Staying in with Katy Regan

It’s an absolute pleasure to welcome Katy Regan to Linda’s Book Bag today as her sixth novel has just been released and she’s going to chat with me all about it.

Let’s find out more:

Staying in with Katy Regan

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Katy and thank you for staying in with me. Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I have brought in my latest book How to Find Your Way Home. It’s my sixth novel and out in paperback last week (Thursday 5^th January). The reason I have brought it today however is because I think it’s the perfect uplifting read for these January days when Christmas is over and we’re yearning for spring!

We most certainly are! What can we expect from an evening in with How to Find Your Way Home?

Well, it’s set in spring for a start – it begins in February and ends in early summer, and is definitely the most descriptive of my six novels in terms of landscape.

My main character Stephen is a keen bird-watcher and huge nature-lover, so think lots of scenes of the wonder of migration, the coming of the spring light and the re-emerging of wildlife in the English countryside.

That sounds wonderful – especially as I’m married to a nature lover called Stephen! I’m delighted to have a copy of How to Find Your Way Home on my TBR!

I like to think this is a novel with a big plot too though! And there’s a big, I hope, satisfying twist. I just got a message from a reader yesterday in fact that said, “This book! I didn’t want it to end!! …and did not see that twist coming AT ALL!!” Messages like that are music to my ears, obviously, since that twist was really hard to come up with! My challenge with this book was to write something more lyrical but which also had a really compelling storyline so I hope I pulled that off.

I’m sure you have!

What else have you brought along and why have you brought it?

I’ve brought a photo of some artwork by the mural artist Simon Bates, which depicts Glasgow’s patron Saint Mungo in modern day clothes, holding a robin. This is a reference to the legend that says that St. Mungo’s prayed over this bird – that had actually died and belonged to his master St. Serf – and brought it back to life.

I didn’t know this though, when I saw it on a wall on a street corner of Glasgow. I’d gone there for a solo writing retreat to wrestle with the book that was to become How to Find Your Way Home back in 2019. I was really struggling and thinking of throwing in the towel if I’m honest.

I’m very glad you didn’t.

Then, on a walk around the city I came across this mural of a man (I just thought it was a picture of an ordinary man – perhaps a homeless man), with a bird in his hand and it obviously reminded me of Stephen, the main character in the book, who is a keen ornithologist and also homeless.

That’s quite spooky…

I took it as a huge sign from the universe that I should carry on with this novel! I am so glad I did.

I cannot wait to read How to Find Your Way Home. I have a feeling it will be exactly my kind of read Katy. Thank you so much for staying in with me and telling me all about it. Let me give readers a few more details:

How To Find Your Way Home

What if the person you thought you’d lost forever walked back into your life?

In March 1987, four-year-old Stephen Nelson welcomes his new baby sister, Emily. Holding her for the first time, he vows to love and protect her, and to keep her safe forever.

Thirty years later, the two have lost touch and Stephen is homeless. Emily, however, has never given up hope of finding her brother again, and when he turns up at her office, she thinks her wish has come true. But they say you should be careful what you wish for – because there is a reason the two were estranged . . .

As the two embark on a birding trip together, Emily is haunted by long-buried memories of a single June day, fifteen years earlier; a day that changed everything. Will confronting the secrets that tore them apart finally enable Emily and Stephen to make their peace – not just with their shared past and each other, but also with themselves?

Haunting, beautiful and uplifting, Katy Regan’s How to Find Your Way Home is about sibling love, the restorative power of nature and how home, ultimately, is found within us.

Published in all formats by Pan Macmillan’s Mantle Books, How To Find Your Way Home is available for purchase through the links here.

About Katy Regan

Katy Regan grew up near Morecambe in Lancashire. She began her writing career as a magazine journalist and is ex-Features Writer and Commissioning Editor of Marie Claire, where she also had a long-standing and popular column, ‘And then there were three… sort of’ about her unconventional route to motherhood. She has written for most national magazines and newspapers. She has also written two self-help books (a cause for great amusement among those who know her well.)

She lives in Hertfordshire with her son. When she’s not writing, she mainly loves swimming in freezing cold lakes, reading and going on mini-breaks. How To Find Your Way Home is her sixth novel.

For more more information, visit Katy’s website, follow Katy on Twitter @katyreganwrites, or find her on Facebook and Instagram.