From London With Love by Katie Fforde: Warm, wise, witty and with a wonderful retro flavour - book review -

What they hadn’t reckoned on was that the expectations, limitations and sense of duty to their parents and families would impact on their choices and their freedom... and that life has a way of throwing a spanner into the smooth workings of your hopes and dreams.

The current cold weather is the perfect time to cosy up with one of Katie Fforde’s warm and welcoming novels – gorgeous books that serve up romance, fun and home-spun wisdom in the most delightful ways.

So draw the curtains, throw another log on the fire, and escape into the vibrant world of London sixty years ago for a romantic odyssey spawned from Fforde’s much-loved series of standalone novels which focused on a different girl from a group of three friends who met at a cookery course in London.

And at centre stage here is Félicité de Belville, half- English, half-French stepdaughter of the lovely Alexandra (Lexi) who we met in A Wedding in Provence. Felicity (as she will be known in London) has arrived in Chelsea from her father’s chateau in Provence to live with Lucinda, her straitlaced English mother whom she hardly knows.

The plan is that Felicity will improve her English, do a secretarial course... and meet a suitable man. However, she is already missing her home, her father and her stepmother Lexi and their extended family. But it’s only for a year, she tells herself, and then she can go back to France and do what she really wants... become a painter.

Her greatest comfort is finding friendship with Violet who lives in the flat at the top of the large Chelsea house and works in a bookshop. Violet’s father recently inherited both a peerage and a large amount of money through the unexpected death of a family member, and Violet is worried that he is now being targeted by one of his gold-digger neighbours.

And then Felicity bumps into handsome Oliver Ward who is the most interesting young man she has ever met. He lives on a barge on the Thames for one thing and has a collection of jobs, but his passion is looking for hidden treasures along the banks of the river.

In a word, he’s a mudlarker... and before long Felicity is mudlarking, too. She is also pursuing her artistic dreams and painting scenery for Oliver’s bohemian actor friends. But is Oliver, along with his wild lifestyle, suitable enough to win her mother’s approval? Felicity fears he won’t match up to Lucinda’s exacting standards but she can’t imagine a future without him now... until he puts both of their lives in danger on a mudlarking adventure. Can she ever forgive him?

Fforde lives up to her well-earned reputation as the queen of uplifting romantic fiction as she serves up a gorgeous feelgood feast in which the bonds of family and friendship play leading roles, and the clocks wind back to the days when mudlarking on the banks of the Thames was an unlicensed joy.

Peopled with the author’s trademark cast of lovable characters – not least Oliver and his eclectic artists and barge dwellers – a large helping of sparkling storytelling, and with surprises at every turn for the young women setting out on their exciting journey into life and love, readers can expect tangled relationships, heartfelt emotions and some real-life adventures.

Warm, wise, witty and with a wonderful retro flavour, From London With Love is a trip to the city you won’t want to miss!

(Century, hardback, £16.99)