As February is the month of love, I have a host of wonderful authors stopping by my blog to #ShareTheLove as they discuss their novels, and share a few cheeky extracts!
Today, I am pleased to welcome Chindi Authors’ Author of the Week, Angela Petch, who has recently released Mavis and Dot – a book of humorous tales about two eccentric ladies who form an unlikely friendship. To #ShareTheLove Angela talks about love for the older generation and the special bond between best friends. Over to you, Angela.
Mavis and Dot
The two main characters in my new book are baby boomers, ladies “of a certain age”. But that doesn’t mean love is a thing of the past for Mavis and Dot.
Mavis is prone to infatuations with Italian men. At the beginning of the novella, we learn about her Italian lover, who is married to another woman. He owns a string of famous restaurants and when Mavis and Alessandro occasionally meet in the flat that he bought for her in Worthington-on-Sea, they make love and afterwards enjoy “morsels that Alessandro brought from his restaurant kitchen. The twinkling lights along the promenade provided a festive backdrop to their feast. As usual, Mavis had eaten with gusto, feeding her lover with garlic mushrooms and slivers of sweet red oily capsicum from her own fork.”
I won’t tell you how their relationship ends, but a few months later, she falls for an Italian café owner who teaches the tango in his spare time. Mavis comes to an undignified end when she tries his dance class and rapidly falls out of love with Mario.
A couple of days later, Dot consoles her friend, as they share tea and friendship in the Marks and Spencer cafeteria.
“He was really nasty to me, Dot… I was a little off-balance, that’s all. I’ve never done the tango before – what did he expect? He left me lying in a heap on the floor.”
Her friend tries to sympathise. “Falling in love is like catching mumps. It’s tricky,” said Dot, stirring her lapsang.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s fine catching mumps when you’re young but it’s tricky when you’re older. It hits you harder.”
My mother-in-law picked up a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey in the supermarket and asked me if it was a manual about hair dye. I’m afraid I sniggered but her comment also made me think. Love and romance is not restricted to the young. We all need love… and friends. Mavis and Dot are very different from each other and form an unlikely friendship. Newly retired to the Sussex seaside, they are both lonely. As they begin to learn more about each other, they provide mutual help and support.
I wrote Mavis and Dot in memory of my best friend who died thirteen years ago from ovarian cancer. Yes, it has taken me all those years to develop the original short story I wrote for her when she was gravely ill! We enjoyed hunting around charity shops on our days out and we used to nickname ourselves Mavis and Dot. I miss her.
My friend drew this sketch for me when she was very ill. The illustrations in Mavis and Dot, created by Gill Kaye, Editor of Sussex Magazine, Ingénu/e, are inspired by it.
All profits from sales of Mavis and Dot are going to Cancer Research and I hope to raise as much as possible! You can find out more, and buy the book here.
Thank you for sharing the humour, love and warmth of Mavis and Dot with us Angela, and for all you are doing to raise money for Cancer Research in memory of your dear friend.
Angela is delighted to have received love and encouragement from the reviews so far on Goodreads and Amazon, and has had many requests for a sequel:
“This book was a total joy from beginning to end…a perfect reminder of the power of friendship.” (Welsh Annie – Top 500 Reviewer)
“Mavis and Dot is a warm-hearted exploration of life and friendship that I found beguiling and engaging. It’s a super read. (Linda’s Book Bag)
“Absolutely perfect for an afternoon’s reading, just before your belly dancing class, fish and chips supper or the nude modelling! Completely uplifting…” (Stardust Book Reviews)
“What a cast! I loved Mavis, I want to be her when I grow up…” (The Midnight Review)
“One of my top three reads of 2018” (Book addiction UK – Wrong side of forty)
“10 * It’s not often I go above a 5* ranking but Mavis and Dotabsolutely stole my heart…utterly charming.” (Dash Fan Book Reviews)
About the author
Angela Petch lives in the Tuscan Apennines in summer and Sussex in winter.
Her love affair with Italy was born at the age of seven when she moved with her family to Rome. Her father worked for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and he made sure his children learned Italian and soaked up the culture. She studied Italian at the University of Kent at Canterbury and afterwards worked in Sicily where she met her husband. His Italian mother and British father met in Urbino in 1944 and married after a wartime romance.
Her first book, “Tuscan Roots” was written in 2012, for her Italian mother-in-law, Giuseppina, and also to make readers aware of the courage shown by families of her Italian neighbours during WW2. Signed by Bookouture in 2018, this book will be republished in June 2019. Another Tuscan novel has been commissioned for 2020.
“Now and Then in Tuscany”, a sequel, was published in April 2017 and features the same family. The background is the transhumance, a practice that started in Etruscan times and continued until the 1950s. Her research for her Tuscan novels is greatly helped by her knowledge of Italian and conversations with locals.
Although Italy is a passion, her stories are not always set in this country. “Mavis and Dot”, published at the end of 2018 and sold in aid of Cancer Research, tells the story of two fun-loving ladies who retire to the Sussex seaside. They forge an unlikely friendship and fall into a variety of adventures. Ingenu/e Magazine describes it as: “Absolutely Fabulous meets Last of the Summer Wine… a gently hilarious feel-good book that will enchant and delight…”.
A prize-winning author, member of CHINDI independent authors and RNA, she also loves to travel and recently returned to Tanzania, where she lived at the start of her marriage. A keen tennis player and walker, she also enjoys spending time with her five grandchildren and inventing stories for their entertainment.
Angela’s short stories are published by PRIMA and the People’s Friend. Her historical novels Tuscan Roots (available for a limited time only) and Now and Then in Tuscany are available as ebooks and in paperback.
Discover more about Angela Petch and her writing here: Facebook | Twitter | website | Amazon
Don’t miss author Hannah Pearl #SharingTheLove with an extract from Evie’s Little Black Book, on my blog tomorrow. xx
Carol Thomas writes contemporary romance novels, with relatable heroines whose stories are layered with emotion, sprinkled with laughter and topped with irresistible male leads. Discover more here.
