Today is the publication date of The Fishmonger And The Pastry Chef, my new picture book with the wonderful illustrator Cheryl Orsini. Published by Little Hare (Hardie Grant Books), and partly inspired by my family history in the beautiful French Basque seaside town of Biarritz, it’s a very special book indeed. I can’t begin to say how much I adore the gorgeous visual world that Cheryl created around my text, weaving in her own beautiful, engaging threads of imagination and warmth. It’s been pure joy to work with her as co-creator!
Many thanks to our agent, Margaret Connolly, our publisher, Chren Byng, editor Johanna Gogos, and all the excellent team at Little Hare and Hardie Grant children’s publishing for your belief in this book and for helping to make it the most beautiful production ever.
Thanks also to the reviewers and booksellers who even in advance of publication have taken our book to their hearts–it is hugely appreciated! And here’s hoping The Fishmonger And The Pastry Chef will find its way into many, many hands and hearts, all over the country.
And if you’re in Sydney, do come and celebrate the launch of The Fishmonger And The Pastry Chef with us on Saturday November 29 at 2pm, at Gleebooks (Glebe). There will be sweet treats, stories and crafty things! RSVP to rachel@gleebooks.com.au
It’s been a lovely publication week for In the Paris Fashion, with bookshop signings and celebrations, and some great first reviews of the book, in the latest issue of the Australian Women’s Weekly and the latest issue of Who magazine. It’s off to a fantastic start!
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.
Today, August 1, is the official publication day for The Giant, my new picture book with the wonderful illustrator, Lorena Carrington, and we are so thrilled! Published by MidnightSun Publishing, The Giant is a fable about, yes, a giant! He wakes from a long sleep and happily walks down the mountain to find his old friends in the town–but alas, so much time has passed since he went to sleep that nobody remembers him and everyone runs away in fear–everyone, that is, except for–well, read the book to find out!
The Giant is my second picture-book collaboration with Lorena, after Satin (MidnightSun Publishing, 2023), which was awarded a Notable Books citation in the 2024 Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Awards. And as with Satin, creating The Giant was an absolute blast of a book to create together with our lovely publisher Anna Solding and her team at MidnightSun Publishing.
To celebrate the book’s publication, Lorena and I have written a bit about how it all came about. Hope you enjoy reading about it–and enjoy reading the book, too!
From Sophie:
The idea for the story of The Giant came into my head one day when I was walking up the road on a sunny but cold winter morning. He just arrived without warning; one minute I was strolling along, just enjoying the walk, the next minute I had stopped abruptly, seeing him so clearly, waking up, yawning and stretching after sleeping in his cave for a very, very long time.
As a child, I had read old stories where great heroes slept for centuries in caves but might wake up one day if they were needed to fight battles. But I knew my giant wasn’t about fighting battles, he was about finding his friends. And I could imagine his excitement as he went out into the sunshine, filled with joy as he thought he could see his friends again. And then his sadness as he realised nobody remembered him…I hurried home then so I could write his story down and find out what happened next to this gentle giant whose tears could make a river rise.
It was wonderful to write it and even more wonderful and thrilling to see the Giant and his world come to life in Lorena’s magical illustrations!
on left, part of the original first draft in my notebook, on right the finished draft on the computer
From Lorena:
I loved Sophie’s gentle giant from the first time I read her story, and I could picture him immediately in my mind. He is made up completely from elements of nature: moss, stick, leaves, little bits and pieces you might find out walking, so I like think of him as being real part of the landscape that he’s in. In fact, most of the illustrations in this book are made with photographs of nature montaged together, along with paper collage, and a little bit of drawing.
I also knew right from the start that I wanted the illustrations to be full of colour. Set over a full day, from sunrise to after dark, the colours change according to the time of day. If you look closely you can see I’ve used photographs of different landscapes to make up landscapes in the giant’s world, and also added some cut paper, little bits of drawings, and added little interesting things here and there. Look out for the drawing of the giant in the book, and see if the scene repeats itself in a different way later in the book. Can you find versions of the birds and the butterfly from the page borders too?
pages showing the changing of the light over the course of the book…contrasts: the Giant ‘in an old book’ and ‘in real life’...
The Giant, by Sophie Masson and Lorena Carrington, published by MidnightSun Publishing, August 1, 2025. ISBN 9781922858658. Available in all good bookshops around Australia! You can read a few fabulous early reviews here, here and here.
That’s the title of a little piece I wrote with tips about ten ‘secret gardens’ in Paris you can visit, which are unlikely to be found in guidebooks–or at least aren’t so well-known! It was published online, on the 9Travel site, and you can read it all here.
Here’s the list–without my descriptions and comments, all of which you can find in the published article linked above, but I’ve added here links where you can find out more about each:
The article on the 9travel website is illustrated with stock images which 9travel themselves sourced, but I also have photos myself of the gardens I mention. Most of them I took, but a few (all of the Clos des Blancs Manteaux, all of the Coulee Verte, the autumn shot of Albert Schweitzer garden and the black and white pic of the Port de l’Arsenal) are by my Paris-based brother in law Bruno Jan, who is a fabulous photographer. Here’s a gathering of some of them, for your enjoyment!
First block shows, from left to right: Les Rosiers/Joseph Migneret; Roseraie des Arquebusiers; Jardin du Port de l’Arsenal
Second block, from left to right: Albert Schweitzer 2 pics–in spring and autumn; Clos des Blancs Manteaux (2 pics)
Third block, from left to right: Square du Temple (2 pics): Parc de Belleville.
Fourth block (all pics): Coulee Verte
Fifth block, left to right: Parc de Bagatelle(2 pics: Jardin du Rond Point
There’s a fabulous gathering of wonderful reviews of A Secret Garden in Paris, from readers who participated in Better Reading’s Preview opportunity, which meant they could read advance copies of the book. I am just so thrilled and touched by the warmth with which so many people have responded to my novel–thank you all so much! Many thanks to Better Reading and Ultimo Press for making it possible.
It’s time to celebrate–today, A Secret Garden in Paris, my new novel for adults under the name of Sophie Beaumont, is officially released! I am so thrilled that it’s out in the world now, and hopefully will soon land in the hands of many, many readers. So many of you wonderful readers took my previous novel, The Paris Cooking School, to their hearts, and I hope you will also love A Secret Garden in Paris. I am delighted that already there have been some wonderful advance reviews of the book, you can read them here.
Writing this novel took me on an extraordinary journey, as I followed my characters Emma, Charlotte and Arielle through the winding paths of their lives in Paris, against a background of that glorious green and flowery world that’s such an integral part of the charm of the city. Over the years I’ve visited most of the places my characters went to, but I discovered quite a few more in the process of researching and writing the novel, as well as some fascinating facts and anecdotes about Paris gardens, a few of which found their way into the book. (By the way, I’ll soon be publishing a couple of pages on this blog, about the locations in the book and also on my favourite flowers–watch this space!)
I’d like to acknowledge the many people who have helped make this book such a lovely reality: many thanks to my wonderful agent, Margaret Connolly, for her encouragement, suggestions and support; to all the fantastic Ultimo Press team, for their dedicated, thoughtful and inspired commitment to making this book the very best it could be; and to Cheryl Orsini for the gorgeous peony and fabulous map. Special thanks to my husband David, gardener extraordinaire, for advice on plants and the restoration of overgrown gardens, and to my Paris-based sister Gabrielle and brother-in-law Bruno whose intimate knowledge of the city’s gardens helped to greatly expand my repertoire. 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.
My latest book for young readers, the chapterbook Sabina and the Cats of Rome, illustrated by Laura Wood, is being published today by Christmas Press. It was such a fun book to write, with the seeds of it first planted by seeing a whole bunch of cats communing in central Rome, at the spot where Julius Caesar was assassinated, no less! And that seed lay dormant for a few years before turning into the adventure of a little girl in Ancient Rome, a haughty little cat, a couple of confused dogs, and a dastardly plot by the King of the Rats!
Read a great review of Sabina and the Cats of Rome here.
There’s a really nice interview with me on writer and reviewer Cindy L Spear’s blog, about The Paris Cooking School, writing, food, and other matters! I really enjoyed doing it, her questions were really interesting. Here’s a short extract:
What inspired you to write The Paris Cooking School?
Paris itself! I love the city and have been there multiple times, several members of my family live there, plus I had the great good luck to be awarded a writer’s residency there for 6 months some years ago, so I really got to know it well. Also, of course, another inspiration is the food I grew up with as I’m from a French background (though we are from south-west France, not Paris). I loved putting my characters in the midst of this amazing city, discovering more about French food culture, and history, walking all over Paris—and falling in love.
Seems that The Paris Cooking School has been making a prominent appearance in airports around the country, and friends have been sending me pictures of it to illustrate that! Here’s a selection, just for fun 🙂
Feathers of the Firebird 