The original manuscripts of such letters grant the reader a direct connection with the person who actually wrote those personal words, sometimes many centuries ago. Her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Italian Bancarella prize, The Lovely Books award in Germany, and the Romantic Novel of the Year award.

And there’s certainly something blasphemous about building so much on one person, and this is also the reason why fear creeps round the foundations. First, Katie Fforde books are not deep or challenging or meant to bring about great change in the world. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. With the story set in the lead up to, and including Christmas, there is an evocative sense of place with the wintry snowy weather playing it’s part. At that time there was some media comment about the likely reaction from the British ‘establishment’, but it must always be stressed that it is an entirely fictional story and is similar to the play Charles III which is simply a ‘what-if’ scenario.But, when he passes away at the age of ninety-five, he leaves behind more than just a heartbroken family. When Rafferty (Raff) appears on the scene with his father’s letters, Ruthie has to reveal a period of her life that she has never forgotten. But as the story unfolds, she realises that her theory is not quite correct, and realises she might be in trouble.

A classic love story and a seminal work of Irish literature that is a testament to romance, magic and the power of true love. I was living in a small cottage with a brilliant view of the estuary, caring for my two young children.But there is a big event in this one - just like the others - that causes the main character, Laura, to meet her object of romance, Dermott. Author Jane Mount brings literary people, places, and things to life through her signature and vibrant illustrations. she is very very fond of me, and says she was so unhappy when I went to Persia that it startled and terrified her. Second, although her writing is formulaic, this particular novel does have a bit of extra twist in it, and an early pay-off (wink, wink) that keeps the tension going most of the way through the book.

The heroine Laura annoyed me from the start and kept making stupid choices while drunk after starting out with a paragraph about how she wasn't going to drink too much! It may be the same formula but it works: reading a Katie Fforde is like pouring soothing oil over a stressed-out, frazzled old me! Katie Fforde’s books are light, the epitome of breezy and ideal for those times when you just want to read a love story without making your brain go into overdrive. Come with us down the narrow streets, past the cosy red bistro on Rue Gabrielle, all the way to Montmartre cemetery with its beautiful stone angels, and discover the truth we all hope to find: that love is real, that miracles can happen and – most of all – that it’s never too late to rediscover your dreams.Just in time for Valentine’s Day, life insurance company Beagle Street has polled 1,000 people to find the “greatest love letters ever written”. When Grace saves his life in a kayaking accident - if it was an accident - and Evan's troubled son arrives to stay, all three are drawn together in a way that forces a reckoning with their personal traumas and draws them back into society.

Originally published in 1998, as Seeing Double, it received fairly mediocre reception twenty years ago.The title of 'love letters' should also be taken in its widest sense, encompassing as it does deep friendship, gentle flirtation, physical attraction. I was always happy to help them find answers in a book, even when those answers involved more, and deeper, questions. Together they remind us that there is simply nothing quite like receiving a personal handwritten note from the one you love. A warm, unsentimental and beautifully-observed book for our times' Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days 'If I were in bother I'd want the Ballybrady bunch at my back.