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Novel set in the run-up to Christmas in Devon (“…just a bunch of waifs and strays..”)

23rd December 2018

Novel set in the run-up to Christmas in DevonChristmas at the Beach Hut by Veronica Henry, novel set in the run-up to Christmas in Devon.

You know that stress just before Christmas? When it gets to fever pitch and you are just tempted to run away? Meet Lizzy Kingham who is at the end of her tether…..

The author captures the frantic run-up to the festive season perfectly. The count-down begins 3 days before Christmas. As the book opens Lizzy Kingham goes shopping in a department store in fictional Leadenbury when she happens to bump into her husband’s ex-wife Amanda, who drops the bombshell that Cynthia, the mother-in-law, will be arriving to spend Christmas with Lizzy and Simon – Amanda is off to Val d’Isère with the two children. However, husband Simon has, er, omitted to share the good news.

This curveball announcement knocks Lizzy into orbit and she leaves the store clutching a dress she hasn’t actually paid for. A firm hand escorts her into a backroom. She is already suffering depressive feelings (it’s her age, you know), and she so wants the festive few days to be perfect. Next year the twins Hattie and Luke may not be there and empty nest syndrome is looming….

The Ocado delivery is organised, the Christmas tree is teetering in the corner. The other family members are out having a good time, they have essentially forgotten her. She feels truly unappreciated. On the spur of the moment she resolves to set off for Devon, to the eponymous beach hut of the title (a 5* accommodation as it turns out), owned by her friend Caroline, who is laid up abroad.

The author and TF’s Tina recently in London

However, caretaker of the beach hut Harley is already ensconced, a sweet young man, of similar age to her own children. He is suffering hard familial problems, picked upon by his mum’s bullying partner Tony Brice. The beach hut is his escape. Next door there are more waifs and strays, Jack and his daughter Nat, with trauma at the heart of their family.

Down time at the beach hut for Lizzy means little cooking, being off the world at this hectic time of year, and, she is soon curled up on the sofa “with a copy of The Shellseekers she’d found on the bookshelf. She’d brought books of her own, but somehow the lure of someone else’s reading matter  was more enticing, and she couldn’t think of a better book to be reading at the seaside.”.. before everything changes…

Facebook’s reach is far and wide and soon it is only a matter of time before her hideaway is discovered.

This is a feel good novel to ease readers into Christmas, smoothly written and a pleasure to read at this time of year.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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