It’s Spring!!!
Welcome to my monthly newsletter for February 2025
Hi!
Meteorological Spring starts tomorrow (or in fact it will have started by the time I send this out in my usual Sunday morning slot.) Winter is my least favourite season. I used to really hate it but the older I get, the more I realise that I can’t afford to hate anything, least of all time, so I’ve pulled back on my winter phobia somewhat. That said, I’m still glad that we’re moving on to warmer days! 🌱
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that my hair has changed colour. Or rather – has returned to the colour of my youth. Having embraced my inner grey since 2019, I finally decided that it was no longer for me. The ‘new’ look is taking some time to get used to (I’m 3 and a half weeks in) but I think it’s the right decision, for now at least. I’ll need to get some new author headshots taken though. Again.
Book news!
As ever, there’s lots going on here. This month Impossible to Forget was published in Polish and I approved the cover for the Italian version too. I love seeing how different markets interpret my books and I’m always a little disappointed when they just use the English cover. No disappointments with these two, though.
Speaking of covers, I still don’t have a cover for In Another Life and because of that my publisher has pushed back the publication date to 26th August. I’m very sorry as I know some of you are waiting for it. It is up for pre-order though HERE and they have put the description up on the bookselling sites so here that is to give you a bit of a taster.
From the million copy bestselling author of In a Single Moment and Reluctantly Home comes a gripping novel that asks: how big a lie would you tell to protect the ones you love?
When Loretta Ashton dies suddenly, her family is shattered. As a devoted wife and mother, Loretta was their rock—a woman admired by the entire community. But at her funeral, an unexpected guest turns their grief into confusion. A stranger claiming to be Loretta’s sister takes a seat with the family, only to vanish before anyone can confront her.
The problem? Loretta was an only child.
While the rest of the family dismisses the woman as a fraud, Loretta’s daughter Bronte can’t let it go. She had understood her mother’s early life to be unremarkable, but as Bronte digs deeper she uncovers a web of secrets that stretches across decades and continents, connecting her mother to a family in Sicily and a past Loretta went to great lengths to conceal.
Why did Loretta leave her old life behind? And how far had she been willing to go to keep her secrets hidden?
As Bronte unravels the truth, she faces a heartbreaking question: will uncovering her mother’s past destroy the family she left behind—or bring them closer together?
Expect more from me about the book, my inspiration for it, the locations etc as we get closer to publication as well as the much-fabled cover!
In the meantime, the new Izzy Book The Bed in the Shed will also be out in the summer so expect more about that too. And speaking of Izzy, Table for Five is enjoying a spot in the Top Twenty of the UK kindle chart. It’s lovely to see her up with the likes of Lee Child, Freida McFadden and Rebecca Yarros, the authors of the moment. (For those of you who are new here, I also write books as Izzy Bromley.)
What am I writing?
This month I have finished the first draft of the book for 2026, working title Trust Me and so that is now delivered to my publisher. I’ve sent it in a month early so that the editing doesn’t clash with the two big events in my life over the next three months – my 30th wedding anniversary and my eldest daughter’s wedding! Expect more on both of these in due course.
With Trust Me delivered, I then turned my attention to editing The Bed in the Shed. You’ll be delighted to hear, I hope, that the amazing Imogen Church will be narrating the audiobook version. She did such a wonderful job of The Coach Trip and Table for Five so I’m very pleased to have her on this one too.
I’ve also been working on some short stories which I’m planning to publish here via Substack. As soon as one is ready to go I’ll let you know. There might even be a collection in paper form too, assuming I write enough of them to make a collection!
Where have I been?
I do hope you’re sitting down because this month I have been . . . . nowhere! I did have a flying visit to Wells-Next-the-Sea to see how the cottage refurb is going (almost finished) but apart from that I have been at my desk in Ilkley all month. Wild! I have been on some lovely walks though.
What have I read?
My favourite book of this month isn’t out yet so I’ll tell you about that when you can get hold of a copy too. Here are some others I enjoyed.
We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes is just lovely. It’s one of those easy to read, feelgood books where you know exactly what is going to happen and just sink into it and enjoy the ride. Lila lives with her two daughters and her step-father and all is well until her birth father shows up and starts upturning apple carts left and right. Lila also has a complicated love life and a dog that bites. It all adds up to riotous fun.
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler is also very much a comfort read. Gail loses her job the day before her daughter is due to be getting married. Her daughter is having cold feet, her ex-husband arrives for the ceremony with an unwanted cat and a bucketful of happy memories and Gail, prompted by these events, takes time to reevaluate what she wants from her own life. The humour is dry and plentiful and Anne Tyler’s observational style of writing is, as ever, a joy.
Not actually fiction but I include Adrift by Tracey Williams because it is a story of sorts and it’s just a beautiful book and a provoking read. In 1997 a shipping container containing nearly five million pieces of Lego was lost at sea. The Lego, much of it sea-themed, was lost and has been turning up on coasts worldwide ever since. This is the story of where it’s been found and by whom and the book also tackles gently the difficult issue of plastics in our oceans.
Finally, Confessions by Catherine Airey. The novel opens in 2001 when Cora Brady is left orphaned after her father dies in the Twin Towers bombing. She travels to Ireland to live with her aunt and begins to piece together her family’s complicated history. The story hops across three generations and is quite complicated at times but the authorial voice is wonderful and by the end I felt as if I knew these women inside and out.
And that’s it for this month. Today is my youngest child’s 21st birthday. (Well, that depends on who you ask. He’s a leap year baby and so he won’t have his actual 21st birthday for another 67 years, and I think we should celebrate his birthday the day after the 28th in any event but he disagrees!) Anyway, I’ve been reflecting on what it is to bring your offspring to adulthood now that I can’t possibly pretend that any of mine is a child any more. It’s a sobering thought and one which will no doubt find its way into one of my books in due course.
As ever, you can find me on social media and I have a new platform to tell you about this month. My publisher was keen that I dip my toe into TikTok and so I have done. If any of you are there too then please pop over and say hello. I’m there as ImogenClarkAuthor. I’m still on Instagram and Facebook though, if TikTok isn’t your thing!
Next month I hope I’ll have more to share about In Another Life but in the meantime, have a lovely month and keep reading!
