It's publication day for Country Secrets, and as always I’ve prayed for star-sparkled celebrity endorsements for my latest bouncy British romp. Failing that, I've made them up. This summer there was just one place to turn: Barbienheimer. A big thank you to all the wonderful readers who continue to buy and borrow my books, who … Continue reading Sharing My Secrets

ANOTHER UPDATE: The Instagram Live stream will now take place on Weds 23rd August at 7pm. I have yet to master the smartphone dark arts, but I have found a filter which turns me into a fish on camera. Whether I can turn it off again by next Wednesday remains in doubt. UPDATE: Since posting … Continue reading I Land in the Stream

It’s just three weeks to go until Country Secrets comes out and I’ve been in deepest Leicestershire, recording the audiobook narration. I threw my heart into my World Tour of Dodgy Accents (which never quite made it to Scotland despite my best efforts), and yet again loved having the opportunity to share my writing with … Continue reading Unboxing video and (sound)proofing…

Years ago, I bought my parents a framed print by the Punch cartoonist H E Bateman entitled ‘An Attempt to Evade the Best Seller’ which summed up our family's reading addiction. I still have it. Even when I’m writing flat-out, I never stop reading. The TV might go unwatched, the radio unheard and this blog … Continue reading Chip off the Old Blog: the Joy of Books

New book alert! As a Christmas treat, I have a short story collection out, exclusively on Kindle at just 99p. A Christmas Wish…and Other Stories features eleven fictional stocking-fillers packed full of good cheer. The title story, set in a romantically haunted bookshop, was the inspiration for publishing this collection. I wrote it a year … Continue reading Festive Short Story Collection

Autumn is always the most magical of seasons, even with the heating still stubbornly off, a hot water bottle under each arm and greyhounds leaning in for body warmth as I type this. And here’s some news to warm your cockles if you’re waiting for the third Comptons novel: it will be out next summer. … Continue reading Crackling fires, woolly jumpers – and book news!

I’ve shared my life with dogs, and the one who stayed loyally by my side during my thirties and forties was something special. Perhaps it was just timing: she saw me through the turbulent years of divorce, second chance love, motherhood, multiple house moves, career troubles and the darkest days of bereavement. Yet I believe … Continue reading Dog of a (mid)Lifetime

I’m thrilled to share the news that I'll be appearing alongside the Guardian's TV critic and all-round womanly wit Lucy Mangan at Stratford Literary Festival on Friday 12th November, where we’ll be talking motherhood, midlife and all its multi-tasking with the wonderful Jane Garvey. Lucy’s first novel Are We Having Fun Yet? is a riot … Continue reading Stratford Literary Festival

I read recently that Jackie Collins kept an immaculate archive, every press clipping about herself neatly cut out and filed, all editions of her books in every language shelved in order. No mean feat for a woman about whom so many reams of material was written and whose literary output was so prolific. She was … Continue reading Jackie Collins, a Pocket Diary and a Box of Treasures

Mid lock-down, feeling guilty that we hadn’t taken the children anywhere more exciting than the local footpaths for over a year, we came up with the bright idea of a Virtual Reality headset. This way, we told them eagerly, we could each scale Machu Picchu, ski down the Matterhorn, lie on a tropical beach, parachute … Continue reading Virtually Worldly