I’m so grateful to have been edited and published for the past twenty years and thirteen books by the wonderful Ali Watts of Penguin Random House Australia. It’s been a pleasure to work with her colleagues on The Godmothers too: Amanda Martin, Melissa Lane, Julie Burland, Justin Ractliffe, Nikki Christer, Lou Ryan, Gavin Schwarcz, Jo Baker, Janine Brown, Debbie McGowan, Alysha Farry, Karen Reid, Bella Arnott-Hoare, Emily Hindle, Radhiah Chowdhury, cover designer Alex Ross, illustrator Dean Proudfoot and Midland Typesetters. It’s also great to be setting forth in the UK and Ireland with Jon Elek, Rosa Schierenberg and all the team at Welbeck Publishing in London.

Love and warmest thanks to my agents in Australia and the UK: Fiona Inglis, Benjamin Stevenson, Clair Roberts and all at Curtis Brown Australia, and Jonathan Lloyd, Lucy Morris, Hannah Beer, Kate Cooper and all at Curtis Brown UK. My thanks also to Frances Brennan and Alan Duffy in Dublin, and photographer Matt Turner in Adelaide.

None of this would be possible without the constant support I receive from booksellers and readers. Thank you all so much.

As ever and always, much love and thanks to all the McInerneys and Drislanes in Australia, Ireland and Germany; Austin O’Neill for his expert IT help at home; my sister Maura McInerney, first reader and first editor extraordinaire; and my husband John, for everything.

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Monica McInerney is the author of 12 bestselling books, published internationally and in translation in 12 languages. Her most recent novel, The Trip of a Lifetime, went straight to number 1 in Australia and was a Top 10 bestseller in Ireland. She has been shortlisted in the Irish Book Awards and the UK’s RNA Awards, and her novel Those Faraday Girls won the 2008 General Fiction Book of the Year in the Australian Book Industry Awards. She was shortlisted in the same category in subsequent years for her novels The Trip of a Lifetime, At Home with the Templetons, Lola’s Secret and All Together Now.

In 2006, Monica was the main ambassador for the Australian Government’s Books Alive national reading campaign, for which she wrote a limited edition novella called Odd One Out. In 2019, 2018, 2016 and 2014, Monica was voted in the Top 10 of Booktopia’s annual poll naming Australia’s Favourite Authors.

Monica grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley of South Australia and has been living between Australia and Ireland for nearly thirty years. She and her Irish husband currently live in Dublin.

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Also by Monica McInerney

Also by Monica McInerney

A Taste for It

Upside Down Inside Out

Spin the Bottle

The Alphabet Sisters

Family Baggage

Those Faraday Girls

All Together Now

At Home with the Templetons

Lola’s Secret

The House of Memories

Hello from the Gillespies

The Trip of a Lifetime