Kate’s 25th party, guest blogger #24 – Anne McAllister

My final guest blogger also comes from America – and yes, she’s another romance author I met at a party… Actually, I sort of got to know Anne McAllister a little before we met, when Kate Walker said, ‘You know you and my husband never stop talking history – well, I want to introduce you to one of my friends. I think you’ll get on. It’s to do with the H-word.’ And so I met Anne – not so much at the lunch, where I was on a different table, but afterwards over tea in Fortnum’s. She was telling me about her genealogy research and I was telling her about my local history stuff, and we talked and talked and talked and… I found a new friend. We also have other things in common – chocolate, books, maps, and dogs. I love her books (she sneaks in as many secondary characters as I do, and her dogs are brilliant, too). So anyway, I’m delighted to introduce Anne McAllister, whose next book, The Boss's Wife for a Week, is out in September:

Twenty-five books? Well, yes. And that's just before lunchtime!No, it just seems that way to sluggards like me who consider two books a year a very substantial number to write! So, it suffices to say I am in awe not just of Kate's prolificity (is that a word?) but even more – they are books on my keeper shelf. I don't have all of them – yet. But I'm working on it.

The thing is, while I appreciate and admire and honor Kate's novels, it's her non-fiction books written as Pamela Brooks that I read first. Kate and I share a love of local history. And while I putter around with it, Kate (in alter ego form as Pam) does something about it – like writing books on house history and local history and streets of Norfolk. She's amazing. And those books are on my keeper shelf as well. Pretty soon I won't have a Kate Hardy/Pamela Brooks keeper shelf, I'll have a Kate Hardy/Pamela Brooks keeper bookcase – which is probably a prelude to a Kate Hardy/Pamela Brooks keeper room! (I draw the line at adding a wing to the house.)

So I'm lifting a glass to celebrate your accomplishment, Kate! It's enormous. And deeply admired. Congratulations. May you write many more (not much doubt about that!). And may you write many more as Pamela, too. I've got the shelf space saved.

Anne

QUESTION: Do you have a favorite Kate Hardy or Pamela Brooks book? Which is is? Can't narrow it down? Then tell me all of them!

GIVEAWAY: The winner (picked by my flatcoat, Gunnar, who is very good at these things and only coincidentally tends to prefer books with dogs in them) will get a copy of the first of my Greek Tycoons books, The Antonides Marriage Deal.