Northern Lasses - Catherine King and Leah Fleming

Catherine King is from Rotherham. She lives mostly in Hampshire which is very posh, children spend weekends riding ponies and people own houses with thatched roofs and have thick glossy lawns in their gardens. Leah Fleming lives in an idyllic village in the Yorkshire dales, the kind of place where people have labradors in matching pairs and roses around the doors. So meeting them at The Boar's Head at Ripley seemed fitting, Ripley being one of those villages which has a castle and a deli, and hens roam the village green.

We met there for lunch last week and spent the afternoon in the pub. Catherine had only been there once before, Leah and I go back years to when we started RNA North and have had many happy days at The Boar's Head.
They are both successful writers, they both write historical novels, they both have books about to be published so there was lots to talk about.

Winter's Children is published on November 11th by AvonChristmas on a farm in the dales will never be the same again for the Snowdens after foot and mouth has destroyed their herd but the resident spirit of the house has other ideas. The coming of a child and her mother will change everything as it has done in the past.  This book is perfect for when you are sitting around the fire on a winter's night with a glass of mulled wine, listening to Sting.

This is Catherine's fifth Victorian saga set in Yorkshire and is about a foundling who does everything she can to escape her lowly life as a scullery maid only to end up in the dreaded workhouse.  The hardback is out on December 2nd and the paperback will be published on March 17th 2011 by Sphere. http://www.catherineking.info/

And yes, the hens. We gave them apples from the back of Catherine's car. She grows them in her beautiful southern garden. It has been a very good year for apples, and for the best selling Northern Lasses.