It’s publication day for In The Paris Fashion, my third adult novel under the name of Sophie Beaumont, and I couldn’t be more excited! So many lovely readers enjoyed the previous novels, A Secret Garden in Paris (2024) and The Paris Cooking School (2023) and I hope very much you’ll love this one too!

This novel, which tells a very contemporary story but reaches back into the past and the extraordinarily creative years of the fashion world in the between-wars years in Paris, is very close to my heart as it was partly inspired by a precious family legacy in the form of the experiences of my beautiful paternal grandmother Marie-Louise during her unconventional provincial childhood and amazing time in Paris as a young fashion illustrator and aspiring artist in the Paris of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Her handwritten notebook from the 1970’s, telling those stories, was transcribed by one of my sisters recently and proved very inspirational. Other inspirations come in the form of the fascinating world of ‘brocante’ or vintage/antique trading; the history of the silk trade in France, and of course the extraordinary place of Paris in the world of haute couture.

In my many visits to Paris over the years, including this year, I have visited the locations in the novel, such as the Avenue de Montaigne with its rows of designer showrooms; the fabric district in Montmartre, with its fascinating stores; and the famous art school, l’Académie de la Grande Chaumière. I’ll be profiling these and many other locations in the novel on a special page on this blog–watch this space!

I’d like to acknowledge the many people who have made this book such a gorgeous reality: my agent, Margaret Connolly; my publisher, Brigid Mullane and all the fantastic Ultimo Press team, for making this book the very best it could be, both editorially and in design and production; and to Cheryl Orsini for the gorgeous cover illustration and map. Special thanks to my sisters: Gabrielle, who walked many of the Paris settings with me; Camille and Beatrice, whose inside knowledge of the brocante scene helped flesh out Isabelle’s background; and Dominique, whose work on transcribing our grandmother’s handwritten notebook was of such help in evoking the atmosphere of late 1920’s Paris. Many thanks also to my niece Emilie-Marie, for showing me in real life what work at a couture school consists of. And to all my beautiful family in Australia, France and the UK, I am so very grateful for your loving support and encouragement, as always.