Blog

What I Love About Italy

Aside from a long-ago holiday in Sorrento in the south, I knew little of Italy when I began visiting Umbria in 2013. At the time, I’d answered a plea from an author buddy, Gilli, to help her friend Sara expand her residential courses to include writing. Hand-on-heart, Gilli did type… Read More

Barnaby Walter joins the Avon Books family

Here at Avon Books, we’re thrilled to have signed a two-book deal with Waterstones’ social media coordinator Barnaby Walter. Phoebe Morgan acquired World English Language rights to A Version of the Truth and one other book from Joanna Swainson at Hardman & Swainson. Barnaby’s debut, about a woman who finds horrifying… Read More

The Happily Married Divorce Lawyer

Like a beautifully fitting glove, My Husband’s Lies slips snugly into the ‘domestic noir’ genre. What are the ingredients of such stories? Well, they are generally set in homes or work places and there’s often a dark narrative and a sense of claustrophobic danger or unease between husband and wife… Read More

My Own Summer Theatre

My love of theatre started when I was aged ten and my parents took me to see a local amateur pantomime. I was mesmerised by the cheeky Dame, the slapstick comedy duo, and the heroic principle boy – even if I was confused as to why the male parts were… Read More

Writing Her Hidden Life

As I point out in my Author’s Note for the book, the idea for Her Hidden Life came from an Associated Press article published in April 2013. The true story of a woman, Margot Woelk, who tasted Adolf Hitler’s food to protect him from poisoning captured my imagination and spurred… Read More

Researching an Orphan’s War

When Avon suggested I write a series of novels set in Liverpool in a Dr Barnardo’s orphanage in the Second World War I was filled with trepidation. The last bit was fine – I’ve always been very interested in that period, and had done loads of research for one of… Read More

The Importance of Flowers

Before writing The Memories of Us, my relationship with flowers was probably not dissimilar to that of most people—I considered them beautiful, loved receiving them and enjoyed buying them for loved ones on special occasions. However, I had given very little thought to where our fresh blooms come from or… Read More

How to Have an Adventure at Any Age

I have so enjoyed reading recent reviews of my debut novel, A Grand Old Time, and there seems to be a couple of recurring themes from these early readers that make my heart rejoice. One is that my feisty, mischievous heroine, Evie Gallagher, is celebrated for going off on a… Read More

Ten Points About Guilt

  A brief summary. My psychological thriller Guilt begins with a stabbing, leaving one twin sister dead, and the other accused of her murder. After the opening scene, past and present story arcs are intermingled, gradually revealing the reason for the fight and, at the crescendo of the book, the… Read More

How real crime inspired The Rebel

  There’s been an alarming increase in fatal gun and knife attacks across London. Most of victims are young people and many of the killings are gang-related. But this surge in extreme violence is clearly a trend that poses a threat to everyone, young or old, male or female. And… Read More

Life in Devon

In 2015 we sold our house in Cheltenham to someone who was moving out of London. She declared it absolutely perfect (and then spent the first year knocking seven bells and several walls out of it.) Devon has more thatched houses than just about any other county and we were… Read More

MJ Ford on his writing journey to Hold My Hand

First off, I think I’ve been pretty lucky with my journey into writing. I started out as an editor of children’s non-fiction, almost straight out of university, with an English and Classics degree and little idea what to do with it. I was fortunate that the opportunity arose to write a book… Read More

Joining Avon as a digital-first author

When my agent, Anne Williams, phoned me to say that Avon was interested in my first novel, Saving Sophie, I was driving to pick up my sons and had to pull over to take the call. I remember that moment with absolute clarity, but because of my excitement and being… Read More

Welcome to Avon

Hello and welcome to our new sparkly website! We are so excited to be up and running with our brandnew look – and say hello to you lovely folk. We hope you enjoy what you find here – we have some brilliant guest posts from our authors, information on all… Read More

What readers are saying about The Fear

Less than two months to go until The Fear by C.L. Taylor hits the shelves! I finished this book in two days and almost felt as if I couldn’t breathe until I reached the last line. If you’ve read any of C.L. Taylor’s books before, you’ll know exactly what I… Read More

Being an editor and author

There are a LOT of characters roaming around inside my head. Some good, some bad, some murderous, some loveable. There’s even some loveable murderers in the mix at times. Working as a commissioning editor, I spend my days wrapped up in the fascinating world of other writers’ novels – from… Read More