I’m Kerry Robinson and I blog over at Herding Cats. I am a wife, mother of two, a primary school teacher and an avid reader. When I’m not reading, working or doing family things, I can be found rehearsing with a local theatre group or enjoying a glass of wine in-front of the TV. I’m delighted to be joining Life Tracks today as I’ve loved music since I was very young and many of my memories are tied up in song.
On our wedding day we had decided not to bother with a first dance and didn’t really have ‘a song’ but my husband surprised me with this one and although the content of the song isn’t very romantic – it was such a fun song to have and a lovely surprise.
2. Stevie Nicks – Edge of Seventeen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojGKSgug_FM
This song is just immense. Stevie has such a beautiful voice and this is an epic song. I love this one because until about three years ago I was scared to sing in front of people. I mean really scared – couldn’t even sing a jingle if friends asked me how it went. I was convinced that I couldn’t sing, and my husband disagreed, so we made a bet and I took singing lessons. On my first lesson I told my coach that I’d love to sing this song, but I knew it was well out of my ability. Several months later and I was singing it. I’m no Stevie but I did it. Now I belt it out whenever I hear it.
3. Van Halen – Little Dreamer
Both my husband and I are huge Van Halen fans and listened to them all the time. This song in particular reminds me of when we moved to Hertfordshire. It was such a big move for the two of us as we were only in our early 20s. Chris had a university placement year and I was going to start my first teaching job. We listened to Van Halen – by Van Halen for the drive down there.
4. Paloma Faith – Make Your Own Kind of Music
In August we met and adopted our daughter. She is a huge music fan and has a fantastic voice at such a young age. One of the songs we used to play in the car during our first meets was this one and as well as being a beautiful song, it will always remind me of those first days we spent together.
5. Middle of the Road – Chirpy Cheep
This seems like a completely random choice and this song drives me insane but it has such a special meaning that I couldn’t leave it out. It’s a song my mother always used to sing (badly and out of tune) when I was a small child so I grew up knowing it but when my son was a toddler it was the only song that would get him to settle down and go to sleep. He called it Sherpy Sheep. Despite listening to it umpteen times a day, it will always make me smile and remind me of him.
Perfect for fans of Maggie Hope and Katie Flynn – the first in a heartwarming new series set against an ironworks in 1830s Shropshire, by debut saga author Mollie Walton.
Anny Woodvine’s family has worked at the ironworks for as long as she can remember. The brightest child in her road and the first in her family to learn to read, Anny has big dreams. So, when she is asked to run messages for the King family, she grabs the opportunity with both hands.
Margaret King is surrounded by privilege and wealth. But behind closed doors, nothing is what it seems. When Anny arrives, Margaret finds her first ally and friend. Together they plan to change their lives.
But as disaster looms over the ironworks, Margaret and Anny find themselves surrounded by secrets and betrayal. Can they hold true to each other and overcome their fate? Or are they destined to repeat the mistakes of the past?
‘Feisty female characters, an atmospheric setting and a spell-binding storyline make this a phenomenal read’ – Cathy Bramley
‘The Daughters of Ironbridge has that compulsive, page-turning quality, irresistible characters the reader gets hugely invested in, and Walton has created a brilliantly alive, vivid and breathing world in Ironbridge’ – Louisa Treger
She has always been fascinated by history and on a trip to Shropshire, while gazing down from the iron bridge, found the inspiration for what has become her debut saga novel, part of a trilogy titled THE IRONBRIDGE SAGA, published by Bonnier Zaffre. She is currently hard at work on the three books, with the first novel due for release in April 2019, set in the dangerous world of the iron industry: THE DAUGHTERS OF IRONBRIDGE.
Under the pen-name Rebecca Mascull, she is the author of three historical novels.
Her first novel THE VISITORS (2014) tells the story of Adeliza Golding, a deaf-blind child living on her father’s hop farm in Victorian Kent. Her second novel SONG OF THE SEAMAID (2015) is set in the C18th and concerns an orphan girl who becomes a scientist and makes a remarkable discovery. Her third novel, THE WILD AIR (2017) is about a shy Edwardian girl who learns to fly and becomes a celebrated aviatrix but the shadow of war is looming. All are published by Hodder & Stoughton.
She has also recently completed the final chapters of her friend and fellow novelist Vanessa Lafaye’s final work, a novella called MISS MARLEY, a prequel to Dickens’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL. This novella will be published in November 2018 by HarperCollins.
Evelyn Pendragon is spirited but lonely, and largely ignored by her parents whose attentions are taken up with her brother, Nicholas: the expected heir to the family’s Cornish estate and the one who will carry on the Pendragon name.
Stifled by her aristocratic existence, Evelyn finds companionship in an unlikely place when she befriends Drake Vennor, an apprentice gardener on the estate.
But When Evelyn’s life is thrown into turmoil by a tragedy, she realises just how much she has come to rely on Drake. Will family expectations and the burden of the Pendragon name mean she must turn her back on him when she needs him the most?
Victoria Cornwall grew up on a farm in Cornwall and can trace her Cornish roots as far back as the 18th century. It is this background and heritage which is the inspiration for her Cornish based novels.
Following a fulfilling twenty-five year career as a nurse, a change in profession finally allowed her the time to write. She initially self-published two novels, Old Sins Long Shadows and The Gossamer Trail under the name B.D.Hawkey. In 2016, award winning publisher, Choc Lit, acquired both books as part of a four book deal. Old Sins Long Shadows is now published under the new title, The Captain’s Daughter, and The Gossamer Trail is now titled, The Daughter of River Valley.
Victoria is married and has two grown up children. She likes to read and write historical fiction with a strong background story, but at its heart is the unmistakable emotion, even pain, of loving someone.
She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
Thank you Jo, for this lovely invitation.
(So tough though, making the choices!)
When I was six, we went to live in a tiny Victorian railway terrace, with gas lighting (these be ancient times!) and one dark, dripping, cobwebby outside loo, half-way down the garden.
Ooh, the absolute horror of racing out and back in your Winceyette nightie in the dark, before the baddies lurking out there could leap out and grab you!
That was when I started to love the Westerns on our tiny black-and-white TV – that contrast of big sky and open, empty land, stretching out to the horizon. (It probably spawned the idea for my first book, too!) Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell still sums up that wide-plains feeling for me.
At eighteen, I started my two-year photographic course in London.The girls I flat-shared with had just spent the summer in America and brought back two LPs by someone I’d never heard of before. To my ignorant ears, his voice sounded a bit like a dog with it’s back leg caught in barbed wire.
(Me:‘Ha, that’ll never catch on!!’)
It was my first introduction to Bob Dylan and later, ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright’
In my twenties, a boyfriend from home introduced me to jazz and Ronnie Scott’s club in London. The atmosphere was always electric and over the years, I saw some wonderful musicians play there. Telephone Song from Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto brings back the absolute thrill of those early visits.
When our eldest son graduated, he decided to go to San Francisco for further study. The other side of the world! I couldn’t imagine when we’d next be able to see him. Those introductory strains of Tony Bennett and I Left My Heart in San Francisco, always made me boo-hoo, (and sometimes still do!)
During the fabulous 1960s, I worked in London – a time when absolutely anything seemed possible! The style and fashion, the music and buzz of that time all feature in my new WIP.
Aretha Franklin’s – Say A Little Prayer sums up the joy of it all for me.
(I met someone recently who’d saved every single one of the clothes she’d ever bought from Biba! Why didn’t I do that?!)
Biography
An only child, June Kearns was always a daydreamer who spent a lot of time staring into space and making things up.
She was brought up by women – grandma, mother, aunts – and it was their influence that made her want to write.
June started seriously after leaving teaching, and winning a national magazine competition for the first chapter of an historical novel.
A founder member of the indie publishing group, The New Romantics Press, she’s published two novels – An Englishwoman’s Guide to the Cowboy and The 20’s Girl – and currently, in a warm corner next to the airing cupboard, is working on a third, set in 1960’s London.
A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, she lives in Leicestershire, with husband and family.
Website: http://www.junekearns.com Twitter: @june_kearns Instagram: junekearns Facebook: June Kearns
Grace thought she had it all. Living in the beautiful village of Little Ollington, along with head teacher husband Mark and gorgeous son, Archie, she devoted herself to being the perfect mum and the perfect wife, her little family giving her everything she ever wanted.
Until that fateful day when she walked in on Mark kissing his secretary – and her perfect life fell apart.
Now she’s a single mum to Archie, trying to find her way in life and keep things together for his sake. Saturday nights consist of a Chinese takeaway eaten in front of the TV clad in greying pyjamas, and she can’t remember the last time she had a kiss from anyone aside from her dog, Becks.
Grace’s life needs a shake up – fast. So when gorgeous gardener Vinnie turns up, his twinkling eyes suggesting that he might be interested in more than just her conifers, she might just have found the answer to her prayers. But as Grace falls deeper for Vinnie, ten-year-old Archie fears that his mum finding love means she’ll never reconcile with the dad he loves.
So when ex-husband Mark begs her for another chance, telling her he’s changed from the man that broke her heart, Grace finds herself with an impossible dilemma. Should she take back Mark and reunite the family that Archie loves? Or risk it all for a new chance of happiness?
A funny, feel good romance about finding your own path and changing your life – readers of Cathy Bramley, Jill Mansell and Josie Silver will love this uplifting read.
Kim Nash lives in Staffordshire with son Ollie and English Setter Roni, is PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture and is a book blogger at http://www.kimthebookworm.co.uk.
Kim won the Romantic Novelists Association’s Media Star of the Year in 2016, which she still can’t quite believe. She is now quite delighted to be a member of the RNA.
When she’s not working or writing, Kim can be found walking her dog, reading, standing on the sidelines of a football pitch cheering on Ollie and binge watching box sets on the TV. She’s also quite partial to a spa day and a gin and tonic (not at the same time!) Kim also runs a book club in Cannock, Staffs.
Amazing Grace is her debut novel with Hera Books and will be out on 10th April 2019
This was great fun and relatively easy for me because all the selected songs are featured in my novel That Summer at the Seahorse Hotel.
I’m Irish, so music is in my DNA. Music filled our house from morning to night, my father Harry, was a trumpet-player who loved jazz, classical, pop, you name it, he even played in a brass band and introduced us to some wonderful colliery tunes.
We all loved to dance – ballet, tap, rock ‘n’ roll and I was taught The Twist by my aunts at a very tender age. I still know the words to most Billie Holiday songs and quite a few of Ella Fitzgerald’s too! That Summer at the Seahorse Hotel is a gripping, romantic suspense staring Mia Flanagan, a costumier in the film business whose mother is a famous actress. Mia has never been told who her father is, and when Archie Fitzgerald, one of Hollywood’s favourites, decides to leave her his Irish estate she wonders, is he her father after all?
Set on the sunny east coast of Ireland, the music of the past is the backdrop to this contemporary tale of jealousy and betrayal, with as many dramatic twists and turns as these wonderful songs portray. Here goes…
The story opens with a young couple bursting through a secret door into a crowded library, where only minutes before Archie was playing Tiny Dancer on the piano … this song resonates with my Saturday job in Golden Discs in Dublin.
Playlist 1: Tiny Dancer by Elton John & Bernie Taupin – Tiny Dancer was released in 1971.
Fast forward to student days at the Dublin College of Journalism – Golden Years indeed! My hero, David Bowie has been a mentor in so many ways.
Playlist 2: David Bowie – Golden Years, from his 1976 album Station to Station.
As a young journalist, I worked in magazines and loved interviewing stars and celebrities. In a very ritzy cocktail bar in Covent Garden a tall, handsome man paid for my drink as I stood at the bar … yes, the divine Mr Bryan Ferry. Quite a few years later I reminded him I owed him a drink … Avalon is one of the most romantic songs I’ve ever heard and still adore it.
Playlist 3: Roxy Music – Avalon – 1982 written by Bryan Ferry
I came late to this one and having been the proud owner of a beautiful horse who was a complete gentleman, I totally identify with this. It also resonates as the perfect lament to a lost love, or a love who has passed. Exquisite.
Playlist 4: Ride On by Jimmy McCarthy recorded by Christy Moore in 1984
And finally, the unique Elvis Costello. Last year my husband bought me a record player for our wedding anniversary. It’s in my writing shed with my collection of vinyl which includes an LP called That Summer – and features Watching the Detectives, which I still play over …and over…
Playlist 5: Watching the Detectives by Elivs Costello – 1977
Thanks for this wonderful delve into my book and my music Jo. Loved it.
Keeping singing, keep dancing, keep writing.
Adrienne X
Adrienne Vaughan – Author
Adrienne Vaughan has been making up stories since she could speak; as soon as she could pick up a pen she started writing them down. No surprise she wanted to be a journalist, ideally the editor of a glossy magazine, where she could meet and marry a rock star! Today, she runs a busy PR practice, writing novels, poems and short stories in her spare time.
With Irish parents, Adrienne was born in England and brought up in Dublin. She now lives in rural Leicestershire with husband, Jonathan and a rescue cat called Agatha Christie – ‘So named because we never know who she’s going to kill next!’
They have a home in the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland and visit often. Although being a writer has always been her dream, Adrienne admits she still harbours a burning ambition to be a Bond girl.
To date she has written three award-winning standalone novels in The Heartfelt Series, The Hollow Heart, A Change of Heart and Secrets of the Heart. Her latest novel That Summer at the Seahorse Hotel is enjoying some fabulous reviews and her highly-acclaimed short story anthology Fur Coat & No Knickers is also available – as are all her other books – as both eBooks and paperbacks from Amazon.
Adrienne Vaughan is an award-winning author of 5 Star romantic suspense.
When Jo Lambert invited me to very kindly share my love of music over five songs, I thought this would be an easy selection to make, but let me tell you it is so, so difficult. I have a huge back catalogue of music I simply love, and to select just five I found it really tough. I am glad Jo made it easier by wanting music relating to milestones in my life. That narrowed it down to about 750 songs!
So here we go…
I was born in the 1970s and music was always being played in our family home, and in my grandparents’ houses. It is through my grandfather that my love for country music was formed. However it would not be a country song I will select to be my first song. Well, it is the 70s, isn’t it? Also, I was a child back then. So the track I am going to select is from when I first remember dancing. I have always loved to dance and this for me is where it all begun. Now you’re probably thinking Nikki is going to choose some really cool 70s disco hit, are you not? I’m a child remember! So I was getting my groove on back then to the wonderful Wombles and Remember You’re A Womble.
Remember You’re A Womble by The Wombles
I can remember dancing around to this track and it brings back such happy memories of my childhood. I had all the Wombles memorabilia and The Wombles LP was bought at the local Woolworths. I still know all the words to every Womble song.
So for my second track, I am slightly older now. Lets move into the 80s. This is when I did almost most of my education at school, if I didn’t have far more important things to be doing with my time. I wrote my first song aged nine. Happy times at the school disco and WHAM!, the gorgeous George Michael, and to me Careless Whisper is still one of best ever written love songs. So there I was aged eleven, wanting to be cool with my ‘I Heart WHAM!’ bag and hoping high school was going to be more Kids from Fame than Grange Hill. It was at this time WHAM! posters were all over my bedroom wall and ceiling. The teenybopper days went by in leg warmers and on roller-skates, with Sony Walkman headphones permanently attached to my head. By the time I was leaving school this had changed to Pet Shop Boys and The Smiths posters, and being influenced fashion wise between Cyndi Lauper and Madonna. Public relation skills at work even back then as I soon negotiated a place on the back of the school bus! The song I am going to chose for my second track, is a song that reminds me of making decisions back then of what I was going to do once I was a grown-up.
Left to my own Devices by The Pet Shop Boys
Other bands from the 80s like Talk Talk, New Order, Depheche Mode and the fabulous Roxy Music left an imprint on my life, and here we now are in the 90s. In my student days dance music and raving was the scene. Dancing and ‘having fun’ all night long. Having a good time was all that mattered. Non-stop dancing and binge drinking. It was through those good times out clubbing in the famous Batley Frontier club, which was long ago known as Batley Variety club, that I met my husband Andrew and this song for me reminds me of when we first got together.
Never Tear Us Apart by INXS
Still only in our early twenties by the mid 90s Andrew and I were married and our two children Liam and Chloe were born. Now it was time to really settle down and become sensible. Driving around in the car when my children were small we would listen to Travis or The Verve, and from when Liam could first talk he would soon be singing along to songs in the car. It wasn’t until Liam was choosing a song for his prom a few years later, when he was aged eleven that when he asked for ‘The Trucks Don’t Work’ that we realised all this time he had been singing the wrong word along to my next track, which is…
The Drugs Don’t Work by The Verve
My children are now all grown-up and my daughter recently has been through some difficult times, which she has overcome. This is a song we would play and sing together during those times, and it helped get her through. As parents all you want is for your children to be happy, but sometimes under circumstances we cannot control, we cannot protect our children from harm. What we can be is there for them to pick up the pieces and give love and support. I think at the time this song provided a positive influence on going towards my daughter’s recovery. We go back to my love of country music and Chloe is also a huge fan of the TV series Nashville. So it’s the queen of country with…
Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Parton
So there you have my final five, and never would I have thought out of the many songs that I love that they would have been the ones I would have picked!
Bio
Nikki Bywater’s career in media began as a model and support artist, which lead to small acting roles in film and television. It was through her work in television she was given the opportunity to write. Nikki in her role as a book and script publicist is well-known for giving her time generously to new writers, many of them going on to be published and best-selling authors.
When not daydreaming and storyboarding ideas in Paris, Nikki lives in Cheshire with her husband Andrew and their two grown-up children.
Best friends Lisa and Felicity think – maybe, just maybe – they finally have everything sorted out in their lives.
Lisa is in a happy relationship with her old flame, and busy mum Felicity has managed to reignite the passion with her husband, Pete, after a romantic getaway.
But when Lisa walks in on a half-naked woman in her boyfriend’s flat and Felicity is left reeling from a shocking discovery, it becomes clear that life is nothing but full of surprises …
In the summer of 2017, Carol Thomas was delighted to gain a publishing contract with Ruby Fiction, a new imprint of the award-winning publishers Choc Lit, for her latest novel The Purrfect Pet Sitter.
Carol writes for both adults and children: Her contemporary romance novels, have relatable heroines whose stories are layered with emotion, sprinkled with laughter and topped with irresistible male leads; while her children’s books have irresistibly cute, generally furry characters young children can relate to.
Carol lives on the south coast of England with her husband, four children and lively young Labrador. She has been a playgroup supervisor and taught in primary schools for over fifteen years, before dedicating more of her time to writing. Carol is a regular volunteer at her local Cancer Research UK shop and has a passion for reading, writing and people watching. She can often be found loitering in local cafes working on her next book.
Would you take a chance on a bad boy with a leather jacket and a vintage motorbike?
That’s the question single mum Jo Morris has to ask herself when she collides with local bike mechanic Ed Griffiths on a rainy Welsh hillside. Working at the Art Café, Jo hears the gossip and is all too aware of Ed’s reputation.
But whilst he’s certainly no angel, there is something about Ed’s daredevil antics that Jo can’t ignore. And as she gets to know him better and watches the kind way he deals with her young son Liam, she begins to wonder – is there more to this ‘bad boy’ than meets the eye?
Well, what can I say? This is a really feel good read. There’s Ed a bad boy who’s really a good guy at heart. Jo a single mum working at the Art Cafe, making a new life for herself while protecting her small son from secrets of the past. Fun loving Beryl next door whose a mix of practical neighbour and caring surrogate mum to Jo. And of course four year old Liam. He absolutely steals the show with his energy and innocent questions which can sometimes prove embarrassing. Once again Sue has created a story around motorbikes, which are her passion. But romance definitely takes centre stage and if you enjoyed Summer at the Art Cafe, you will love this.
A story packed with characters you’ll remember long after you’ve reached the end of the story.
ABOUT SUE
Arty, biking, writing granny, that’s me! Living on the Welsh coast, right at the bottom before it plops into the sea, I was a policewoman in Essex before I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at a very early age.
Thanks to my amazing family and friends, I made a full recovery, left the police, met the man I then married and went to live in semi-rural Wales – well, I thought it was semi-rural after living in Essex. I mean, you had to drive fifteen miles to get to a Marks and Sparks. Where on earth did people buy their underwear? It was a small town that thought it was a village. But it had a beach.
I fell in love with it, along with the two adorable little boys I inherited. They inspired my passion for painting children, and they and their children inform the young characters in my books and subsequent career change as portrait painter. I even appeared on Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Year!
The beach formed a huge part of my life, and I trained as a beach lifeguard, patrolling the beach and competing on the single ski. That all stopped when I needed a hip replacement and found carrying equipment too painful. Not to be outdone, I and three pals did a 45 mile walk and raised over £10,000 for Cancer Research, and not long after that, I decided I’d learn to ride a motorbike.
That was a huge and entertaining learning curve, and inspired my debut novel, Summer at the Art Cafe. I’m on my second hip now, still riding my 1000cc red Honda, and I’ve made some of my most enduring friendships through biking.
I hope you enjoy reading about my characters and their stories. Some of my life has inevitably given birth to some of theirs, but their personalities are all their own, and I keep expecting to see them in the local supermarket or on the beach!
Second novel, Meet Me at the Art Cafe is about to meet the world. Although there is still a bikey element in there, this time I touched on vintage motorbikes, which I have a soft spot for.
When I first heard about Jo Lambert’s concept of a Life Playlist, I thought it a wonderful idea. Even after she kindly invited me to take part, I was still excited and pleased. Music thrills me. But when I began seriously to think about the songs……. Oh no! How could I not choose all of the R & B, Soul and Motown songs I loved, or the singer-song-writers going as far back as Bob Dylan, through Joni Mitchell…. Too many to list. At my first attempt I was overshooting my allowance by a multiple of ten.
In the end, the songs I have chosen aren’t necessarily my topmost favourites – if I could even decide which those are – but they are the punctuation to important times in my life.
I was a snooty child. I looked down on friends and classmates who were “in love” with pop singers. How stupid! I thought. We’re children! How can you be in love when you’re only eleven? Stars like Elvis, Cliff Richard, and Adam Faith left me unmoved. There were individual songs I liked, and I did think Jess Conrad was handsome (shame about the voice), but it was not until the Beatles – there arrival on the scene coinciding with my awakening hormones – that I ‘got it’.
It was a love affair that lasted for years and even now I watch old footage, and hear those songs with a great deal of nostalgia. But the song I choose from that era isn’t even one they penned themselves. I had never heard anything like it – the rawness, the pulse, the power, the passion – stirred the fourteen-year-old me in ways I’d never been stirred before. TWIST AND SHOUT, by the Beatles, is my first choice. And if you were around at the time this will bring back a smile.
Though my time at Art School is a very significant milestone in my life, and I look back on it with great affection, it was a relatively brief period. I emerged after two years still the gauche, introverted girl I’d been, living at home and without ever having had a proper boyfriend. Jan, my older sister, was always more out-going than me and had a far wider and more interesting social life.
We went to a party together. Even to my inexperienced eyes it turned out to be a rather staid affair, but the music being played was good. Both my sister and I love to dance. So, when two very flamboyant, loud and funny young men arrived at the party the whole atmosphere changed, and the girls they wanted to spend the evening with were the girls who danced. Shortly after this event Jan decided she wanted to leave home, taking me with her. She organized a flat that we could share with two girl-friends, and a new phase began.
The song that epitomized that life-changing party, and the very many subsequent parties during the next episode of my life as an independent young woman in London, is 007 (Shanty Town) by Desmond Dekker.
Read into this choice what you will. Enough to say it was a very happy time of my life.
A few years later I was working happily in an advertising design studio, but was still very unlucky in love. Or perhaps I should say, too choosy. The men I wanted never wanted me and visa-versa. Jan and I were living as a twosome, by then. I had never met Geoffrey before he turned up in our flat with a band of Jan’s friends and workmates after a leaving party. I immediately liked the look of him, but there was a drawback. Geoffrey was too perfect. A year older than me, he was good looking, clever, in a good job, and interested in art.
But my own social life had recently become more adventurous and I was enjoying myself. I was definitely not ready to settle down. We became friends. My parents loved him. Jan loved him. He was the best friend of her partner, Roger. It all looked too pre-ordained. I could see the road ahead of me running out of other options, so the rebel inside my head would not give in to it.
I was already a fan of 10CC – their discography up to that time is a list of witty, catchy, danceable songs and Dreadlock Holiday has to be a contender for my ‘favourites’ playlist. But around this time the band brought out an iconic song that was a complete change from what had gone before – I’M NOT IN LOVE.
It immediately became our song – mine and Geoffrey’s – and, of course, I married him.
But it was not until I had our son, Tom, that life REALLY altered dramatically. I gave up work planning to go back to it later. I’d recently learnt to drive and we bought our first car. My husband had changed jobs. We moved house. And, when Tom was just three, I resurrected a teenage hobby. I began writing again, but this time with serious intent.
I was a young mother, was doing something I loved and, unbelievably, was soon to be published. I had my own car in which Tom and I were able to go places and do things. It could be as simple as driving to an out of town super-store, or to my art class where, he attended the creche, but this was an unbelievably exciting and fulfilling time in my life. There is a great soundtrack to this period, the mid-Eighties, which vividly revives those emotions. Think Live Aid! Because I can only pick one, I choose a favourite song of Tom’s. MAN EATER, by Hall & Oates. It brings back those memories of driving around, just the two of us, our music blaring out from the car’s cassette player.
Needless to say, Tom’s interpretation of the lyrics was entirely different from mine. His involves a lurking monster.
My fifth is a totally brilliant song that we used to play, over and over again, on the juke box of a beach bar in Greece. It always makes me want to leap up and dance. But its importance to me is because this was the first holiday I’d taken with my sister since we were single girls. Now that Tom was at University and we were free-agents, it seemed a really lovely idea to go away as a foursome – she and Roger, me and Geoff. We settled on Parga in NW Greece, or more specifically Volos Beach next door. For years I misremembered the name and thought this song was called ‘Or just forget about it’. It is in fact SMOOTH, by Santana. The vocals are supplied by the amazing Rob Thomas. I have found an utterly thrilling live performance which has had me bouncing around in my typing chair.
I very much wanted to bring this piece up to date with the song I’ve adored since the instant I heard it. The first time I actually saw the performer his appearance took me totally by surprise. I’d assumed he was black for one thing. Beards have never been my thing, but given my own son now sports the full Victorian, I have to put my prejudices aside. Even though I’ve run out of my allowance, I have to mention HUMAN, by Rag ‘n’ Bone Man.
Thank you so much Jo, I’ve loved doing this.
Wife and mother, Nell, fears change, but it is forced upon her by her manipulative husband, Trevor. Moving to a house she dislikes, in a town she has no connection to, she is cast adrift from all her previous certainties. Her life is further disrupted by the renovations her husband feels essential. She finds herself almost living with a firm of builders, one of whom – Patrick – irritates, intrigues and exasperates her by turns.
After taking a part-time bar job at the sports club she is gradually drawn in to the social scene of the area. Finding herself in a new world of flirtation and casual infidelity, her principles are undermined. Should she emulate the behaviour of her new friends or stick with the safe and familiar? She is tempted by a club member known only as Angel.
But everything Nell has accepted at face value has a dark side. Everyone – even her nearest and dearest – has been lying. She’s even deceived herself. The presentiment of disaster, first felt as a tremor at the start of the story, rumbles into a full-blown earthquake. When the dust settles, nothing is as it previously seemed. And when an unlikely love blossoms from the wreckage of her life, she believes it is doomed.
The future, for the woman who feared change, is irrevocably altered. But has she been broken, or has she transformed herself?
FLY OR FALL- myBook.to/GilliAllan
From FLY OR FALL – Chapter Two
The family have not been living in their new house for many months and renovations have recently started. Nell is aware someone new has joined the team of workmen today, but meets him for the first time when he knocks on her door to use the loo. Her first sight of him makes an impression, but she ignores and discounts her response. Instead of returning outside once he’s finished, he follows her into the kitchen where, feeling mildly irritated Nell feels obliged to offer him a cup of coffee.
…..The man sat, stretching out his cement crusted legs and crossing his feet. His large, steel capped boots were almost white.
‘Prefer tea,’ he said, ‘and I don’t suppose there’s a chance of something to eat?’
‘Eat?’
‘Yeah. You put it in your mouth and chomp up and down a bit. Fuel for the inner man.’ At my silence he elaborated. ‘Lump of cheese? Bread and jam? Marmite? Honey? Anything? I’m easily pleased.’
None of the other workmen had expected to be fed. And beyond the occasional biscuit, I’d not considered offering food. I was surprised, and by now thoroughly put out by the man’s continuing presumption. I was relieved I could dislike him. Had he turned out to be a thoroughly amiable character, his continued presence around my house could have proved seriously distracting.
‘The others –’
‘No need to worry about Spike and Jazz. Gone off down the boozer.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Don’t drink. Makes me dopey. Don’t want to fall off the ladder.’
‘I wasn’t worried. I was about to say, they provide their own food.’
‘They’ve got mums. I’ve no one to look after me. Rather spend the extra ten minutes in bed than making a picnic.’ He turned the full strength of his smile on me.
‘I’ve the washing to peg out,’ I said, with a nod to the basket.
‘Doesn’t matter. I can see you’re busy.’ He made as if to get up, withdrawing his long legs.
Concerned now, and half ashamed of my churlishness, I looked at the clock. I didn’t want it on my conscience if my hypoglycaemic builder had an accident.
‘I suppose another ten minutes isn’t going to make a difference to the washing. And I need to get myself something.’ My big mouth. Of course he would take this as an invitation to eat with me. Already he was relaxing back into the chair, hands behind his head, as I pushed aside the library book I was reading and put the bread board and butter on the table. It was a bad idea to get too friendly with the men. I knew it, Trevor had reiterated it. If you get too chummy they’ll take advantage. Yet here I was, in my own kitchen, about to share my lunch with a stranger who was patently all too willing to take liberties. I opened the fridge and took out the cheese box, then dumped some plates and knives onto the table. It would have been different if I’d wanted the company, but I preferred my own. I badly wanted to be left in peace to listen to the radio. Just then, the theme tune to The Archers came on. While washing up the previous evening I’d heard the original broadcast – hard to justify a desperate desire to hear the repeat. I turned it off and sat down opposite him.
‘That looks like a bit of a tome. The Inheritance of Loss …’ As he reached for the hardback by Kiran Desai, I noticed his large hands. Though clean now, they were ruddy, and roughened by heavy work, the knuckles pitted, scuffed, and scabbed by old and recent injuries. Instead of turning the book over to read the blurb, he glanced up at me with raised eyebrows. I wondered if he wanted a précis of the plot or a justification of why I was reading it.
‘It’s not particularly long.’
‘Looks serious. Not much of a reader, me. Apart from the Sun, of course.’
Of course. I’d no need to make clichéd assumptions about the man; he’d done it for me. Upstairs he had evidently washed his face as well as his hands; a few strands of hair still clung to a damp forehead. I wondered what it was that had initially unnerved me at first sight. His was a longish face and although I was mistaken about the depth of tan, his complexion possessed the healthy bloom of a life spent outdoors, a bloom which heightened to a tawny flush over high cheekbones. Without the disconcerting patina of rust flakes I noticed natural freckles scattered across the blunt bridge of his long nose. I’d never admired men with freckles. His eyes were not a piercing periwinkle, nor a glittering emerald, nor a smouldering, sensual brown – merely hazel. There was nothing to write home about in the hair department either. A lighter brown than my own, it was cut in such jagged layers it could conceivably have been styled with garden shears, and the faint russet burnish might only indicate it was still dusted with rust. Even the wide, perfect smile was not that perfect; one of his incisors was crooked, and a scar hooked upwards from the right corner of his over-generous mouth. Analysis proved how misled I’d been at first sight. Nice enough, but far from an Adonis. He put down the book and reached for a roughly hacked doorstep of bread, glancing up at me with an enquiring lift of the eyebrow.
‘I’ve not noticed you around before?’
I felt trapped, wanting this lunchtime interlude to be over, but while he was slathering his bread with spread and helping himself to a sizeable wedge of cheese, politeness kept me sitting across the table as an unwilling participant in the conversation.
‘It may need some updating but this is a good sound property,’ he reassured me, following my explanation of how rapidly we’d done the deal and moved in. ‘And for the size, you got it at a knock-down price.’
‘But we’re on the wrong side of town. Anyone who is anyone lives in Old Town.’
He frowned. ‘Why d’you say that?’
‘Something I’ve heard. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t care less whether we’re on this side of the main road or the other; I know we have the best of both worlds here, with the downs just up the road, and the station and town centre only a fifteen minute walk away.’
‘But you’re not happy?’
‘What do you mean?’
He shrugged. ‘You seem a bit dead-pan, bit rehearsed.’
‘I haven’t found my feet yet,’ I said quickly. He continued to look at me as if waiting for more. I looked down at my hands then up and out of the window. ‘I would’ve had reservations about anywhere I moved to. I … I’m not brave.’
‘Brave?’ He lifted his eyebrows.
‘To start your life again you need bravery. I’m a bit of a wimp. In the past I had a vision of what lay ahead of me. Since we’ve come here it’s as if someone has wiped the board clean.’ Why on earth had I said that to this Sun reading stranger? ….
About Gilli
Gilli Allan began to write in childhood – a hobby pursued throughout her teenage. Writing was only abandoned when she left home, and real life supplanted the fiction.
After a few false starts she worked longest and most happily as a commercial artist, and only began writing again when she became a mother.
Living in Gloucestershire with her husband Geoff, Gilli is still a keen artist. She draws and paints and has now moved into book illustration.
She is published by Accent Press and each of her books, TORN, LIFE CLASS and FLY or FALL has won a ‘Chill with a Book’ award.
Following in the family tradition, her son, historian Thomas Williams, is also a writer. His most recent work, published by William Collins, is ‘Viking Britain’.
Mollie Walton is the saga pen-name for historical novelist Rebecca Mascull. Visit her websites for more information: 
Victoria Cornwall grew up on a farm in Cornwall and can trace her Cornish roots as far back as the 18th century. It is this background and heritage which is the inspiration for her Cornish based novels.
space and making things up.
Kim Nash lives in Staffordshire with son Ollie and English Setter Roni, is PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture and is a book blogger at 
Adrienne Vaughan has been making up stories since she could speak; as soon as she could pick up a pen she started writing them down. No surprise she wanted to be a journalist, ideally the editor of a glossy magazine, where she could meet and marry a rock star! Today, she runs a busy PR practice, writing novels, poems and short stories in her spare time.
Nikki Bywater’s career in media began as a model and support artist, which lead to small acting roles in film and television. It was through her work in television she was given the opportunity to write. Nikki in her role as a book and script publicist is well-known for giving her time generously to new writers, many of them going on to be published and best-selling authors.
In the summer of 2017, Carol Thomas was delighted to gain a publishing contract with Ruby Fiction, a new imprint of the award-winning publishers Choc Lit, for her latest novel The Purrfect Pet Sitter.
Arty, biking, writing granny, that’s me! Living on the Welsh coast, right at the bottom before it plops into the sea, I was a policewoman in Essex before I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at a very early age.
Gilli Allan began to write in childhood – a hobby pursued throughout her teenage. Writing was only abandoned when she left home, and real life supplanted the fiction.
JO LAMBERT 