together with the odd book picture when appropriate) so if that appeals to you too you can find me on Instagram and Facebook.
And that’s it until next month. I have two big trips coming up in October as well as my interview in Norwich and a trip to London next week for an author summit (technically still September, I know, but after the cut off for this newsletter.) So please tune in next month to read all about it.
Until then I hope you have a lovely month.
Happy reading,
Imogen.
