' ... you may find you've fallen head over heels for Ms Simonson's funny, barbed, delightfully winsome storytelling. Don't say you weren't warned. It's about intelligence, heart, dignity and backbone.' New York Times Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired) leads a quiet life in the small rural English village of Edgecombe St Mary where he values the proper things that Englishmen have treasured for generations - honour, duty, decorum and a properly brewed cup of tea. It takes news of his brother's death, though, to open the Major's eyes to Mrs Jasmina Ali, the village shopkeeper, and confound all the plans his patronising son and the local ladies have for him. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. A most unlikely hero, Major Pettigrew must first contend with irate relatives and an outraged village before he comes to understand his own heart. Written with warmth, feeling and a delightfully dry sense of humour, this very modern love story will have you cheering wildly for the Major and Mrs Ali and believing that sometimes life does give you a second chance.

Author Biography

Helen Simonson is an Englishwoman who spent her teenage years in a small village in East Sussex, near Rye. She moved to the US over twenty years ago and lives in the Washington, DC, area, with her American husband and her two sons. A graduate of the London School of Economics and former travel advertising executive, she recently completed an MFA at Stony Brook Southampton and her short stories and essays have appeared in several publications. Her first novel, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, was an international bestseller. Her second novel The Summer Before the War will be published in April 2016.