A new look for my latest book!
And the story behind the yellow dress
If you’re someone who waits for the paperback edition of books then you don’t have long left to wait… The paperback of my latest novel is out on the 20th of July and I’m excited to share with you a fresh new look, and a shorter title for The Vintage Shop.
I love how bright and bold this cover is. The dress featured on the front is a very special yellow dress that brings together the characters as they try to uncover its secrets. As the tag line says: every dress tells a story…
With this in mind, I thought I’d tell you a bit more about the inspiration behind the yellow dress that features on the cover of the book…
The story of my yellow dress
My inspiration for the yellow dress at the heart of The Vintage Shop came from a number of different places. I’ve always been fascinated by vintage clothing and the idea of all the stories behind a vintage dress: who made it, who wore it, who they passed it on to... It’s why I chose to wear vintage to both my wedding celebrations - first to my tiny Covid wedding in 2020 and again when we were able to have a bigger party in 2022.
I loved the idea of wearing other people’s love stories on my wedding day. I have an antique engagement ring too and love it for that same reason - the idea of who it might have belonged to over the years.
The dress I wore to the legal wedding ceremony is from the 1940s while the ‘party’ dress is a more informal 1970s style in primrose yellow. I adore both of the dresses and wearing them sparked the idea of writing a book that told the story behind a vintage dress.
I actually thought about making the dress in my book a wedding dress, but in the end, decided that it might limit the kind of story I could tell. I had the sense that this should be a dress with a story of women at its heart. So I opted for a dress made for dancing instead.
I scoured Pinterest for inspiration, building pinboards of vintage clothing that I loved. I was particularly inspired by a hand-painted yellow dress that provided the starting point for the dress I go on to describe in the novel.
“The top half of the dress is neat and fitted with a collared V-neck, the slip waist decorated with a row of shiny buttons. After the neat waist, the skirt billows out in folds of sunshine. The entire dress is covered in flowers, all rendered in miniature by multicoloured threads. Roses with tiny green leaves, poppies in bright lipstick-red, sunflowers and cornflowers and tiny white daisies. It is as if a wildflower meadow is growing out of the fabric itself, each leaf and petal picked out in delicate thread.”
The Vintage Shop
Once I had written about the dress, it came to feel incredibly real in my mind. I decided I wanted to take the dress out of the pages and make it exist in the real world…
I found a vintage pattern that matched my vision of the silhouette of the dress and then sought out a local seamstress to help me bring it to life. I would have loved to make the dress myself but my sewing skills are somewhat lacking! I did, however, spend many evenings in front of the TV hand-sewing tiny embroidered flowers onto the dress as decoration once it was finished.
The dress was completed just in time for me to wear it to my book launch. It felt very special to be able to put it on. I felt almost as though the characters in my book who so treasured the dress were there with me in the room.
Since then, the yellow dress has been hanging in the window of my local bookshop, Hunting Raven Books here in Frome, Somerset, where the novel is set!
I will always treasure this yellow dress, just like the yellow dress in The Vintage Shop means so much to the women who wear it.
So, what do you think of this new book cover? I’d love to hear what you think!
A reminder of upcoming events…
5th June at 6:30 pm: free online event with Havering Library. Email Libraryevents@Havering.gov.uk to book
8th June at 7 pm: Sturminster Newton Literary Festival
A few updates…
I’m now on TikTok! I’m really enjoying it for the creativity and scope to rave about books! Come follow me!
After a couple of weeks away from the manuscript, I’m looking forward to getting back to editing my next book The Lifeline, my follow-up to The Lido. It’s out in April and available to pre-order now!
I’ve started my reading journal! At the moment I’m catching up on all the books I’ve enjoyed this year which so far is 20 books. I’m not planning on including books I didn’t finish, of which there were quite a few! I have become quite ruthless when it comes to reading on the basis that there are so many books out there so if I’m not enjoying something I’d rather switch to something else. Do you drop books if you’re not enjoying them? Or do you make a point of seeing them through?