June 2025

Hi there

I think I must have got myself caught in some kind of space-time continuum by accident. How can we be half way though the year already? I was merrily plodding along minding my own business and suddenly we seem to travelling at warp speed through the months! I imagine you feel much the same.

Anyway, lots has happened this month so hold onto your hats! Also, I have a competition this month and it’s only open to you, my lovely subscribers, so please read on.

Book News!

Well, the big news this month is that the third Izzy Bromley book is walking among us (or would be if a book could walk.) The Bed in the Shed is about the frustrations of being a mother and a homemaker and trying to stretch yourself too thinly while those around you seem to take you for granted. I suspect it’s a fairly universal theme so I’m hoping the book will strike a chord with many of my readers.

The big Izzy news is that I am now publishing her myself. My publisher has decided to concentrate exclusively on my Imogen Clark books without any distractions, but because the Izzy books sell so well they didn’t want them to just disappear and so they offered the rights back to me so I could continue on my own.

I have to say, it’s been a while since I last self-published anything and the learning curve has been quite steep but I have used the same editing process and engaged the same cover designer and audiobook narrator (the fabulous Imogen Church) so the new books should be indistinguishable from the old ones except they now have a little blue lizard on the spine, the logo of my publishing company.

It’s taking some time for the audiobooks to appear but The Bed in the Shed is now on Spotify so you can listen to it there. The others will be up on Audible and all other providers soon, I trust.

What am I writing?

Well, in line with the news above, I am currently writing the next Izzy book The Glamp Site which will appear at some point in 2026. I’m currently up to my neck in fictional disputes with angry neighbours and flooding drainage channels but I’m very much enjoying myself. I did go to a glamp site on a research trip last year (see photos below) but I’m planning on making my personal glamp site significantly more fancy!

The next book to be written is the Imogen Clark novel for 2027. I’m planning to set that in the south of France which, coincidentally, I will be visiting with my family this summer. So I’ll start writing that when I’m back.

Where have I been?

This month I had a fabulous few days walking near Lake Garda in Italy. I think Italy is my favourite country after England and I spent a lot of my trip plotting how I could return for longer. (Since I returned it looks like that might happen without much effort on my part, but I’ll tell you more of that when there’s a plan in place!)

I stayed in a wonderful, family-run hotel. It took me all week to master the geography of the place and I kept popping up on the wrong staircase or floor. It was right by the lake which also confused me because the water lapped delightfully against the shore and seemed to behave much like the sea – except it wasn’t! We had some wonderful walks and I can throughly recommend the village of Gargnano as a base. Here are a few snaps.

As ever, there are more photos on my Instagram and Facebook pages so please visit those if you’re interested.

You know I mentioned a competition? Well, I haven’t forgotten! Keep reading. And talking of reading. . .

What have I read?

Firstly, The Coast Road by Alan Murrin. The book is set in Ireland in 1994. Bohemian poet Collette leaves her husband and sons for another man but then returns to try and rebuild her former life. It doesn’t go according to plan. The novel is a study of provincial life and how communities can close ranks, even against their own. It’s not terribly cheerful but it does make you think.

Never Flinch by Stephen King is the next in a series but the books can pretty much be read as stand alone thrillers. I have only just discovered Stephen King, having been put off by the horror films of the 80s and 90s but these are just really good mysteries and I love them. This one is no exception. Someone is killing randomly, one death for each member of a jury that made a bad decision. Holly and the police have to find out who and why before there are more deaths.

In The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde by Eve Chase four sisters arrive at their aunt and uncle’s house for the summer but all is not well. Their cousin, who disappeared several years before is still haunting the place, metaphorically at least, and one of the sisters is determined to uncover the truth of what happened to her. There is also a present day storyline which follows a family with troubles of its own. They have bought the house without understanding its dark history and all becomes clear when the past and the present meet.

So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell is an American classic. In sleepy Illinois, two lonely teenagers forge a delicate friendship. But when jealousy ignites in one of their families, it leads to unthinkable tragedy, and severs the two boys’ bond forever. Fifty years later and haunted by the past, the narrator seeks to piece together those harrowing events and find redemption for a lifetime of regret. It’s a short, quiet and gentle novel that I read in a couple of sittings.

COMPETITION TIME!

Thank you for reading all the way down to here. As your reward I have a competition to win a signed copy of my new book In Another Life which will be out in August.

Something that I have done for my own amusement in my Izzy books is to have characters who appear in more than one book and there is such a character in The Bed in the Shed. So if you read that book and recognise a character from another Izzy story then email me at imogen@imogenclark.com and tell me who it is. The first person to message me will win the book. (If you haven’t read Izzy then don’t worry. I will be running another competition to win In Another Life soon.)

And that’s it for this month. If you want to see what I’m up to then try following me on Instagram by clicking HERE. Hilariously, I’m on TikTok now too but I’m not very good at it. And I’m still on Facebook, of course.

And that’s your lot. See you again next month.

Keep reading!