Let The Bells Ring Out (2025)
Pre-order from Amazon:
- paperback pre-order – out 22nd October 2026
Seven people, four days and a snowy Christmas on board a luxury sleeper train. This festive season getting away from it all takes on a new meaning…
The Yorkshire Belle is a glamorous steam train all decked out for an escapist festive getaway. It is not supposed to be where a group of people, all trying to get to their destinations for the holidays, will spend their Christmas.
Seven people, each with their own hopes and dreams, secrets and sorrows, board the train as strangers, but as the snow keeps falling and they realise they are going nowhere fast, they are forced to slow down and embrace the present.
This Christmas on board the Yorkshire Belle, will the friendships they make change their lives forever?
I Wish it Could be Christmas was only ever meant to be a standalone book.
This was written after my dad died, but when mum passed away, I felt that same urge to put my energies into a book and it was the first time I thought about doing a sequel. But I abandoned it straightaway really because my agent said that everyone knew about any twists and it might be a bit samey-samey. Then a weird thing happened. My husband was watching the snooker on the TV and at the moment when I went into the lounge to ask if he wanted a cuppa, he had gone to the loo. On the TV was a schmaltzy Christmas film. He came back into the room and asked why I’d turned his snooker over. I hadn’t. To this day he is convinced I’m fibbing.
The film was a romance set on a train in the snow. And it was like a seed sprouting in my head. I found a way of writing a sister book with crossovers to the first book, but this one would be set on a train that breaks down near Figgy Hollow. And, just like the first book, it poured out of me.
I did ask the Orient Express people if they would let me walk through the train to get an idea of perspective but they point-blank refused. Then my PR lady told me about the Northern Belle, made up of old authentic Pullman carriages so I booked a lunch onboard (it’s not cheap, but it’s worth every penny and more) and they were so kind, took me around the whole train, including the galley so I could get an idea of sizes and motion and food and storage – the chef was from Barnsley, so that was another weird thing. I watched enough videos to be able to kit out the bedrooms. The company could not have been more helpful.
You may notice several crossovers with ‘I Wish’ and this, for instance, Vincent’s name is ‘Diamond’ – a link to Charlie’s diamonds. And Roo’s liking for cherries, which Charlie loved. And where I could, the names of the characters have a link to ‘The Bishop’s Wife’, my favourite Christmas film of all time. I’ll leave you to search out the ‘easter eggs’. Whereas the first book had a special emphasis on fathers, this one had the same with mothers and their influence and love (and indifference in some cases). I feel as if those books sit on a shelf together – the ma and pa of my novels. To say I’m proud of it is a massive understatement.
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