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 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.
Yoohoo! It’s the publication day today of Bold Ben Hall, my middle-grade novel about the famous/infamous bushranger, as seen through the eyes of Lily Jordan and Sam Turner, two (fictional) young people of his time. Published by Walker Books Australia as the launch title in their new Our History series, it was an absolutely engrossing novel to write, and I hope readers will find it similarly engrossing!
In this novel, I wanted to present Ben Hall’s story in a way which reflects the very different perspectives through which people of the time saw him and his arch-enemy Sir Frederick Pottinger. But it also invites you, the reader today, to make up your own mind, like Lily and Sam try to—who’s the hero, who’s the villain, or do they each have a bit of both?
My main characters Lily, Sam and their families and friends are fictional, but several of the people who appear in this novel are real historical figures, and I have based their descriptions and doings on documents and sources of the time. These historical figures include not only Hall and Pottinger, of course, but also the members of Hall’s gang, Mickey Burke and the three Johnnies—Gilbert, Vane and O’Meally—as well as the landlords of the Canowindra Hotel, Billy and Rose Robinson, and French-born Forbes businessmen Auguste Nicolas and Joseph-Bernard Reymond. As well as doing a lot of research in books and online, I visited Canowindra, Carcoar, Eugowra and Escort Rock (where Frank Gardiner and his gang pulled off the famous gold raid) Bathurst, Forbes (including Ben Hall’s grave) and the surrounding countryside to get a feel for ‘Ben Hall country’, which proved to be both interesting and inspirational. I particularly want to acknowledge the kind help and useful information I received from staff at the Forbes Library and Forbes Visitor Centre, as well as the archivists of the Forbes Family History Group, which helped me to build an even fuller picture of Ben Hall and his times. Later, a visit to the fascinating Cobb and Co Museum in Toowoomba, Queensland, greatly helped in fleshing out the coaching background.
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.
It’s the official publication day today, August 6, of the North American edition of The Paris Cooking School! It’s a lovely hardback production, published by Alcove Press, and distributed by Penguin Random House throughout the US and Canada. Here’s hoping it lands in the hands of many many readers who take it to their hearts!
Well, the big day has come for The Paris Cooking School, which is officially released by Ultimo Press today. This has been such a special, wonderful book to write, and an exciting new direction for me into full-length contemporary adult fiction. I am so happy that the novel is available in bookshops right across Australia now. And I very much hope that readers will enjoy going with Gabi, Kate and Sylvie, my main characters, on their journey to new purpose, new happiness–and new recipes!–in the heart of the most beautiful city in the world…
Huge thanks to the wonderful people who have helped make this book a gorgeous reality: my fantastic agent, Margaret Connolly who has been so encouragingly excited about this story from the start, my fabulous publisher Alex Craig, who believed in it straight away and provided such thoughtful and perceptive guidance, and to all the lovely team at Ultimo Press, for all your much-appreciated care in editing, design, publicity, and more. And a special thanks to Cheryl Orsini for the strawberry tart 🙂 It’s been a truly wonderful experience working with you all, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
To my husband David, and my children and children-in-law, Pippa, Joe, Xavier, Maryam, Bevis and Jacquie, much love and thanks for understanding why this book was so very special for me, and for being so excited for me. And to all the rest of my beautiful family, in France, Australia and the UK, lots of love and thanks for your support and encouragement always. My birth family is from south west France so though I’ve known those regions well since childhood, we never went to Paris, and I first got to know it only in my early twenties. So, a special thank you to my Paris-based family members for the many engrossing hours over many years, helping us to really get to know the City of Light from the inside, knowledge which was enriched by a six month residency in the Nancy Keesing Studio in Paris, generously awarded to me by the Australia Council. And another special thank you goes to my sisters in law in Britain whose lovely little pet provided the inspiration for a very special character in The Paris Cooking School!
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some more about the book, including special features for readers, but right now, hurrah for publication day, and here’s to The Paris Cooking School!
PS: If you would like to read some reviews of The Paris Cooking School (there’s already quite a few advance reviews!), head over to my website, where you’ll find extracts of quite a few of them. And if you’d like to drop me a line about The Paris Cooking School, contact me here.
Today is the publication day of Secrets of the Good Fairy House, my new Pardalote Press production with Lorena Carrington. It’s been a real passion project for us both, and we’re so delighted to see the book out there! We hope lots of readers will take it to their hearts.
The book is available from any good bookshop across Australia, and can also be ordered directly from our Pardalote Press website, here. And to whet your appetite, here’s a beautiful review of the book, by writer and reviewer Ashleigh Meikle, of the popular Book Muse blog.
Today my new middle-grade historical mystery novel, The Key to Rome, is officially published by Eagle Books and is available in all good bookshops around Australia. It’s a novel that’s had a long gestation, since the day quite a few years ago when I spotted an ancient Roman key ring (a key designed to be worn as a ring) in an antique shop near the British Museum, and on an impulse, went in and bought it. It immediately inspired a train of thought about a story set in the Ancient Roman province of Britannia, and in time that turned into the book that is published today. And it’s just wonderful to see it out there at last!
The gorgeous cover illustrations, map and chapter decorations are by Lorena Carrington, and elegant design by Authors’ Elves.
Feathers of the Firebird 