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Thank you for your interest in my new novel.
The Simple Rules of Love is in no way a sequel, but it does pick up on characters I've written about before. The novel follows a year in the life of the Harrison family. I tried initially to concentrate on just a few of the characters (with grannies and middle-aged parents and children, there are so many of them!) but I quickly realised that with such a strong close-knit family it would be impossible and unsatisfying to leave anybody out! I was aware too, that, as in real life, there are different phases relating to one's age and preoccupations and so everybody had a new and interesting story for me to tell.
A novelist, like a parent, shouldn't have favourites... but that said, I was always particularly fond of Roland, the sensitive product of a broken marriage, with strong artistic abilities and an emotional intelligence way beyond his years. I loved being able to show him move towards adulthood, struggling with his awakening sexuality and the demands of a needy mother with huge deficiencies in her own personal life.
Several people have asked me about the title... why I chose it and what it's supposed to mean. The answer, for anyone interested, is that it arose from the realisation, acquired during the course of three years immersion in the numerous interrelations of the Harrison clan (siblings, parents, spouses, lovers and friends), that while human love takes countless forms its abiding principles are basic and constant.
I would love to hear how readers, both new to and familiar with the Harrison family, feel about The Simple Rules of Love. Writing is an isolated process and so any feedback I get is hugely appreciated. Like this letter to you, it is also a chance for both sides to enjoy that very special, invisible connection between an author and the people who enter the world he or she creates. I hope above all that The Simple Rules of Love comes across as a real world, full of the humdrum, desperate, complicated and rewarding emotions familiar to each and every one of us.
I am working on a very different story now, about a divorcee with a gaggle of female friends and a difficult eleven year old - not a Harrison in sight! I miss them, but am ready now to leave their fates in the capable hands of your imaginations. I have a heroine for my new novel but no satisfactory name as yet… any ideas?
With best wishes,
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