Published 13th February 2025 by Century.
From the cover of the book:
It’s 1968 and it’s cold when Felicity arrives in London to stay with her mother, improve her English, do a secretarial course - and meet a suitable man.She is already missing her home in Provence and her father and his new wife and their extended family. But it’s only for a year she tells herself - and then she can go back to France and do what she really wants and become a painter.
And then she bumps into Oliver who is quite the most interesting young man she has ever met. He lives on a barge for one thing and has a collection of jobs, but his passion is looking for hidden treasures along the shores of the river Thames.
In a word, he’s a mudlarker - and before long Felicity is mudlarking too. She is also pursuing her dreams and painting scenery for Oliver’s actor friends.
But is Oliver a Suitable Man of whom her mother will approve? Felicity knows she will not …
Love, tangled relationships, and a real life adventure lie at the heart of Katie Fforde’s heart-warming new novel.
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London, Autumn 1968. Felicity arrives in London to stay with her mother for a year, while she takes a secretarial course - and to possibly enjoy a taste of the swinging times she keeps hearing about, especially when it comes to a little romance (with a 'suitable' man, course).
Missing her father, step-mother, and siblings, who she has left behind at their rambling chateau in rural Provence, not to mention the comfort of the family dogs, Felicity finds it hard to settle into city life with her stiffly correct mother, and the women on her course who she has little in common with. She longs for the next few months to be over so she can return to France and follow her passion to become an artist.
But she soon finds a welcoming presence in Violet, who has also recently arrived in London from her father's sprawling manor house in the country to take a job in a London book shop, and who is staying in the apartment upstairs. The two quickly become firm friends. Then the chance of romance appears in the form of the handsome, dramatic, and often inconveniently muddy, Oliver, who lives on a barge and loves to go mudlarking on the banks of the Thames. But Felicity fears he is definitely not the kind of man her mother would approve of...
This latest gorgeous novel from Katie Fforde picks up the reins of her earlier stories about family, friendship, and romance - this time through the adventures of Felicity, who travels to England for a taste of Swinging London, under the beady eye of her mother, the terribly proper Lucinda. Fans will be very pleased to know that several familiar faces from the series appear in this story, particularly the chateau crowd, but this book is very much about Felicity and Violet, so can be read as a standalone.
With elegant charm, and a nicely wrought backdrop that sizzles with 1960's atmosphere and social history, Fforde weaves two central love stories which will keep you in perfectly pitched romantic suspense until the warm and wonderful threads work themselves out - the stop-start, bumpy love affair of Felicity and chaotic Oliver, and the more gentle meanderings of the courtship of Violet and her bumbling academic romantic prospect, Henry. There are little flirtatious asides for some of the fabulous supporting cast too, which will warm the cockles of your heart, make you indignant, and set you giggling, all of which have direct bearing on the bumps in the road on the way to happiness for the central characters. I have several new favourites from this lovely new set of gems, especially the incredible Miss Wynter, who I really hope will crop up again in Fforde's books - and who frankly, deserves a novel all of her own.
I always love the way Fforde writes her female characters with relatable hopes and dreams, and just the right touch of vulnerability, whatever the time period, but I think she does this particularly well when she is looking back in time. She touches lightly on many of the changes in the lives of women in the 1960s here, such as female independence, sexual freedom and the clash between older ideas and new about romantic relationships, and delves into fashion and popular culture quite naturally as part of the story. There are fascinating threads about history and mudlarking that connect different storylines together beautifully too.
I loved it, and really did not want to leave the characters behind when I came to the classic Fforde, heart-warming conclusion. Until next time old (and new) friends!
From London With Love is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Ed PR and Century for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
Each of her books explores a different profession or background and her research has helped her bring these to life. She’s been a porter in an auction house, tried her hand at pottery, refurbished furniture, delved behind the scenes of a dating website, and she's even been on a Ray Mears survival course. She loves being a writer; to her there isn’t a more satisfying and pleasing thing to do.
She particularly enjoys writing love stories. She believes falling in love is the best thing in the world, and she wants all her characters to experience it, and her readers to share their stories.
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