| Love out of Season |
| What the critics said |
| Extract |
| The Setting |
| Shadows on a Wall |
| Sunday Morning |
| Other Books |
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now in paperback
These are the sort of questions puzzling Amy Miller,
a writer of romantic fiction, when she discovers
she is being doorstepped by the tabloid Press over her
secret affair with a famously married lover. As he panics
she quickly goes into hiding.
Choosing a remote hotel on the North Devon coast, she
meets Tim, a music teacher and composer, who, recuperating
after being injured at school, is struggling
to finish a piece of music his absent girl friend
has inspired. But what a piece! “I’m sure
Beethoven had his off-days,” Amy sympathises. “Probably,”
says Tim. “But he was deaf. He didn’t have
to listen to what he was playing.”
Gradually, as they wander the empty resort and beaches,
the two become friends, easily able to see the other’s
problems, but with no idea how to solve their own.
Meanwhile the hotel is preparing for a St Valentine’s
ball, and, as we follow Amy and Tim, we unpeel the
fears and romantic yearnings of some of the guests
and staff. These include Shona, the seemingly confident
college placement, and Darrell, the gauche local boy
porter; Michael and Eleanor, the middle-aged ex-priest
and ex-nun who have left their orders to marry, and
who are now on their honeymoon; and Jane, the manager
who is desperate, and not only about making a success
of her first hotel.
And then on the eve of St Valentine’s Day a tabloid
journalist discovers the runaway author—while
enjoying a spot of weekend adultery himself…
LOVE OUT OF SEASON
"Funny, charming and compassionate, successfully
transposing the conventions of Shakespearian
comedy to the 21st Century". Mail on Sunday
Published by
Quercus Books Ltd
21 Bloomsbury Square
London WC1A 2QA