Katie Fforde
Personal Information
Description
Catherine Rose Gordon-Cumming was born 27 September 1952 in London, England, UK. She studied the arts, cookery, typing, and shorthand. In 1972, Katie married with Desmond Fforde, cousin of the also writer Jasper Fforde. The marriage set up business on the canals. She had three children: Guy, Francis and Briony and didn't start writing before she had the third of them. She has previously worked both as a cleening lady and in a health food cafe. Published since 1995, her romance novels are set in modern-day England. She is founder of the "Katie Fforde Bursary" for writers who have yet to secure a publishing contract. Katie was elected the twenty-fifteenth Chairman (2009-2011) of the Romantic Novelists' Association. She was delighted to have been chosen as Chair of the RNA and says, "Catherine Jones was a wonderful chair and she's a very tough act to follow. However, I've been a member of the RNA for more years than I can actually remember and will have its very best interests at the core of everything I do." After Diane Pearson's retirement as RNA's President in 2011, she was elected its fourth president. Katie lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England with her husband, some of her three children and many pets. Recently her old hobbies of ironing and housework have given way to singing, Flamenco dancing and husky racing. She claims this keeps her fit.
Books
Practically Perfect
Life in the palace would be much more peaceful without the Queen! But what can be done? Could she really be married off?
Highland fling
"In Highland Fling--Nancy Mitford's first novel, published in 1931--a set of completely incompatible and hilariously eccentric characters collide in a Scottish castle, where bright young things play pranks on their stodgy elders until the frothy plot climaxes in ghost sightings and a dramatic fire. Inspired in part by Mitford's youthful infatuation with a Scottish aristocrat, her story follows young Jane Dacre to a shooting party at Dulloch Castle, where she tramps around a damp and chilly moor on a hunting expedition with formidable Lady Prague, xenophobic General Murgatroyd, one-eyed Admiral Wenceslaus, and an assortment of other ancient and gouty peers of the realm, while falling in love with Albert, a surrealist painter with a mischievous sense of humor. Lighthearted and sparkling with witty banter, Highland Fling was Mitford's first foray into the delightful fictional world for which the author of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate later became so celebrated. With an Introduction by Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey"-- "First novel by comic British novelist Nancy Mitford, first published in 1931, reissued with an introduction by Julian Fellowes"--
Wedding Season
This is a girly story about 3 women: A wedding planner, a hairdresser / cakemaker and a seamstress. The story starts with all three of them at a wedding that the first has planned. And that wedding somehow kickstarts changes in all their lives. Ok, mostly love-lives. 2 more weddings appear on the horizon, both only a few month away, and both on the very same day. The three women, by now friends, collaborate again and... I don't want to spoil the plot, but it's a nice story, and the ending isn't a let-down.
Wild designs
From: Althea is the mother of three strong-minded children - one of whom is a Buddhist - and owner of a finicky dog named Bozo. Saddled with too large a house (albeit in a beautiful Cotswold village), worrisome mortgage payments, a bossy younger sister and irksome ex-husband, Althea still manages to muddle through life comfortably enough. Until she loses her job. Seeking solace in her borrowed greenhouse, Althea decides to develop her passion for gardening. And when she wins the opportunity to design a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show with the unexpected help of gorgeous architect Patrick Donahugh, it looks as though Althea may have unearthed a new man as well as a new career...
Living dangerously
Claudia had good reasons for wanting to prevent her young brother from taking on a dangerous assignment as a trainee stunt man. But his new boss, the annoying Harry Kavanagh, wasn't inclined to listen to them and marked her down from the first as an over-protective female fussing over nothing. 'There's a risk in everything,' he told her arrogantly. When Claudia followed him to Madeira to argue the point she realised how true his words were - especially when applied to her relationship with Harry!
Stately pursuits
From: 'I don't suppose you'd care to house-sit for a while...' Hetty Longden's mother thinks that looking after Great Uncle Samuel's crumbling stately home will be just the thing for Hetty's broken heart. Hetty doesn't mind; at least she can be miserable in private. But 'private' is a relative term in a village which revolves around the big house. Particularly when you are expected to thwart Great Uncle Samuel's awful heir, and his nefarious plans for his inheritance. Pitchforked into the community's fight to save the manor, Hetty has no time to wallow. And once she has shared her troubles with one neighbour (Caroline: a very understanding shoulder, despite her glamorous appearance and impossibly long legs), and cast an appreciative eye over another (Peter: equally long-legged, but offering rather more practical help), she wonders if her heart is irretrievably broken after all...
Paradise fields
Juggling widowed parenthood with her career and numerous Cotswolds events, Nel Innes struggles to rally the community after the death of an old friend threatens regional lands.
Bidding for Love
When Flora Stanza's uncle dies unexpectedly, leaving her a 51 percent share in the family antiques business, it gives her the perfect chance to leave her glamorous but less than happy London life for the quieter life of the country. Unfortunately, her cousin Charles and his fiancée Annabelle don't seem pleased to find Flora and her very pregnant cat on their doorstep. Flora knows almost nothing about antiques, but with her London apartment rented out, her cat about to burst with kittens, and a mysterious man warning her about Annabelle, Flora has little choice but to accept her cousin's offer to stay in their abandoned holiday cottage, miles from anything remotely like what Flora considers civilization. Soon, though, Flora is fighting off dinner invitations from the devastatingly handsome Henry and hiding her eco-friendly lodger, William. Could it be that country life isn't so dull after all?