It’s not often you meet a book character and think: ‘Oh, I’ve walked in your shoes.’
Well, not the sky-high ones favoured by Lucy Mathers, in Julie Butterfield’s delightful romantic comedy Lucy Mathers Goes Back to Work.
But, in all other respects, Lucy – her separation anxiety, her professional insecurities and general just-about-coping-ness – could have been me.
And, probably, every other woman returning to work after children.
Poor old Lucy doesn’t even want to go back to her old job at Simcock & Bright, where she was once the golden girl.
She’s perfectly happy being a stay-at-home mum and doesn’t regret swapping her Louboutins and high profile clients for rabbit slippers and spending her day making crustless sandwiches for her two adorable children.
But, when her when her husband is suddenly made redundant, there’s panic in the Mathers’ household.
With a mortgage the size of the national debt and a credit card balance that’s in danger of toppling, Lucy reluctantly decides she must return to work. Continue reading
Birthdays are always great fun – and there’s no fun like a book birthday.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in Norfolk recently – the new go-to county for authors.
In a futuristic world, ripped apart by a devastating war, Leonie hovers on the brink of death after harnessing her extra-ordinary mental powers to save the victims of a horrible explosion.
Confession time: I fell in love with The Summer Springsteen’s Songs Saved Me by Barbara Quinn when it first came out two years ago.
A war veteran murdered in his bath, a crooked property developer, a family with a deadly secret that refuses to stay buried…
Thrilled to bits to be making two appearances at the 2019 Wakefield Literature Festival. 
Not quite how either of us remember it, but Susan and I – described in a recent article on The Daily Express website as Sue and Susan who write books – had a little chuckle at the account by TV reporter Roxanne Hughes of our debut on television quiz show Pointless.