BOOKS BY LINDA BERRY

17th Century Man

Melissa is a divorced single mother teaching in a small village primary school. After she moves to the village to live in the cottage which becomes her home she meets an interesting guest house owner who has a very unusual past. She also discovers that the jam made from the fruit of the strange tree she finds in her garden may have special powers.

Melissa is very much a family person and her grown-up daughter and her mother play important roles in her life, sometimes with unforeseen complications. 17th Century Man is a charming story with an interesting twist, a tale of life's rich patterns and how the unexpected may arise from the humdrum pace of normal life.

Nobody Said It Would Be Easy

For women and men on the run up to Christmas romance can seem thin on the ground, with the stresses of family drama and British life working to test even the strongest of romantic relationships.

Frayed at the edges is probably the best way to describe the life of Freda, a market trader with an annoying boyfriend, Ryan, who finds her life disappointingly empty of romance and sex. For her, urban love stories are a distant thing - she has everyday life to deal with. So, on the run-up to the Christmas holidays, Freda finds herself busy as ever, running her jewellery stall, organising the 1940s evening for her friends, and trying to get all the presents sorted in order to avoid the usual family drama.

'Nobody Said it would be Easy' tells a heart-warming tale about British life the extraordinary people who live ordinary lives.