About the Book
Could your marriage survive the ultimate betrayal? The emotional story of a family under pressure, perfect for fans of Joanna Trollope and Hilary Boyd.
Olivia had everything – a loving husband in Geoffrey, a thoughtful and intelligent son in Edward and a beautiful home in the Somerset countryside.
But all that changed when Geoffrey’s business went under. Now penniless and homeless, Geoffrey is living with his recently widowed mother, whilst Olivia has been forced to work as a housemistress at her son’s elite boarding school.
With their marriage under intolerable strain, Geoffrey makes a mistake – one that has devastating consequences for the guilty and innocent alike . . .
About the Author
A Londoner by birth, Colette Dartford went to university in Bath and made it her home. A scholarship to undertake a doctorate led to a career in health and social research, before she moved to California’s Napa Valley. Here she studied Viticulture and Enology and wrote her debut novel.
Top 5 writing tips
- Read a lot, and well beyond your own genre. I write commercial women’s fiction and it would be so easy for me to read nothing else, not least because I love it. But much can be learned from other genres—plotting from crime, tension from thrillers, a sense of place from historical novels—and reading them can make you a better writer.
- When you sit down to write, banish the censorious voice in your head. You know the one I mean—it tells you you’re wasting your time, your work is rubbish, it will never get published, no-one will ever want to read it. That voice is the enemy and if you listen to it, you will be defeated.
- You may have taken some writing courses, or read books about how to write a novel, but if you want to stimulate your creative juices, try to write freely rather than dwelling on the ‘rules.’ You can tidy your work up later (see below), but while you are in full flow, it’s best not to get bogged down by ‘dos and don’ts.’
- Don’t be discouraged by the quality of your first draft. Even bestselling, prize winning authors confess that their first drafts are dreadful. Think of your first draft as you telling the story to yourself. It’s a starting point—the bones from on which to flesh out your novel.
- If your goal is to be published and you have a manuscript that you’ve revised as much as possible, the next step is to get professional feedback. There are a lot of reputable literary consultancies that provide editorial critiques, which can dramatically improve your work.
My final, and perhaps most important writing tip, is to simply enjoy it.
