My genre for the past few years has been (and still is, really!) decidedly historical fiction, mainly early medieval time-slip, Anglo-Saxon in particular. But my earlier novels were more modern (twentieth century). I’m told that ‘history’ is prior to 50 years ago, so I guess they too are within the historical novel genre. Drumbeats opens in 1965.

My news is that the Drumbeats Trilogy has just been re-published and re-released with a new publisher and with lovely new covers and some minor revisions. I hope you like the new covers; I think they’re more eye-catching than the previous ones from my last publisher. The trilogy starts in the mid-1960s with Drumbeats when 18 year old Jess goes off to Ghana, West Africa, on her gap year, to teach and nurse in the bush villages. It’s a year of joy and tragedy, loss and discovery. The series continues with Walking in the Rain through Jess’s life of uneasy compromises in the 1970s to 80s, to Finding Jess in the early 1990s and finally sees her return to Ghana and her second chances of happiness. The trilogy is a feel-good exploration of one woman’s rise above adversity and the triumph of hope and love.

I’m on book tours with the new editions through the autumn – do look out for the flash discounts to celebrate the new covers and the tours!

I seem to be on a mission to revamp my remaining books too, having moved to a new publisher, so The Old Rectory and my children’s book S.C.A.R.S will also be flaunting new covers and new editions soon. The Old Rectory is the story of rescuing an old early Victorian house and the exploration of the historical food and drink that would have been prepared in its kitchen, while S.C.A.R.S is a fantasy time-slip tale based on medieval literature.

And currently, I’m also working on a new series of Anglo-Saxon time-slip/dual time novels set in Mercia, with a new protagonist, a specialist in interpreting runes, who joins up with an archaeologist to solve strange mysteries of the past.

So I guess that all my books are historical fiction at heart! Discover them at https://Author.to/JuliaIbbotsonauthor