Poppy and Martin Cricket have been inseparable since childhood. Now married, she works as a hairdresser while Mart has joined the army to give them a better life. But on his first tour of Afghanistan he is taken hostage and Poppy’s world threatens to fall apart – until she decides to do something about it. Armed only with total naivety and her love for Martin, she battles against all the odds to try to bring him back home. This is an impressive and moving debut from a real-life army wife, and all the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Royal British Legion’s charity, Battle Back.
Try… S
Laura Harrington or Missing Julia by Catherine Dunne
Alice Bliss by AUTHOR Q&A
PENNY VINCENZI had her first novel published in 1989. She has written 14 bestsellers and sold over four million books. She is married to Paul with four daughters and several grandchildren
What inspired your book, The Decision? I heard about a man in San Francisco who was so appalled at losing custody of his small daughter that he threatened to leap off the Golden Gate Bridge with her. There is no love greater – or more desperate – than that of a parent for their child. What’s your favourite word? Joy! It describes a wonderful, singing emotion that is much more emotive than just ‘happiness’. Where would you most like to live? Where I am right now,
in my cottage on the Gower Peninsula in Wales, just a short stroll from the sea. What would surprise your readers about you? That I never know what’s going to happen in my books. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? Not badly, but I do get days when nothing works properly with the book. The cure is just to sit stubbornly at the desk, refusing to give in. Eventually I get a breakthrough. What’s your most treasured object? My photo albums and a DVD the children
BOOK NEWS: Historical romance queen Philippa Gregory is set to
publish her first ever young adult books from next summer. “I am delighted to move into a new form of writing,” she said. “I know I have many young readers already and it will be a pleasure to write a series especially for them. Bringing history alive is a great joy and to bring it to a young generation doubly so.”
most people identify with, closely followed by Matilda Wormwood from Matilda* CANDIS.CO.UK | DECEMBER 2011 125
made for my last ‘big’ birthday, telling my life in pictures – and cheesy music! What things do your fans tell you? That they can’t put my books down because they’re so engrossed in the characters. That makes me very proud! If you weren’t a writer, what would you be? A disaster – I’m completely bad at everything else!
The Decision by Penny Vincenzi (Headline Review, £19.99)
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