I’m so pleased to be part of the launch celebrations for It’s Who We Are by Christine Webber, not least because I’m the same age as the characters in the book! I’m thrilled that not only do I have a guest post from Christine today, but she has kindly offered a paperback copy of It’s Who We Are to give away to a Linda’s Book Bag reader. To enter, see the details further down this blog post. I shal be posting my review of It’s Who We Are just as soon as I can as I hear fantastic things about it from other bloggers.

Published on 16th January 2018, It’s Who We Are is available for purchase here.

It’s Who We Are

Five friends in their fifties find themselves dealing with unforeseen upheaval as they uncover long-hidden and devastating family secrets.

Meanwhile, the world around them seems to be spinning out of control.

This is a novel about friendship, kindness and identity – and about how vital it is to reach for what enhances rather than depletes you.

When Reality Fights Its Way Into Fiction

A Guest Post by Christine Webber

I know I’m not alone in feeling more anxious, and less happy, about living in Britain than I did a few years ago. I look back on the golden days of the Olympic Games in 2012, and wonder where our outward-looking, integrated, innovative and highly-regarded nation went. Life feels very different now.

In early June 2016, a couple of weeks before the EU referendum, I published a novel which was essentially a romantic comedy for and about the over-50s. Just before that publication, I started writing a new book; something rather more complex. There were to be five main characters. A medical mystery. Family secrets that would have the potential to unsettle people’s views of their identities. And, of course, I was planning a generous helping of the sort of stuff I love – the ups and downs and paradoxes that characterise mid-life today.

That novel, It’s Who We Are, is published this week. And all the elements described above are in the story. But once the referendum result was known on June 24^th, I found it impossible to write a contemporary novel that did not also feature the unprecedented turmoil we found ourselves in.

It’s absolutely right that authors should reflect political upheaval, but till then, I’d never considered that I might become one of those authors who do.

My characters, it turned out, had other ideas. Two of them, who ran their own businesses, were seriously concerned about the future of their staff as well as their companies – and their worries became fundamental to the plot. Also, though I had always planned to give one of my characters an Irish mother, in the light of the Brexit vote, I found myself making Ireland much more central to the story than I had anticipated. This required major re-structuring – but it was essential.

It’s Who We Are is therefore a very different novel from the one I’d intended writing. But the world has changed. And, in response to that, I’ve changed. So, the book had to change too.

(Hmm. I’ve never really thought about how contemporary events might affect both the writer and their writing Christine. Real food for thought here, thank you.)

About Christine Webber

After a break of 29 years to write over a dozen non-fiction titles, Christine Webber returned to writing fiction in 2016. The result was a novel called Who’d Have Thought It? which is a romantic comedy about the change and challenges we encounter in mid-life.

Christine’s latest novel, It’s Who We Are, is about the turbulence of mid-life and the secrets in families that can force us to look at our own identities. It is also a book about the importance of friendship.

Christine is a former singer, TV presenter, agony aunt, columnist and Harley Street psychotherapist.

Nowadays she is focusing on fiction – though she still pops up on the radio from time to time.

You can follow Christine on Twitter @1chriswebber, visit her website and find her on Facebook.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Giveaway: A paperback Copy of It’s Who We Are by Christine Webber

For your chance to win a paperback copy of It’s Who We Are by Christine Webber, click here.

Giveaway open to UK and Ireland only and closes at UK Midnight on Thursday 25th January 2018.