The Blue Of You by Amanda Huggins

 

The Blue Of You by Amanda Huggins.

Published 23rd October 2025 by Northodox Press.

From the cover of the book:

Every Christmas Eve, Janey Shaw is reminded of the tragic death of her schoolfriend, Alice, and the untidy ending of her relationship with Rory Brook, her first love. 

When Janey leaves London to return to her hometown on the North-East coast of England, the ghosts of her unresolved past lie in wait.

There, Janey meets a coble fisherman, Tom Inglewood, and admires his ambitions to preserve the traditional way of life in their community and to stop second-home owners from painting over the town’s heritage.

Can she start to build a new life and finally paint over her own past? Or will she have to confront her ghosts as Christmas draws closer?

***********

Christmas Eve, 2010. Born and bred in the small sea-side town of Langwick Bay, on the North-East coast of England, Janey feels a yearning to escape. The festive season is filled with ghosts since the tragic death of her friend, Alice, and she feels the time is right to head for the bright lights of London to follow her dream of being a journalist, hopefully in the company of her boyfriend, Billy. But the night ends in a tangle of emotions when an argument erupts between her and Billy up on the snowy moors, and an unexpected encounter with her childhood friend Rory tears her heart in two.

Ten years later, Janey is back in Langwick Bay. A broken marriage to Billy lies in her wake, and she feels it is time to try to lay the past to rest. Loneliness has her pondering on a meeting with Rory that might rekindle the spark that ignited between them all those years ago, but instead she meets fisherman Tom Inglewood. Janey is drawn to Tom's passion to keep the Langwick Bay community alive, and celebrate its fishing heritage. She finds herself falling for him, but as Christmas draws near, she knows she will have to confront the memories that haunt her before she can find happiness.

I am a huge fan of the writing of award-winning author, Amanda Huggins. Her poetry, short stories, and novellas are beautifully atmospheric, and thrum with powerful emotions. This is no exception.

Huggins begins with a visit to the fateful festive night that Janey makes the decision to leave Langwick Bay, and then jumps forward in time ten years when she returns disillusioned, with a lot of baggage to work through. Her home town has changed in many ways, but in others it remains the same, filled with the same ghosts she left behind. Janey starts to reconnect with people, gaining different insight on past events, and the mysteries that lie behind her painful memories are gradually revealed, until the story comes deliciously full circle.

Echoes of Huggins' earlier work abound, as she explores many of her favourite emotive themes. Lucious threads about coming of age, love, loss, escape, family, friendship and forgiveness (of oneself and others) mingle with those around the issues facing small communities in modern times, the importance of heritage and tradition, and the irresistible pull of a capricious sea. The enchantment of folklore weaves throughout, something Huggins does so well, especially when it comes reflecting the dilemmas of her characters - I loved how she uses mermaids in Janey's tale, and once again sprinkles in a little Japanese charm (another of her many talents). The use of the colour blue is exquisite too.

Utterly magical, heartfelt, and affecting, this is Huggins at her spellbinding best. I savoured every single word, and turned the final page with eyes brimming over with tears. 

The Blue of You is available to buy now in paperback, from all good book sellers. You also support indie publishing by buying direct from Northodox Press HERE.

About the author:

Amanda Huggins was brought up on the North Yorkshire coast and now lives near Leeds. She is the author of two previous novellas and several short story and poetry collections. Her work has been broadcast on BBC radio and has been widely published in national newspapers and magazines. She has won, among others, the Colm Tóibín Short Story Award, the Kyoto City Mayoral Prize, the BGTW New Travel Writer of the Year and three Saboteur Awards. She has also placed in the Harper’s Bazaar, Costa, Bath and Fish prizes and been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.