Carrying on the story with Carole Matthews: Christmas for Beginners
Last month we published Christmas for Beginners, Carole Matthews’ gloriously festive sequel to her Sunday Times bestselling novel Happiness for Beginners. As part of her Little Book Café Christmas for Beginners takeover, we asked Carole what it was like to carry on Molly’s story. Over to you, Carole!
There are some characters that stay in your head long after the book is finished. Those same characters often prove to be firm favourites with my readers too and I lost count of how many messages I had asking for there to be more stories from the people and animals at Hope Farm, the place I’d first visited in Happiness for Beginners.
Hope Farm is based on a real-life farm, Animal Antiks, which caters for children with special educational needs, the kind of kids who can fall through the gaps in traditional education. At the farm the students learn through team work and caring for the animals as well as through more typical lessons. I’ve kept in touch with them since the first book was written and it’s fair to say that there is always plenty going on – especially with the animals – to provide a novelist with material. Some of the conversations that I have with Sarah, who runs the farm, at eight o’clock in the morning over Messenger would make your hair curl. I’m sure that you’ll know the bits I mean when you get to them!
I’ve a great affection for the farm and the work that they do and we had great fun with the first book. So it was a pleasure to be able to find another story to write about Hope Farm. This one, obviously, is set at Christmas and proves to be as riotous as you might expect. It’s been so sad that I haven’t been able to visit there and do my usual filming of being given the run around by their animals, due to the strange times we find ourselves in. But, hopefully, we will be back to normal before too long and there’ll be better times ahead.
I think this year more than ever we need a bit of love, laughter and some uplifting stories, so I hope you like reconnecting with old characters and meeting some new ones and that you enjoy this funny and heart-warming Christmas story.
Merry Christmas! C : ) xx
The BRAND NEW festive and feel-good Christmas read from Sunday Times bestselling Carole Matthews
'Full of fabulously festive fun!' ERICA JAMES
**Shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Association's Contemporary Romantic Novel Award**
IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR . . .
Christmas is fast approaching at the new Hope Farm. Owner Molly Baker has been convinced to organise an open day to raise some much-needed funds ahead of the New Year, but the nativity tableau is proving challenging. With anti-social sheep, awkward alpacas and a seriously sequined Santa Claus to assemble, Molly is feeling overwhelmed, and in desperate need of some Christmas spirit . . .
Despite the chaos of the farm getting in the way of her event planning, Molly is looking forward to spending the holidays with boyfriend Shelby and his son, Lucas, hopeful that a happy family Christmas is exactly what they need to draw them all together. But while she is busy making plans on the farm, Shelby, it seems, has ideas of his own.
As the nativity draws near, the team are working hard to pull off a spectacular festive fete - and make sure the animals and humans remain on their best behaviour.
Will this Christmas be merry and bright... or is there more than one surprise in store for Molly and Hope Farm?
A must-read festive tale from the queen of fun-filled and life-affirming fiction, Christmas for Beginners is the PERFECT winter treat!
Your favourite authors love CAROLE MATTHEWS:
'A gorgeous novel that will delight'
KATIE FFORDE
'Fun, fantastic and brimming with Matthews magic'
MILLY JOHNSON
'A life-affirming story full of joy and hope'
CATHY BRAMLEY
'An irresistibly warm-hearted story'
TRISHA ASHLEY
'Warm, witty and hopeful - I was charmed'
SARAH MORGAN
'The queen of funny, feel good fiction'
MIKE GAYLE
The Kindle No.1 Bestseller
The Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller
'You can't do better than to sink into Happiness for Beginners'
KATIE FFORDE
'Fun, fantastic and brimming with Matthews magic'
MILLY JOHNSON
********
Molly Baker is living her best life.
Thirty-eight years old, she lives on the twenty-five-acre Hope Farm in Buckinghamshire, surrounded by (mostly) four-legged friends and rolling hills. There's Anthony the anti-social sheep, Tina Turner the alpaca with attitude, and the definitely-not-miniature pig, Teacup.
Molly runs the farm as an alternative school for kids who haven't thrived in mainstream education. It's full on, but she wouldn't have it any other way. So when the well-groomed Shelby Dacre turns up at Hope Farm asking to enrol his son Lucas, Molly isn't fazed.
But Lucas is distant and soon Molly realises he might be more of a handful than she anticipated. And then there's the added problem that his dad is distractingly handsome. Molly has her beloved farm to think of - could letting Lucas and Shelby in be a terrible mistake, or the start of something wonderful?
An absolute must-read from the queen of romance Carole Matthews, Molly's story will make your heart sing.
'An irresistibly warm-hearted story'
TRISHA ASHLEY
'Warm, witty and hopeful - I was charmed'
SARAH MORGAN
'The queen of funny, feel good fiction'
MIKE GAYLE
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