Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash

Let's all ignore the fact that it's six months, minus a day, until Christmas and instead focus on the fact that it's only six months until The Choice is out. It feels like a tipping point, half way there and it's starting to feel more real.

I've seen a first draft of my cover and I can't wait to be able to share it with you. It's really striking, not at all what I expected but completely appropriate for the book I've written - as opposed to the book I thought I was writing. That's a whole other blog post.

Want to know what The Choice is about? Read on...

​​'Eat the best, leave the rest! Remember Mother knows best.'

Olivia Pritchard lives in constant fear since Mother Mason came into power. Everything from healthy eating to exercise is controlled by the government, all in the name of health and happiness. Olivia hates being dictated to, but to protect her family she must follow the rules or face a stay in the Shame Box - a transparent prison cell  set up in public for everyone to judge.

After Olivia witnesses an innocent woman being violently arrested, she is no longer able to ignore the injustice. The underground rebellion 'Cut The Apron Strings' is gaining momentum and for the first time in years Olivia has a choice: keep her head down or join the fray...

#CTAS #JoinTheFray

​The Choice is available to pre-order from Amazon, Waterstones, Book Depository

​DETAILS
Published: 26th December 2019
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 1409187748

It’s a year today that I found out I won the Good Housekeeping Novel Competition. I wasn't allowed to announce it then and keeping the secret was painful, but I'm delighted to be able to look back on the day that changed my life.

It couldn't have come at a better time, I needed something good to happen.

​I'd been having a horrible month: my grandad had died, I’d had a virus and then travelling to the funeral and all the extra stress had set my ME/CFS back.

If you broke your arm you would go to the hospital. They would reset it, put your arm in a cast and send you home to heal.

What if they didn’t?

What if they told you there was nothing they could do, that you should go away and try not to use it too much? What would you do?

Now swap the broken arm for a condition that leaves you in terrible pain, with fatigue so bad you can’t work, socialise, walk or even get out of bed? That’s what happens with a chronic illness. I’ve been ill with ME/CFS for 26 years, bed bound for 6 of those, housebound for 14. So my metaphorical arm has been broken for a very long time.