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Back One Winter Morning Save as PDF
Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. By the same author
  4. Dedication
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
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  30. 26
  31. 27
  32. 28
  33. 29
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  35. 31
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  38. 34
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  41. 37
  42. 38
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  44. 40
  45. 41
  46. 42
  47. 43
  48. 44
  49. 45
  50. 46
  51. 47
  52. 48
  53. Acknowledgements
  54. Read More
  55. Two Years Later
  56. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

Of course, it takes more than one person to bring a novel out into the world, and this time I have an entire Hobbit hole full of people to lavish my love on. To my agent, Hannah Ferguson and the team at Hardman & Swainson, thank you for all your support and for continuing to believe in me. To my chanting monk (ha!) of an editor, Tilda McDonald, you know this story would be a shadow of its completed self without your wisdom, patience and brilliance – you are INCREDIBLE. Thanks also to Laura Nicol, Helena Fouracre, Jess Hart, Sarah Kennedy and Sarah Bance, plus the rest of the awesome team at Penguin Michael Joseph. You are all heroes.

I used to list all my writer colleagues and old-school friends separately, but with publishing folk being as amazing as they are, the two groups now just crowd happily together under the same big umbrella. I could not possibly list everyone here, but I would like to especially thank Sadie, Ian, Tamsin, Ranjit, Gemma, Sarah, Colette, Carrie, Katie, Vicky Z, Graeme, Kimberley Atkins, Cesca, Cressida, Katy, Rachael, Jo, Roxie Cooper, Cathy, Nina, Kirsty G, Fanny, Tammy, Sara-Jade, Louise C, Claire Frost, Hannah R, Basia M, Sophie Ransom, Whittlesticks, Ali Land, Giovanna and Tom Fletcher, Jade Beer, Rosie W, Adele P, Tasmina, Karen, Lisa Howells, Kay Ribeiro, Corrie ‘MOFN’ Heale, my Queenstown crew Ross Greer, Josh, Griffin, Aman and Emily Durber, and Mr Edward Wears – aka the greatest tea maker of all time. All the colour, laughter, emotion and wisdom in this book comes from you lot.

To all the bloggers, reviewers, early readers, booksellers, competition winners and book champions far and wide – don’t ever stop doing what you do. You are all legends of the highest order who deserve three scoops of hokey-pokey ice cream with added chocolate sprinkles.

It is no real surprise that the stories I choose to tell always come back to family, because I have a pretty amazing one myself. We have faced some tough times over the years (perhaps especially in the past few), but my god have we learned a lot in the process. I can’t think of any people I am more proud of or love more. Thank you for teaching me about what matters most (and for looking after the dogs while I go gallivanting off on research trips to far-flung locations). This book, however, belongs most of all to you, Mum. Thank you for being so funny, witty, big-hearted, brave and for cheering me on when all this being-an-author malarkey was nothing but a far-off dream. As Kit would say, we bloody well did it – again!

Read More

Two Years Later

It is a simple fact that no matter how many delays I encounter, or how much terrible airline food I endure, or how often my fellow passengers elbow me in the ribs, I am always in a fabulous mood when I arrive home.

Home, of course, being New Zealand.