A huge debt of gratitude to my brilliant editors Beverley Cousins and Alice Rodgers for guiding me so gently and astutely – your patience, generosity and all-round loveliness helped me to get this book where I wanted it to go. While we’re at it, big thanks to the slippery tile that put me out of action for a couple of months, because I’m not sure Sincerely, Me would be quite the same without all the extra thinking time forced upon me when I couldn’t move my arm!

Thank you to Leanne Egerton for the now-accustomed constant nagging about when I’m going to finish (I was quicker this time, yes?) and being there to celebrate every small win with me at the drop of a hat, and to Jane Ferris, purveyor of tea, grammar and encouragement (and for always introducing me to strangers as a ‘famous author’). Thanks to Sue Cunningham for letting me take over her sofa for two months while I did my final edits, and Rob Jones for consultation on the streets of London and trying to help me work out how to spend a thousand pounds in a black cab!

Thanks to Lou Ryan for the inspiration of your name and for listening to the rambling beginnings of this story during our lovely lockdown walks, and to my gorgeous Curtis Brown writing gang – Alice Clark-Platts, Dawn Goodwin, Heidi Perks, Alex Tyler, Elin Daniels, Moyette Gibbons, Catherine Bennetto and Grace Coleman – still cheering each other on all these years later.

To my family – near and far, old and young (that means you Ozias, Tallan and Atreyu), thank you for your endless support and encouragement. I hope you welcome Danny and Wolfie into the fold as wonderfully as you did Norman.

To all the hard-working, book-loving people at Penguin Random House Australia, Transworld UK and my international publishers who continue to champion authors and bring so many amazing books into the world – thank you. I know now that it really does take a village to publish a book and I am eternally grateful to every single person in my village.

Lastly, at its core, Sincerely, Me is about the loneliness and loveliness of being human, so to all the readers who have reached out to tell me to keep writing, and that my words have touched, inspired or meant something to them in some small way, I wrote this for you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

About the Author

© Lizzy C Photography

Julietta Henderson grew up in North Queensland and developed her passion for the written word producing ‘magazines’ for school friends and neighbours with her sister. She has worked her way through jobs as diverse as bicycle tour guide in Tuscany, nanny in the Italian Alps and breakfast waitress in the wilds of Scotland. Like many Australians, her love affair with Europe began when she went to London on a working holiday and stayed for more than a decade. Now a full-time writer, Julietta divides her life between Melbourne, the UK and wherever she can find winter.