by Anna Bell
It also turned out that Lydia wasn’t the only one who put her Christmas present from me to good use. Thanks to a lovely romantic getaway I got Kerry and Jim, Olivia truly got the best present ever this year – a new baby sister! Luna Camille was born on 15th October. We are all smitten with her. I’ve been helping out quite a bit, as have Lydia and Danny, who are only a fifteen minute walk away.
Now this year I just need to think of a present for me that might just change my life . . . I have started writing my own novel. I gave it to Lydia to read and she handed it back to me after one page as she said her eyes were burning, so I took that to be a good thing – clearly it’s sizzling in the right direction!
Linda x
Summer 2020
Stop the press! Daniel finally married Lydia – only twenty-eight years after their first marriage ;). Now, I know I’m a bit biased, as not only was it my son getting married, but it was also at my house, but it truly was the most wonderful wedding ever.
They got a married in a beautiful little church up here in the Lakes, with the reception in our barn. It looked stunning, as you can imagine. I went OTT with the fairy lights, candles and bunting. Lydia, of course, looked beautiful in the most simple dress and Daniel didn’t scrub up too badly either. Olivia did an excellent reading followed by interpretive dance. My best friend Linda (aka mother-of-the-bride) did an excellent speech which had Lydia blushing throughout and ended in her throwing a bread roll at her head. And the ukulele band and I did an amazing rendition of ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ – there wasn’t a dry eye in the house! It’s the first performance I’ve done at a family shindig where I’ve kept my clothes on for a long time! Seems to have worked wonders though as we’ve actually been booked for other weddings now. We think we’re going to use our performances as a mini-business, rather than just as an excuse to go to the pub once a month and strum around in the snug. That almost sounds like a line out of one of Linda’s novels. She’s self-publishing in time for Christmas, so you know what you’ll all be receiving as presents from me!
Hazel x
Christmas 2020
What a lovely year it’s been. After all the excitement of the summer wedding, I did think that the rest of the year would quieten down, but I guess with my adorable little granddaughters to keep me on my toes that was never going to happen. Kerry’s gone back to work and I’m doing ‘Granny Day Care’ once a week. I meet the other grannies at rhyme time and we head out from there for coffee – the bubbas have babyccinos – and then, if it’s not blowing a gale or teaming down with rain, we push the prams along the prom for nap time. It’s marvellous.
My books are also going strong – just like the heroes in them ;). I had planned to self-publish, but they’ve been snapped up by a digital publisher and my first book will be on your e-readers next month! You’ll all have to buy it and make me rich of course – those babyccinos aren’t cheap!
The newlyweds are still suitably loved up – and they’re not the only ones. I’ve gone and met a man. Howard is mid-sixties, has two children (sons!) and is divorced. I made him show me the decree absolute on the first date! We’re off to Spain for New Year. Hopefully the place will work it’s magic on us like it did on Lydia and Danny!
Linda x
Summer 2021
I’m absolutely bursting to tell you the good news: Lydia and Daniel are having a baby! Little baby Whittaker is due at Christmas time!!! I have been wishing every time I’ve walked in on them in a compromising position – which has been surprisingly often – that it would at least result in a little bundle of joy, and at last it has! Linda and I couldn’t be more excited. We did try and co-ordinate our knitting efforts before realising that neither of us could actually knit and instead we’ve decided to record a special disc of nursery rhymes for them. I’m on the ukulele and Linda’s writing the lyrics, although she does sometimes fail to remember that she’s no longer writing for her adult audience. Speaking of which – her last book became a bestseller in the ebook charts and she’s been offered a new three book deal! Her and her new fiancé Howard jetted off to New York to celebrate!
Hazel x
Christmas 2022
What a year! I’m pleased to announce that just before hitting send, Maxwell Thomas Whittaker was born. Mother and baby are doing very well. I can confirm he is the cutest male baby the world has ever seen! He was a few days late, which gave Lydia and Danny extra time to get settled into the cottage up in the Lake District. Danny’s renters moved out last month and the two of them jumped at the chance of spending Lydia’s year of maternity leave living up there. Having seen how cosy they are in their little cottage, I get the impression that it might not be the temporary move they think it is. I would of course miss them immensely, but Howard and I have been thinking for a while about buying a little bolt hole up there. My books are doing rather well – who knew erotica for the over sixties would be so in demand – and Howard loves Hazel and Brian almost as much as I do. All we need to do now is convince Jim and Kerry to move and our lives would be perfect . . .
Linda x
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my lovely readers for picking up this book. I had so much fun writing it --– and I completely fell head over heels for Lydia and Danny and I hope that you did too! Thank you for all the tweets, shares, reviews and emails that you send me. It means the world to me to know that I have such lovely, supportive readers. Also, to the wonderful blogging community that take the time to read the book, to review it and to share it on social media – I would be nowhere without you.
Thank you to my agent Hannah Ferguson for all her help with this book and much needed cheerleading when it got tough in the first draft. Thanks also to the rest of the team at Hardman and Swainson – Joanna, Caroline, Thérèse and Lindsey. Big thanks to everyone at Bonnier Zaffre for all you do behind the scenes to bring my book baby into the world. Special thanks to Sophie Orme, Claire Johnson-Creek and Bec Farrell for the notes and guidance, and replying patiently to all my plot changing emails.
In one draft Lydia and Danny snuck over the border from Spain and got married in Gibraltar, but I thought Hazel and Linda would have disowned them and the scenes had to be cut. Thank you to Flora at Rock Occasions in Gibraltar for the help and guidance about getting married there. Thank you to Zeenat for your ideas and insight into events planning – I miss hearing those stories in the tea boat. Thanks to Ali for your help with research that again didn’t make it into this one, but I’m going to save it for the next book. Also, a big thanks to Christie for checking things for me – again!
To all my friends and family, thank you for your continuing support and for feeding me and giving me wine when needed. Special mention to Debs for your ideas – and one day I’ll write THAT book especially for you. To my new writer buddy Lorraine Wilson for our lovely meet-ups – they help keep me sane. But most of all, thanks to my lovely husband Steve. Thank you for everything, as per usual, and to the kids, despite the fact that they can’t understand how mummy could write books that people actually read when I tell them the most boring made-up stories at bedtime.
About the Author
Anna Bell lives in the South of France with her young family and energetic labrador. You can find out more about Anna on her website, www.annabellwrites.com or follow her on Twitter @annabell_writes.
Also by Anna Bell
The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart
The Good Girlfriend’s Guide to Getting Even
It Started With a Tweet
Don’t Tell the Groom
Don’t Tell the Boss
Don’t Tell the Brides-To-Be
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading IF WE’RE NOT MARRIED BY THIRTY. I do hope that you enjoyed it!
Did any of you make one of those pacts when you were younger? I’ve found out that a lot of my friends had them and we’ve been having a lot of laughs imagining what their lives would have been if they’d gone through with them!
I’m glad I found my husband before I turned thirty and never had to enact my back up plan – life might have been very different indeed!
I absolutely loved telling Lydia and Danny’s story. It was so nice to write about a couple that were absolutely meant to be, but their lives had sent them in different directions. My favourite characters in the book, though, had to be the mums – Linda and Hazel. They were the type of characters that when I sat down at the keyboard they would write themselves – surprising and amusing me all the time.
Have you read my other books? THE BUCKET LIST TO MEND A BROKEN HEART and THE GOOD GIRLFRIEND’S GUIDE TO GETTING EVEN. They are both heart-warming and up-lifting and are great escapist reads. My most recent book, IT STARTED WITH A TWEET, is the story of social media obsessed Daisy who makes a catastrophic mistake at work that sends her life into free-fall. Her sister Rosie whisks her off to a tiny, isolated village in Cumbria for a digital detox. But village life isn’t as quiet as she imagined, especially with Rodney the frisky farmer, Jack the grumpy, rugged next door neighbour and sexy Frenchman Alexis all helping and hindering her attempts to get back online. Will Daisy successfully sneak away to phone signal, or will she get used to life offline?
If you’d like to hear more about my next book or any future books beyond that you can visit http://www.bit.ly/AnnaBellClub where you can become part of the Anna Bell Readers’ Club. It only takes a few moments to sign up and there’s no catches or costs. Your data will be kept totally private and confidential, and it will never be passed on to a third party. I won’t spam you with loads of emails, but will get in touch now and again with book news, and you can unsubscribe any time you want.
Do also stop by and say hello on Twitter @annabell_writes or find me on Facebook. It’s so lovely to hear from readers! I’d also be absolutely thrilled if you’d take the time to review my book – on Amazon, Goodreads, on your blog or any other e-store. What better way to tell us what you thought of the book?
Thanks again for reading IF WE’RE NOT MARRIED BY THIRTY.
Best wishes,
Anna
If you love reading Anna Bell, why not try her brilliantly heart-warming novel . . .
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First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Zaffre
This ebook edition published in 2018 by
ZAFFRE
80-81 Wimpole St, London, W1G 9RE
www.zaffrebooks.co.uk
Copyright © Anna Bell, 2018
Cover design by Alexandra Allden
Cover images © Shutterstock.com
The moral right of Anna Bell to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978–1–7857–6479–0
Paperback ISBN: 978–1–7857–6478–3
This ebook was produced by IDSUK (Data Connection) Ltd
Zaffre is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
www.bonnierzaffre.co.uk
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk