When your life changes in a moment, how do you rewrite your story?
In 1940s Britain, with the Second World War raging, Alice is working in a laboratory developing a new miracle medicine. Made to leave school at sixteen and abandon her aspiration to be a teacher, she learns instead how curing people may be her destiny.
In the present day, Jo, already in a failing marriage, is devastated when she hears her daughter’s life is on a knife edge. At her bedside Jo starts to read Alice’s diary, found the previous day in a vintage handbag.
A door opens onto the past, revealing a young woman’s fierce determination to succeed against all odds. Past and present overlap and merge as life-changing events resonate across the gulf of time.
This is a story of a mother whose life is blown apart. Now she must find a way to put it back together. Can Alice show her the way?
“I devoured this book. The characters are rich and their stories compelling.” – Goodreads reviewer
“This is a tale that will wring your heart and feed your soul. Don’t pass it up!” – I’m a Voracious Reader
“Timeless themes, beautifully packaged.” – Something by Jane
I have been a voracious reader of fiction ever since I was a small child. I was determined that one day I would write a novel but the opportunity to fulfil that dream didn’t come until I semi-retired. I studied for an MA in Creative Writing, an amazing experience which I will never forget.
I have no regrets about embarking on a writing career later in life, I loved my career in medical research and have a lifetime of experiences which I can bring to my novels. My research on improving the treatment of people with diabetes, has given me many invaluable tools: a knowledge about science which I use in my writing, the importance of attention to detail and a love of researching a subject I am writing about.
When I am not writing I am gardening, walking in the Sussex countryside where I live or travelling in my motorhome in Europe. My love of gardening creeps into my novels and gardens play an important role in The Yellow-Tail Moth. Many of the plants in my garden feature in my novels.
To avoid the cold English winters, I travel to Sicily in my motorhome and in the summer visit other parts of Europe, a favourite being the Bavarian Alps. My travels provide me with more inspiration for my novels and while I’m travelling I continue to write