Great British Bake Off, all is forgiven! I'm a Technical Challenge convert. After being horrified by the complexity of the Angel Slices last week, I was wonderfully surprised by the simplicity of the Fig Rolls this week. I even followed the official recipe.

I'm having quite a day! I just found out that Orion will be revealing the cover for my debut novel The Choice tomorrow at 2.15 pm. I am so excited it's finally happening. I saw it back in May and it's absolutely stunning. It's also nothing like I expected, so it was a bit of a shock at first, but I'm delighted with it and I can't wait for everyone to see it.

Looking back on the past sixteen months is quite incredible. I won the Good Housekeeping Novel Competition in May 2018, started editing in September, went through the final proofs in August 2019 and now the cover is coming out. I keep having pinch me moments at how exciting this is. 

Imagine a world where…
Everything you ate was monitored by the government.
Every step you took was counted.
Your children were weighed every day at school.
Neighbours reported on neighbours and no one was safe from judgement.
Sugar was illegal, and baking was a crime.
 
Imagine if that world was here… What would you do?
Toe the line or fight for your freedom…
​

You can read my competition entry and the extract that appeared in Good Housekeeping here.. The story has changed a lot during the editing process, but the first page has stayed almost exactly the same.
​

You can pre-order your copy of The Choice as a paperback, ebook or audiobook from all good booksellers.  Amazon UK, Waterstones and Book Depository ​

It's my first week back at "work" after a glorious holiday in North Norfolk, where I stayed so close to the beach I could smell the salt in the air. 

I love the Great British Bake Off, it's one of my favourite shows. What's better than a TV program about cake? I watch it every year and it inspires some of the cakes I make for my cake club. I heard that there is a Twitter Bake Along and I thought it sounded like a lot of fun. 

Set up by @bakingnana and @Rob_C_Allen, the #GBBOTwitterBakeAlong has become a huge phenomenon and created a fabulous community of online bakers.

The rules are simple.

1. Watch the Great British Bake Off.
2. Bake one or more of the three challenges.
3. Post a picture of your bake including a handwritten note with #gbbotwitterbakealong and the date.

​'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 perspex box, placed in a public place 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

Today is GCSE results day in the UK. It's the day when sixteen-year-olds across the country find out if all their hard work has paid off. If they're going to get the grades they've hoped for, or if like me, they're going to be horribly, crushingly disappointed.

I never realised how much work went into producing a book. Not when I was a reader, not when I first started writing The Choice and not even when I won the Good Housekeeping Novel Competition and signed my book deal with Orion.

I was completely clueless about the whole process and I think in a lot of ways that was a good thing. It might have scared me off from ever pursuing my publishing dreams. 

Guests, cake, dress, photographer... just a few of the things I've been dreaming about for my perfect book launch for the past few years. Well, probably seven years since I first started writing The Choice, or Class A Cake as it originally started out as. It felt like a dream, maybe less realistic than getting married, but today I went to Norwich Waterstones to discuss my book launch. A real, honest to goodness book launch for my real, honest to goodness book!

Dream. Come. True.