Aaah…

Aren’t they cute? Just what you need before I tell you that the latest Esther and the Professor will be out on Thursday. It’s summer 1942, and the Americans have come into the War even though they haven't arrived in the Dorset town of Poole yet. The Professor’s father, Sir Nicholas Lomax, has come over from Washington, where he’s something important in the British Embassy, and wants to meet his assistant, Mrs Esther Graham and her parents and children. Major Christopher Carmichael and his fiancée, Miss Jennifer Morgan, are escorting him, so surely nothing could happen, could it?

Well, nothing apart from rescuing a young man from some thugs after he’s been talking to ladies whose virtue is a little less than spotless and whose affections are generously shared for an equally generous fee. Then there’s a wedding at short notice, a girl trying to kill herself, a new police officer to deal with and an apparently unavoidable tragedy.

So that’s why it’s called A Very Domestic War, because it’s important to remember that it was that. Bits of it even happen in the park where the cygnets liveh These Canada geese's ancestors would have lived there too, so here’s a picture of them before we go on to the special offers at 99p in the UK and 99c in the US.

SPECIAL OFFERS

A place to call home

Marnie Salter comes to the beautiful village of Windy Bay to run the Little School, which doesn’t have to follow the National Curriculum but does have to answer to the Chairman of the Governors, Lord of the Manor and all-around power house, Toby Druett. He has strong ideas about what a school should be, which is fine by her because she left her previous school under a cloud after blowing the whistle on their dubious practices.

People there couldn’t wait to get rid of her, and her fiancé dumped her because of her actions, so she’s in desperate need of friends and a place to call home. She finds both in the Dorset village by the sea, where time runs more slowly, people are kind, and there’s always fresh cake tempting you to eat it, but it isn’t all plain sailing.

Her past comes back to haunt her, and her attraction to handsome builder Paul Hallowell is spoiled by wondering what his relationship is with the enigmatic architect Eleanor Lawe.

Can she find a future and a home and work out what she wants from her life and relationships while navigating the challenges that such an unusual school will bring?

Between the Sea and the sky

Architect Eleanor Lawe lives a restricted life because the treatment for her rheumatoid arthritis has left her vulnerable to infection. Former Army sergeant and wildlife photographer Rob Bennett needs her help to rebuild the ruined cottages at the top of a cliff that feels as if it’s set between the sea and the sky.

They’re both certain that relationships aren’t for them until Eleanor’s fall on the night of a snowstorm that’s followed by floods means that Rob ends up staying with her because she needs help, and his static caravan can’t stand the weather. As their friendship grows, they discover the history of the place that’s known as World’s End and the parallels with their own lives.

Can Windy Bay work its magic and find them a way forward while they learn from the past and find the right futures for them? Or will a secret from Rob’s past destroy everything they’ve been working so hard to build?

The Little School at Windy Bay

Vicky Lloyd is a teacher and aspiring writer who hasn’t managed to make a living at the end of the gap year she allowed herself after her grandmother left her her cottage, savings and instructions to live her dream. She gets a job at the new Little School at Windy Bay while swearing that she’s not giving up just because she hasn’t got there yet.

Hugh Martin is a publisher as well as the widowed father of Theo and Ella, who is in Vicky’s class. He’s fed up with people trying to matchmake for him and desperate for his two formerly home-educated children to settle well into school.

They become friends, and their friendship deepens when Vicky is floodbound at his big old farmhouse after Theo has an accident.

Can she live with the memory of his first wife?

Can Hugh find the courage to love again?

And what are the children up to?

Luckily, they’re in Windy Bay, where time goes more slowly, people are kind, and things are possible that wouldn’t be anywhere else, but it’s still going to be a rocky ride.

The Christmas Sparrow

Teacher Anna's world very publicly collapsed around her ears when she found her deputy head teacher's fiancé wrapped around the school secretary in the stationery cupboard at the school party.

James broke up with his wife after he found her in bed with his best friend on the day that he was made redundant. Now he's come to look after his parents’ house and cat while they're on a cruise, while he works out what he wants to do next.

They met when James' parents’ cat brought a live sparrow into Anna's house and ended up in Accident on Emergency on Christmas Eve after James tore some ligaments in his ankle while he tried to help rescue it. Then it began to snow...

James moves in with her because he can’t cope with stairs, and Anna has a loo and shower downstairs. They realise that they both have a lot of planning to do and decide that it’d make sense to use each other as a combined sounding board and cheerleader. Neither of them wants another relationship until they've come to terms with the past, but they decide to be friends who'll help each other to deal with the messy fallout and inevitable gossip and head towards the better futures that they both deserve.

Soon after that, Anna realises that the Christmas Sparrow has started something that she never wants to end, but both of them have unfinished business to deal with.

A Whole New Life

Widow Kate Thornton moves to the outskirts of the Dorset market town of Oldcastle with her son and daughter to fulfil her dream of running the Old House farmhouse bed and breakfast, where she used to stay with her cousin Gemma when they were children. Gemma is getting divorced, so she and her little daughter are moving close, and it seems to be the perfect place to make a whole new life for all of them all.

Kate used to have a massive crush on handsome farmer's son Mike Foster, who still owns the farmland even though the Old House has had to be sold. Back then, he only had eyes for Gemma, but a lot's changed since then, and their relationship rapidly moves beyond friendship as Mike realises that Kate's not just playing at country living. That whole new life is looking pretty good, until their shared history, a storm, and a double booking threaten to derail all her newfound hopes and dreams.

Can Kate build herself that whole new life that she needs and wants when she’s always been the one who compromised to keep the peace?

Could her first love become her last one when they’ve both changed so much?

Most of all, can she work out how she wants and how to juggle getting it with her responsibilities to her children?

Having it all

Gemma Fairfax moved down to the cosy market town of Oldcastle after she was made redundant on the same day that she found her husband in bed with her two-year-old daughter’s nanny. She’s given up on men forever and has sworn to concentrate on giving her daughter the best life she can and fulfilling her dreams of running a tearoom and catering service.

Unfortunately, one of little Hannah’s drawings ends up in the proposal that she prepared for local businessman Ben Jordan, and he makes it clear that he doesn’t think that she can work and care for Hannah. Gemma leaves some of her paperwork behind when she stalks out, which is a blessing in disguise because she proves herself more than capable by cooking up a storm for him when he returns it, and gets the contract.

As they work together, she finds out that Ben combined bringing up his younger brother and sister after their parents died in a car crash with rebuilding his father’s engineering firm, so he knows exactly how hard it is to juggle a child and an unexpected career change.

Now his little sister Nadine has come home for Christmas with her wannabe Country and Western star fiancé. They want a themed wedding, and Ben wants Gemma to organise and cater it even though he's hoping it  won't happen, but Nadine is headstrong and hostile

Christmas brings steam train rides to see Father Christmas, wicked hot chocolate, and one incredible night by the fire with Ben, but Gemma's newfound happiness falls apart when Nadine puts him in a position where he has to choose between them. Then Nadine gets herself in even more trouble and Gemma has to decide where her loyalties lie and what life she wants now that she knows she can’t have it all.

A Christmas Sampler

Christmas is a busy and often frantic time when it’s so easy to lose track of yourself and end up so frazzled that you can’t enjoy it. So why not make an early New Year’s resolution and settle down each day with a cup of tea, mug of hot chocolate or a glass of something stronger and enjoy a short story from Tia Brown’s popular series of Dorset-based cosy mysteries and romances?

Find out what happens in Windy Bay at Christmas, meet a matchmaking ghost at Lavender House and visit Oldcastle to see two very different women who are heading for fresh starts. Spend a wartime Christmas with Esther Graham and the Professor. Watch Lucy Williams coping with a school trip to the pantomime and juggling the two men in her life as she balances being a work-from-home mum, a former spy, and her daughter’s growing independence, which is giving her time for a life of her own again.

There's also a visit to a very unusual village, where the 12 days of Christmas come to life, and, of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without Amy Hammond, who’s come up with the brilliant idea of surprising her husband, not as retired as he wants to be, spy Peter Cunningham with a trip away. And why did she ever think she could keep a secret from him?

Tia also writes as Eleanor Neville, so there’s a cycle of stories about what Christmas is like for spy chief Kim Kinsella, who has even more to juggle than usual and a son who’s growing up…

Happy Christmas everyone!

By Special Request

All the short stories in this collection were written at the request of readers, which is great for me as a writer because I know that at least one person wants to read them!

So come with me this Christmas to a world of guaranteed happy endings, complete and unashamed slushiness, and far too much good food, because who has time to read a whole book in the run-up to Christmas? Visit beautiful Dorset, both now and in World War Two. Discover a usually unstoppable spy who’s at a total loss when he’s faced with a child who doesn’t want to believe in Father Christmas, or anything else for that matter and see how he sorts it out. Share a parent’s frustration with a daughter who doesn’t want to be an angel. Fall in love either for the first time or realise exactly why you love someone so much.

Most of all, enjoy Christmas in the way that works best for you.

Home for Christmas

Need a break? Want a guaranteed happy ending? Want to see what your favourite characters from the books by Tia Brown and Eleanor Neville get up to in the so-called quieter times and maybe make some new fictional friends?

Do you want to know the truth behind why there are so many Father Christmases out there? Go to Windy Bay to find out.

Would you like to know how Peter Cunningham and Amy Hammond met?

Or do you simply want to sit down for five minutes before you get back to doing everything that has to be done? If so, then why not come 'home for the holidays' with me?