It’s Spring!!!

Welcome to my monthly newsletter for March 2025

Hi

Well, hasn’t spring most definitely sprung? It has here in Ilkley at least. I took this photo of the glorious cherry blossom yesterday. It also hailed several times yesterday too but I think we can gloss over that.

I hope all is well in your world. My month felt quite quiet as I was living it but now that I look back over the photos, I see that actually quite a lot happened. I was at our cottage in Wells-Next-the-Sea for a week, editing. The cottate still isn’t quite finished after the refurbishment. We’re missing some homely touches and we still don’t have a functioning shower (there’s a bath though. I didn’t wash in the sea for a week!) But it felt lovely to be back after six months away.

In other news, I did my first ever hot yoga class! I do quite a lot of yoga already but at home where it most definitely isn’t hot! This one was a birthday party and I did the class in a silly hat with a party popper by my mat with instructions to pull it for my favourite pose. It was really good fun but I’m still not sure hot yoga is for me. Have you done it? What do you think?

Book News!

This month’s news is mainly about books that are already out. Izzy is still having a moment in the spotlight, with Table for Five sitting at the very top of the UK kindle charts for a month now. The design brief has gone to the cover designer for the next Izzy Bromley book, The Bed in the Shed and that will be out this summer which is exciting.

Also, the Italian translation of Impossible to Forget is riding high in the Italian charts in both paperback and ebook. As a result, I’ve had an offer for a second Italian translation and a Spanish offer too. One of my dreams is to walk into a bookshop abroad and see my books there. (It would be quite nice to see them on the shelves in the UK too but I won’t hold my breath.)

What am I writing?

This month has all been about editing. As many of you know, this is my least favourite part of the process. Because I make my stories up as I write, the initial creation is very exciting for me. Editing them when I know what is going to happen is less fun and I always want to move on to the next project. (I’m not known for my patience!) But I grit my teeth and crack on. So I finished the edit for The Bed in the Shed and am now in the middle of Trust Me (working title only) which will be the Imogen Clark book for 2026.

Then I will have a little gap for my 30th wedding anniversary celebrations and the wedding of my eldest before I crack on with next year’s Izzy book which is all lined up and ready to go in my head. After that I have an idea for the Imogen book for 2027 so that will be the next one to write.

Not really about my writing, but yesterday I did an online Masterclass with screenwriter Abi Morgan OBE.

She wrote one of my favourite drama series of all time, The Split. If you haven’t seen it then I throughly recommend it. It’s a family drama set around a family firm of divorce lawyers and each character has a beautifully crafted story arc. The acting is fab too. Anyway, I’m still hankering after turning The Coach Trip into a film and have an idea for an original TV drama series so I love learning about the craft and one day . . .

What have I read?

I’ve read some super books this month. Here are four you might like.

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche I have read all her novels and they always have important things to say. I think this one is about the abuse of women by men (although that’s not what the Amazon page says it’s about). It’s the story of four Nigerian women, each with different backgrounds, and how they navigate the modern age. As you would expect, they all have strong voices and lots to say. I’ve made it sound a bit miserable but it isn’t. It is hard to read in places, though. There’s also a section set in the pandemic too which is starting to feel a bit like a surreal dream.

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley This is your classic locked room mystery but no less exciting for that. A group of guests gather for the opening of a high-end wellness retreat. The hotel used to be the summer home of its manager and her family and when dark things start to happen at the retreat, the clues to what’s going on all lie in the past. This is my favourite of hers so far and it felt fresh and compelling.

Other People’s Houses by Clare Macintosh This is the third in the Ffion Morgan series and the characters are now pretty well established. You can read this as a standalone but for all the nuance you might want to read the first two first. At first glance a series of burglaries on a posh road in Cheshire and the murder of an estate agent in rural Wales don’t seem connected but guess what . . .?

The Most fun we Ever Had by Claire Lombardo After saying that books about dysfunctional families are my favourites on TikTok, someone recommended Claire Lombardo and I drank this one in. The Sorensen family has always been close but when a child, born to the second daughter and adopted in secret, comes back into their lives all manner of secrets start to come to light. And the person who holds them all together is the least expected of all.

And that’s your lot for this month. As ever, check out my social media for more stuff. Facebook. Instagram. TikTok. I messed up my Facebook author account this month and it was flying solo for a few weeks without anyone at the helm but I’ve got it back now. Did you notice? I hope not!

Have a lovely month and keep reading.