Monday, September 26, 2016

Monday Book: The Vicar's Wife

Monday is Book Day on my blog, where I highlight a new or old release. Today, in honour of the new cover of my third Tales from Goswell series, The Second Bride, I thought I'd write about my first Tales of Goswell novel, The Vicar's Wife.

The Vicar's Wife in some ways feels like the first 'big book' I wrote. It isn't really; Far Horizons, Another Country, and Down Jasper Lane all were released in hardcover before I wrote it, and This Fragile Life came out at the same time. However, The Vicar's Wife was the first trade paperback I held in my hands, involved the first literary event in a bookshop I ever did, and was kind of a big deal as it came out when I was living in Cumbria, in the village Goswell is based on. The overwhelming support of my church and community still brings a smile to my face--there was a signup list in the church for copies. The local bookshop sold 200 copies in the first week.

The idea behind the book is of a woman who moves from New York City to rural Cumbria--exactly the move I made. In the book, however, the heroine Jane Hatton dislikes Cumbria; I loved it. She finds a shopping list from the 1930s stuck behind a pantry shelf--I only wish I did! And she discovers more about the vicar's wife of the title, Alice James, who lived in the 1930s and is entirely a product of my imagination.

Three years on from the release of The Vicar's Wife, I am working on the copy edits of the third book, and planning the fourth. I love this series even more now that I've sadly moved on from Cumbria. It always brings me back to the place I love, and the people who gave me such an amazing and unstinting welcome.

You can learn more about The Vicar's Wife and The Tales from Goswell series here.

1 comment:

Laurie I said...

A great book! It became my favorite book of the year when I read it back in 2013?? I believe. I have such a fondness for it that when my mom didn't give back my copy, I got another one. I have the e-book version too.