Our Fab-Yule-ous Decorations...

In which the Novelistas tell us about their favourite Christmas decorations!

And if you'd like the chance to win a fabulous Novelistas' book bundle, scroll down to the end of this post and we'll tell you how!

Trisha Ashley

My Santa tree topper is made of painted papier-mâché and is over a hundred years old. I know this, because it was bought with her pocket money by my mother's older sister when she was a little girl, and my mother is now 93... His red suit has faded into a soupy brown over the years, but in a misguided moment Mum tarted him up with glitter glue and a cotton wool beard.

Valerie-Anne Baglietto

My sweet and sorry-looking little snowman has graced the mantelpiece during the festive season for several years now, since my daughter ‘adopted’ it at her primary school Christmas fayre. Another child had made it anonymously, but out of all the other sock snowmen for sale it was the one my little girl chose to bring home, and somewhere along the line it lost an eye, yet that only makes it more precious. I wish that anonymous child somewhere could know that their creation found a good home with us, but I suppose that child is a stroppy teenager by now who might not care (although secretly in their heart, I hope they do!)

Annie Burrows 

I don't have a favourite ornament. But every year I do tend to pick up a few new ones. This year's addition to my Christmas collection is this cute Santa doormat!

Sophie Claire

Many years ago, before I was married, my future mother-in-law taught me how to make these hand-sewn decorations. Back then my day job wasn’t creative, so I was thrilled when after a couple of hours I had made something – and that’s when I caught the sewing bug.

Over the years I’ve moved on to bigger projects like patchwork quilts, but each Christmas I return to making these little decorations. I love to personalise them, picking fabrics with particular friends and family in mind, and when the children were small they used to help too, cutting out circles of fabric.

Making these decorations has become an important part of my Christmas preparations and I really look forward to cosy evenings spent stitching in front of the fire.

Beth Francis

In the late 1940s, a group of young German children were brought from their bombed-out cities to my home town to stay with local families for a few months. My grandmother looked after two of them.

They never forgot her, and every Christmas they would send a card with a small gift for her grandchildren. One year there was an advent calendar, rare here at that time; no one else in our street had one. Another year we were sent a tiny doll. Dressed with scraps from my mother’s sewing box, she has topped our Christmas tree ever since. She’s old and faded, but conjures up so many memories of Christmas over the past seventy years that she’s irreplaceable.

June Francis

Last year I visited Liverpool's Anglican cathedral shop just before Christmas and my eyes alighted on these bright sparkling miniature glass Christmas trees. I just had to have one. After buying one, I thought my tree lacked an angel, so I went around the shop and discovered a host of angels. I chose Angel Florence, thinking of my father's sister Florence who was found drowned in the Leeds Liverpool canal during the Second World War.

My middle name is Florence and I like to think of my aunt looking out for me, my sort of guardian angel.

Juliet Greenwood

The Christmas decoration with special memories is the fairy that stood on the top of each Christmas Tree for as long as I can remember. Since I was a little girl, it was always tied on first, before the tree went up. Then came the lights, followed by the tinsel and the rest of the decorations. Those old family Christmases have long gone, but I have inherited the fairy, along with some of the other decorations, which are now interspersed with ones I’ve collected over the years. So the day the fairy goes up on top of the tree is still the day Christmas begins.

Cheryl Lang

My favourite Christmas ornaments are two snowmen and a later addition of a little girl. This is me being sentimental. When my first son arrived, he was only a couple of months old for his first Christmas, so we had to have a tree. I began collecting baubles and I found a jolly snowman and decided this was his special one. Some years later when son number 2 arrived, I remembered the snowman and amazingly found another one. Go forward a number of years, my daughter arrived and before her first Christmas I found this little girl with blonde plaits. This, I imagined might be how she’d look in a few years’ time.

Louise Marley

When I was little my father would take me everywhere - probably to give my poor mother a break - and I can remember going into a petrol station when I was about four, seeing this Nativity scene and falling in love with it. I don't know why. Perhaps I thought it was some kind of dolls' house. But my father bought it for me and I spent many happy hours playing with it - until I was told it had to be packed away because it was a 'Christmas decoration'! But it came out again the following year, and the year after that, and perhaps this is why it has lasted so many years. The Star of Bethlehem fell off very quickly, to be replaced by a milk bottle top, and at some point I lost one of the sheep. And a few years back my husband accidentally crunched it underfoot! But a bit of Superglue later and it was soon as good as new!

Related Posts:

All I Want for Christmas (Group Post)

Rum Cake and Tinsel (Trisha Ashley)

A Christmas Gift from The Novelistas! (Group Post)

How Grandma Invented Christmas (Louise Marley)

Christmas Traditions (Cheryl Lang)

Tips for Being a Domestic Writer-Goddess at Christmas (Group Post)

My Favourite Christmas Tradition (Sophie Claire)

A Satsuma and a Sugar Mouse (Trisha Ashley)

Competition!

Win a Novelistas' Book Bundle!

If you'd like to be in with a chance to win a Novelistas' Book Bundle you can enter via Rafflecopter below. It's simple to use and the more clicks (follow us on Twitter, follow us on Facebook, etc) the more chances you have to win. The competition will run from 9th December to 16th December 2018. Due to the pressure on the postal system at this time of year, we're afraid your prize will probably arrive after Christmas!

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Getting it Done and Dusted by Cheryl Lang

I’ve finished my book, Lemongrass, a contemporary novel of approximately 85,000 words, set partly among the Greek Islands. I’ve read through and altered, deleted and added words and sentences I think might improve things. All this has been directly on the computer. Now I’m printing it out and going through it again. So why is it that reading the printed word throws up so many more anomalies?

I’m finding silly sentences like this: ‘The wind was stronger by the lighthouse and just offshore cormorants were drying their outspread wings on some rocks.’ It gave me a laugh, imagining the cormorants detaching their wings and putting them on the rocks to dry! There has to be some fun in the process. I have changed it now.

I also find that I have a bad habit of repeating a word, either in the same sentence or close by. The trouble is, I don’t always pick it up.

I’m also, hopefully, aware of continuity. It’s a bit disconcerting when you get halfway through the story and wonder if you’ve changed a character’s name or given too much information in one go.

Once I’ve been through the printed version, I’ll transfer it all to my kindle and read it on that for a different perspective. I hope to pick up any inconsistencies at this time and check the timeline is tenable. At this stage I hope to have a viable story.

And oh, the doubts! Is my male character strong enough? Likeable? Is the heroine's story interesting? Is the whole thing workable? Have I given enough background for the pair? Too much? Too little? Have I trickled it through the story and not as an information dump? It’s her story, told from her point of view, but should I make it dual points of view?

Doing the research is something I really enjoy. I'm drawn to exotic locations and love finding out facts relating to the area I want to write about. That usually leads me down further, diverse paths, but I have to be careful to only pick out details which are relevant to the novel I'm writing. There is so much information out there. I love it when I have a sudden question, like, where would I be able to dock a super yacht in the Mediterranean? Somewhere that has depth of water, sea room - a marina perhaps? Or a harbour big enough and with facilities. If I dig deep enough I usually find the answers I want.

Photos are particularly useful. When you’ve never visited a place and want to set a scene there, there are endless sources for photos and videos to help you out. However, travelling to a location is far better, as long as you make notes.

So, for my next novel, I’ll really need to visit Malaysia, or maybe, Vietnam or Mauritius! The list goes on.

All I Want For Christmas is ...

Last Christmas I asked the Novelistas which book they would give as a present. This year I'm asking which reading or writing-related gift they would like to receive - if they've been good, of course!

Trisha Ashley

I absolutely adore the Kate Spade range of desk and writing accessories in gold and this pencil pouch has been in my amazon basket for about a year. When you see the price, you can understand why! I treated myself to the gold and acrylic stapler to celebrate signing with Transworld, but I would like the rest of the desk set too - and all the gold spotty and stripey folders, journals and year planners, etc. But meanwhile, call me shallow, but using my beautiful stapler gives me great pleasure.

Valerie-Anne Baglietto

As I've already splurged on a Kindle Paperwhite in the Black Friday sale, I'm not actually asking for any physical books this Christmas. Instead, I've added a literary themed gift to the wishlist conveniently pinned to the fridge, where my family can't miss it. As I'm a bit of a cushionaholic (yes that's a thing) I've set my heart on a quirky, vintage-style bookish one, although any cushion along these lines would be well received. Thanking my brilliant, amazing family in advance (am I being nice enough?) Love Val x

Anne Bennett

23 years ago we moved into a four bedroom house in North Wales with two daughters so we had a spare bedroom. Although we called this the study from the onset, it wasn’t used as initially as I wrote on the dressing table in our bedroom and the ‘study’ was used as a storeroom. When the time came for me to need a special place to write, there was barely room for the hastily constructed desk and chair. Although I have made valiant stabs at tidying up and clearing out, much of the original junk is still there and my ‘study’ is a hotch-potch of mismatched office furniture with no sense of order to it. So what I really want, and would nearly sell my soul to get, is Mary Poppins. With one click of those magic fingers, my study would pack itself all up neatly and I could decamp elsewhere for a time while my study was redecorated and planned properly.

Alas I think I will be disappointed but really Christmas isn’t just about presents and it is a joyful time. So happy Christmas to all of you and I hope 2017 is a good year for all of us.

Annie Burrows

You’re going to think this is daft, but what I’d really like is a new pencil sharpener. The one I have at the moment came out of a Christmas cracker several years ago (not mine, either, I saw it drop onto the tablecloth and pounced on it!)

I edit my printed-off manuscripts by pencil, you see, and they wear down to this…

And my Christmas-cracker sharpener is not going to last much longer.

Sophie Claire

My wish is for a week in Provence. Expensive, I know, but I’m hoping that maybe just maybe if I wish hard enough…(and Santa has deep pockets, doesn’t he?)

Why? The book I’m currently writing is set in the heart of Provence and although I have many fond memories of the childhood summers I spent at my grandparents’ house by the sea, I’m finding there are gaps in my knowledge, partly because I’ve rarely visited out of season.

I have a growing list of unanswered questions – which trees flower in spring? What is the quality of the light like in autumn? Can you swim in the Mediterranean in May? The internet is wonderful for research, but it’s no substitute for visiting a place yourself. If I hadn’t seen the denim-blue skies and red earth, or heard the cicadas’ rusty song, or smelt the sweet perfume of pine trees in sunlight, it would be difficult to write about them. But there’s so much more about this vibrant place that I’ve yet to get to know, so fingers crossed I get the chance to visit again soon.

Beth Francis

As a Christmas gift I’d like an experience day. Not for a trip on the London Eye, a hot air balloon over the countryside, or a Spa weekend. I’d like mine to be a visit to a literary festival. Something prearranged, planned, and the date firmly blocked in on the wall calendar above my desk. Failing that I would love the wall calendar. A month at a glance, but with beautiful inspiring pictures. Snow capped mountains, palm fringed beaches, Christmas Fairs…

Turning the page each month and finding a picture I was happy to look at for weeks would mean the gift was appreciated throughout the year. I have a calendar on my computer, and a family calendar in the kitchen, but this one would be for me. Seeing looming deadlines focus’s my mind, even if they are only self-imposed. I often forget to buy a new calendar until January, when there can be a limited selection. Currently I’m looking at the November picture of a famous steam train, which seems very similar to the steam trains on the previous ten pages.

So, a calendar please, beautiful, arty or quirky, but one I can enjoy filling with lunches, mini-meets, book launches and even deadlines for the next twelve months.

June Francis

I would like Death at the Seaside by Frances Brody for Christmas. It is set in Whitby on the Yorkshire coast where Dracula was supposed to have landed. My son Iain is going to buy it for me.

Juliet Greenwood

My ideal Christmas present would be a beach in the Seychelles. Not to own it (too much responsibility, life is complicated enough), or permanently (boredom would set in), but a week (or so). Just me, sunshine, no responsibilities, no laptop, a warm sea and the TBR pile at my side. With a nice relaxed place to meet friends in the evening for a glass of wine, a meal, and good conversation under the stars. I’ve never been to the Seychelles, but they sound nice and at a safe distance. Mind you, I’d probably want one of those transporter things from Star Trek to get there and back, and my dog is giving me some very funny looks …. Happy Christmas!

Cheryl Lang

Christmas is the perfect time to be able to try something new. In my stocking I’d like to find a variety of items to generate ideas for novels. Not just a book, but something electronic or even dice, perhaps even creative games. I will spend time looking at random plot ideas, romantic situations, characters and backstory. I could experiment with the paranormal or comedy. A veritable writers’ toolbox!

Haydn Lee

Every time I step into my local Waterstones’ for a book on my English Lit course, I am always drawn to a high shelf nestled deep within the ‘fiction’ section. Ignoring the pressing need for a copy of Joyce for next week’s class, I reach up and select the book I always take down from the top shelf. I am careful not to drop it, or let my clammy fingers mark the gorgeous Art Deco cover. I flick through its pages, smiling at the well-known titles whizzing past, and pausing at the lesser known ones I’ve only seen as fragile paperbacks at second hand book fairs, not reprinted since the War.

I sigh, and return the book back amongst its identical friends. ‘Soon,’ I think to myself, ‘soon I will be able to read you. But not now,’ and I wince thinking of all the essays due before Christmas and all the plays of the Italian Futurists I have to struggle through until then. This Christmas, though, I will put all work aside, and settle down with a mug of cinnamon and chai tea to read The Complete Novels of Nancy Mitford, after months of pining over it at Waterstones’. If nobody gifts it to me, I will damn well buy it for myself, because Nancy’s novels, with their wit and their wonderful eccentric characters, give me an enjoyable escape from the sort of thing I’d usually have to read.

Louise Marley

This year I discovered Shirley Jackson and have been reading her deliciously creepy psychological suspense stories back-to-back. I'd really like to know more about her life, and what inspired her stories, so I'm sending a note up the chimney for a copy of her biography, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin. Definitely worth being good for!

How to Choose the Perfect Title ...

How can you ensure your book will catch the eye of a reader? With a terrific cover and a clever title! The publisher takes care of the cover design but I asked the Novelistas how they came up with that elusive perfect title ...

Trisha Ashley

When I spotted that a mega-bestselling author was using for her new novel the title of my own bestselling novel of a couple of years back, Twelve Days of Christmas, I felt strangely miffed....I mean, I know there is no copyright in titles, but it felt like mine! I carefully check my titles to see if there has been a bestseller of the same name - but then, rarely does my own title end up as the one the publishers choose.

Anyway, once I'd remembered that I'd totally ripped off one of Shakespeare's titles, A Winter's Tale, I realised I didn't have a leg to stand on...

Valerie-Anne Baglietto

My second book, published by Hodder & Stoughton, was originally titled Tom, Dick or Harry, and yes, the heroine was caught between three very different men, the eponymous Tom, Dick and... you get the idea. My publishers approved, but as it was hitting the final stages a book came out called Tom Dick and Debbie Harry, and as the titles were too similar, they advised me to change mine. I was blank. Stumped. Frustrated. My story had been Tom, Dick or Harry from the very start. It was written in my contract. I couldn't imagine it as anything else. But that's the publishing world for you; I had to swallow my disappointment and get on with it. My debut novel had been The Wrong Sort of Girl, so playing around for a fresh title for the new book I came up with The Wrong Mr Right. It actually fitted with the plot really well, my editor was enthusiastic, and before long I grew to love it. But a theme was developing. Everyone joked my next book would have to be The Wrong something or other, too, but I ran out of ideas. Probably just as well. Anyway, one day I received a lovely email from a reader who told me it was only as she neared the end of The Wrong Mr Right that she twigged the three 'heroes' were called Tom, Dick and Harry. She loved the fact she hadn't realised immediately. So in the end, in spite of all the faff and frustration, I think it worked out for the best.

Anne Bennett

I meet many people who think of the title for a book before they have written a word of it. It was the opposite for me, certainly in the early days, as I seemed to be able to write a 120,000 word novel with ‘relative’ ease, but I would generally have no idea for few words needed for a title.

My new book, which was due to be out now, was called The Winter Waif. However, I had begun to have trouble with my eyes and my vision deteriorated as I struggled to write the book. This meant I could not deliver the book in time and we were looking at the end of January instead. Suddenly The Winter Waif wasn’t suitable and so I decided on Forget-Me-Not Child instead.

So some titles do fly unbidden into my head. If this doesn’t happen I will still discuss this with my agent or editor, but the final decision of the title to take to the marketing team is always mine.

Annie Burrows

I very rarely have any input into my titles. They get chosen by my publisher’s marketing team. Only once, recently, did they ask me if I had any ideas for a title and I was so surprised my mind went totally blank. I then emailed my fellow Harlequin Historical writers, some of whom are absolutely brilliant at titles, and gave them a brief outline of the story. A couple of them suggested In Bed With the Duke. By that time, what with all the panic and then the to-ing and fro-ing of emails, the marketing team had got back to me suggesting the very same title. So that is what it became.

Sophie Claire

Strangely, I’d never had trouble thinking of a title until I wrote Her Forget-Me-Not Ex. Usually a phrase or a key element would come up during the months it takes to write a book and I’d know it was right for that story. Not so for this novel, which had the very dull working title Florist throughout. It was only after I’d finished it that I sat down to have a brainstorming session and came up with a ‘flowery’ title to suit the heroine Natasha and her flower shop.

But the best advice I’ve heard for choosing a title was in a writing workshop given by author Julie Cohen and she told us a good title will encapsulate the novel’s theme. Wise words.

Beth Francis

I was standing on the shore of the Menai Strait and saw a rainbow arching across Anglesey, the distant field where it came to earth clearly visible. I thought of my hero, about to join the gold rush to Australia. Would he find a pot of gold at journey’s end, or come home penniless?

That novel was called Rainbow’s End, from early plotting to eventual publication. The only time I’ve found a title so easily.

When I write I usually have a working title. My characters frequently wait to be properly named, too. I often use Fred as a generic name for my hero until I find a name, which conveys his personality, but does not already belong to a friend or relative. Naming fictional villages would hold my writing up for weeks if I didn’t temporarily call them all Llan.

As I reach the final chapter all the characters will have been properly named and the place names settled on, but the title might still elude me. This is when I go for a brainstorming walk with a friend, dismissing our increasingly bizarre suggestions, until I finally settle on the perfect title. Only to discover it’s been used already. Time to think again!

June Francis

For my latest series of sagas I chose song titles of the fifties and very early sixties when the books where set.

Juliet Greenwood

I always know the title of my books will be changed, so I tend to use the location while I’m writing them. Eden’s Garden started its life as Blodeuwedd’s Garden. While the ancient Welsh myth of the woman made out of flowers to be a perfect wife, and was punished when she developed a mind of her own is central to the mystery, it’s quite a mouthful if you aren’t familiar with Welsh. So as it is Plas Eden’s garden, Eden’s Garden it became.

We That are Left was really tricky, trying to convey the woman finding herself through her work to protect her community and her family during the Great War. It was Hiram Hall for most of its life, which I quite agreed with my publishers was just plain boring and didn’t give a flavour of the book at all!

The only one of my books that has always had the same title is The White Camellia. It was really difficult to come up with a title that didn’t give the intricate details of the central mystery of the crumbling old house on a Cornish cliff away – so the ladies’ tearooms which links all the characters in unexpected ways was the only choice! The next book has a cracking title, if I say so myself, and it does have a location in it. But that would be telling…

Cheryl Lang

Titles are just one more difficult thing in the progress of a novel. My titles can change a couple of times. And if it is published, doesn't the publishing house change it anyway?

Depending on the location and what the core story is about, I try and incorporate a little of both. I trawl through lists trying to pick out words I like and combine two or three words mostly until it drives me mad and I just put something down and change it when inspiration strikes. My current WIP is called Lemongrass; originally Lemongrass Foods but I decided it sounded too much like a book of recipes. When I read book titles, I admire the author's ability to choose catchy titles that I'd wished I'd thought of.

Haydn Lee

I am terrible at choosing my titles, or naming my works. My Word documents are generally named after the content of the story, e.g. Vampires; the main character, Mr E; or their first line, He is where I left him. When I do come around to naming my stories, I will generally pick a mysterious and vague, yet somehow relevant working title, for example, Tuesday. This title will usually stick until completion. Perhaps what my arbitrary titles tells you about my writing is that I’m too caught up in the fictional world and my characters’ lives to step outside of their world and just give it a name.

Louise Marley

I've always had trouble thinking up titles, which is why most of mine are songs. This isn't such a great idea, because if you think a particular song makes a great book title, you can bet a dozen other writers have had exactly the same idea! For a change, I chose Nemesis for one of my crime novels, but since it came out there are now over twenty books on Amazon also called Nemesis, or with Nemesis as part of the title. So I would suggest checking there are no other books with your title before it's published! The funniest confusion between my book and another author's was with my romantic mystery, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. I only noticed because I was starting to get some very odd reviews on Goodreads. It turned out the other Smoke Gets in Your Eyes was a memoir - about working in a crematorium!

Recommended Reads for Summer!

Nothing says 'summer' quite like the chance to relax with a good book, whether it's on a beach, lounging by the pool or just in your back garden. So I asked the Novelistas to tell us which book from their shelves they would recommend as the perfect holiday read.

And, if you scroll down to the end of this post, there is a chance to win this fabulous book bundle from the Novelistas themselves!

Trisha Ashley

Resistance is Futile by Jenny Colgan

My recommended holiday read is Resistance is Futile by Jenny Colgan. This is a brilliant novel, full of dark-edged humour- I finished it late one night, unable to put it down and I was still thinking about it days later. It's science fiction, but also a great - in every sense of the word - love story. It's all about friendship and love and the strange forms they can take...some of them very strange. And I know nothing about maths but I understand now that it can have a strange beauty of its own.

Valerie-Anne Baglietto

Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey

I was in a bit of a reading slump when I picked up Letters to the Lost earlier this year, but I was immediately sucked into the story, and read it quite quickly - for me! I think it would be the perfect, absorbing read for a lazy summer's afternoon. It's set in 2011 and during the Second World War. A tale of love, heartbreak and hope, woven together with elegant imagery and rich historical detail. A word of caution though: as the threads of past and present come together, just make sure you have a tissue box handy!

Annie Burrows

Something Wicked by Jo Beverley

My TBR pile!

I don't have just one book I will be reading this summer. When I go on my holiday, I will be taking a pile of books with me – all the ones I cannot read while I'm writing my Regency romances, because they ARE Regency romances, and I'm always a bit bothered that I might absorb too many ideas from other writers while I'm trying to write my own stories.

And I will also be reading the ones I've saved to my kindle. In particular I'm looking forward to reading Jo Beverley's Something Wicked which was chosen by my Facebook reading group as the June pick, in memoriam.

Sophie Claire

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

I was a fan of Jojo Moyes’ well before this novel hit the bestseller charts in 2012. My favourites were The Ship of Brides, The Last Letter From Your Lover, and Night Music. But Me Before You blew me away. 

Jojo Moyes’ writing is accessible yet beautiful, with strong plots and there’s always a romantic element. In Me Before You the romance is at the heart of the story, but it’s also about how two people are changed by meeting each other. It’s a thought-provoking and emotional premise that a young girl, employed to look after a quadriplegic man, would fall in love with him, and that’s what initially intrigued me. However, once I began reading, it was the characters which drew me in. Lou is the most endearing heroine: humble, fun-loving, kind and colourful with a quirky dress sense. Will makes the most unlikely hero, embittered after the accident which changed his life. The two are separated by class, wealth and education, yet they are drawn together despite – and perhaps because of – these differences. And watching them and their relationship develop made my heart melt.

Granted, this might not be the lightest of holiday reads, but the story is so compelling you won’t be able to put it down. And despite the serious issues it examines, this book is full of humour and romance and colour (if only in Lou’s outfits!). I admit, though, that it is also very emotional, so perhaps have tissues at the ready. PS: And in case you’re wondering, the film is also very good!

Juliet Greenwood

Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris

My recommended summer read is Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris, which remains one of my favourite books of all time. It’s hard to describe without spoilers, but it’s a magical story, full of wisdom and the most delicious sensuality. It is also a morality tale of the very best kind. The first time I read it, I was in a terror of anxiety that the moral of the story would not be carried through to the end. But it was.

A perfect, life-affirming book for a summer’s day. Besides, where else do you get to find your narrator to be a bottle of wine?

Beth Francis

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry 

by Rachel Joyce

Harold Fry, retired, disillusioned and sad, only leaves home to post a letter to a former friend who is seriously ill, but he passes the postbox and starts walking. With no map, no suitable clothes, and wearing only yachting shoes, he begins the long trek from Devon to Berwick in the belief that as long as he keeps walking his friend won’t die.

This is a gentle, funny book peopled by characters who wander into the story and touch Harold’s life with unexpected kindness. Characters who remind him of past events, and whose warmth emphasise the gulf that has developed between himself and his wife, Maureen.

Many start to walk with him, the story gets reported in the news, and Maureen, abandoned at home, bewildered and alone, begins to recall him as he was when they met, before the loss of their son isolated them in their individual grief.

The end of Harold’s pilgrimage marks the start of a new understanding between them.

If you want something shorter to read at the airport, try Rachel’s book of short stories A Snow Garden. Seven stories, each peopled with amazing characters, one telling how Maureen and Harold met.

June Francis

The Last Dance and Other Stories by Victoria Hislop

I settled on The Last Dance and Other Stories by Victoria Hislop. The stories are all set in Greece and in my opinion do give a flavor of the real Greece and its people. There is a real sense of place and some interesting characters and good twists in the tales.

Cheryl Lang

Some Elusive Dawn by Elizabeth Darrell

Well, this is a difficult one. I’ve read several good summer reads just lately, The Egyptian Years by Elizabeth Harris, The Sun in her Eyes by Paige Toon, Daughters of the Silk Road by Debbie Rix, Some Elusive Dawn by Elizabeth Darrell, Last Dance in Havana by Rosanna Ley and The Separation by Dinah Jefferies.

With difficulty, because I loved them all, I choose Some Far Elusive Dawn by Elizabeth Darrell Set in Singapore after the first world war this story tells how the rigid old ways and strictures of behaviour are blown apart by two incomers. You really feel the heat, the humidity, the mosquitoes the illnesses and Europeans trying to cope in a tropical climate.

It follows several families trying to lead normal lives whilst adhering rigidly to colonial rules. Life is a whirl of tennis parties and club nights and afternoon teas on shady verandas always with the same set of people. Until Martin Linwood arrives. His mind has been affected by the horrors of war that the colonials would prefer to ignore. He is not accepted because he is different and so when a distant cousin of the family, Dorothea, arrives she is also tainted as being different as she is going to write a book on life in Singapore and wants to add ‘native colour.’ Between them they turn the cosy colonial world of Singapore upside down.

Louise Marley
Imogen by Jilly Cooper

I first discovered Jilly Cooper when I was 13 years old and on a holiday to the Isle of Wight. It was the height of summer, so it rained and it rained and it rained. While my brothers disappeared off to the amusement arcade, I found myself in a little café on my own, sat next to a carousel stacked with her books. I quickly handed over my pocket money and my parents didn’t see me for the rest of the holiday.

I think the reason I love Jilly’s books so much is that they are hugely funny and don’t take themselves too seriously. The heroines make the same mistakes as the rest of us, but rather than whinge about it they just crack a joke and move on. My favourite, which I eventually read so many times it fell to bits, is Imogen. She falls in love with a bad boy tennis player and is whisked off on holiday to the French Riviera, which at the time seemed a very long way from a rain-lashed Isle of Wight!

**The competition is now closed! ** 

COMPETITION!

If you'd like to win this fabulous book bundle from the Novelistas, just leave a comment below! One winner will be drawn, in our usual random way, after the closing date. **Due to the cost of postage, we're only able to offer this prize to entrants living in the UK - sorry! **

Closing Date:

Thursday 30th June 2016

The Prize:

A collection of paperback novels as follows:

Creature Comforts by Trisha Ashley

Every Woman for Herself by Trisha Ashley
The Moon on a Stick by Valerie-Anne Baglietto

In Bed with the Duke by Annie Burrows

Her Forget-Me-Not Ex by Sophie Claire

Lily's War by June Francis

Eden's Garden by Juliet Greenwood

A Girl's Best Friend by Louise Marley

Small print!!!

Be sure to use your full name, or post using an account we can contact you on (Facebook, Twitter Blogger, etc). If we don't hear back from the winner within 72 hours of notification, another winner will be drawn.

Good luck!

Trisha Ashley drawing the winner!
Congratulations to Chris Sterry !

Photo credits 
Book covers: individual publishers
Girl reading: Shutterstock