Christmas Reads – The Christmas Love Letters by Sue Moorcroft

Welcome to December! For the next four weeks my featured book will be a festive read and kicking off the blog is The Christmas Love Letters by Sue Moorcroft. Isn’t the cover gorgeous? I’ve read this book and can promise you that it’s a captivating read.

Blurb:

A secret romance was just the start of the story…

Tucked into a crook of the Norfolk coast lies Nelson’s Bar – an idyllic village where time seems to stand still. Maddy Cracey has called this beautiful spot home all her life, as had her husband Adey – until an epic row sent him storming out into a blizzard, with no sign of him since that fateful night.

Six years on, and Maddy’s life in the village has settled into a gentle pattern with her young daughter and Great Aunt Ruthie. However, when handsome stranger Raff turns up with a handful of long-forgotten love letters, their quiet life is upended as family secrets from the past are unearthed.

As Raff and Maddy get to know each other, they grow closer and a love story of their own seems inevitable. But when Maddy receives a mysterious message, she can’t help but wonder whether her own past is as distant as she’d thought it was…

Buylinks:

Paperback: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Love-Letters-gorgeous-heartwarming/dp/0008636761/

Ebook: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Love-Letters-gorgeous-heartwarming-ebook/dp/B0C7GDGBFX/

Audiobook: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audible-The-Christmas-Love-Letters/dp/B0CCPS6ZR2/

Here’s an extract:

Prologue

0900 hrs, 20th December 1977

My dearest, darling Ruthie,
I’m hoping you receive this by 22nd Dec. before your Xmas visit to your sis and family in Nelson’s Bar. They sound like good sorts (but could never love you as much as I do). Perhaps your family might sense you need a break before returning to work in Jan. and will take care of you. (Are you sure you should go back that soon??)

I enclose card and present, but it’s nothing in comparison to what you’ve given me. I want you to know that that beautiful, special, wonderful gift is happy and much, much loved.

Are you recovering, darling? I can’t bear it that while I was on Remembrance Day parade you were alone in hospital! You say you’ve come to terms with things but part of me knows I should’ve stayed away from the wonderful civvy female who came to work ‘under me’ (ho ho ho) at the barracks. The other part is thankful that you’ve transformed my life.

I wish we could be together!! I miss you all the time.

I hope we can find a way to meet in the New Year so I can see for myself how you are.

I love you, Ruthie. God bless you and keep you safe.

All my love, Nigel xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Christmas Eve 1977

My dearest, darling Nigel,
‘It’s a Heartache’, Bonnie Tyler sings to me, whenever I switch on the radio. She’s right.
I know your ‘gift’ is in the best of hands and will get a better life than I could have given her. Knowing she’s well and happy is the only way I can cope with the loss.

I love you and miss you.

Yours always, with love from a frosty, snowy Nelson’s Bar,

Ruthie xxxxx

Welcome to my Christmas Reads blog, Sue. I know that there’s a fascinating story behind the inspiration for this book, can you share it with my readers please?

Hi Karen, of course. The Christmas Love Letters was a joy to write. I won’t include spoilers, but the story begins with a man turning up at Great-Aunt Ruthie’s house looking for information about his late father … and with a bundle of Ruthie’s love letters in his bag.

The spark for The Christmas Love Letters was literally gifted to me at Swanwick Writers’ Summer School last year. A lady called Anne approached me between sessions to tell me about a bundle of love letters she’d found when clearing the home of her late sister-in-law. Apart from a quick glance, Anne wasn’t comfortable reading them but wasn’t sure she should throw them away. She asked me if I could get a story from them. Initially, I was unsure, but after I’d carried them to my room and read a couple, I was certain that I could! Spanning nearly thirty years, the love in these letters shone through.

Of course, I changed the names for The Christmas Love Letters. They’re now Ruthie and Nigel, so that’s how I’ll refer to them here.

I spent a couple of days putting the letters in order and then reading them. The fact that Ruthie was a civilian working for the army, and Nigel was a sergeant in the same regiment my dad had served in only increased my fascination. I soon felt as if I knew both parties, understanding their love, and how it survived Nigel being posted away and asking in vain for Ruthie to follow him. When they got together again after a few years apart, his joy just leapt from the page. The letters form a social history, too, illuminating Nigel’s political leanings and fears and goals after he left the army. Some things are never talked of, like his family or why he didn’t return to the area where Ruthie lived after his service ended, so I created my own explanations. I knew from Anne that the relationship went on up until Ruthie’s death, more than a decade after the last letter, and guessed that the advent of mobile phones ended the correspondence. Or maybe Ruthie destroyed or mislaid some letters?

Ruthie and Nigel’s affair threads through the backstory of The Christmas Love Letters. I never quoted a letter directly, but I tried to replicate the things that made the couple real to me: their complaints about employers, mentions of polaroid photos (only one of which fell into my hands; and was quite innocent – possibly because a section had been cut off), grammatical errors and abiding love and affection. These hidden lovers fell in love with the wrong person but I’m grateful to them for the love story they left behind. They created a way for me to rescue Maddy from the limbo created by her husband going missing, and to pave the way to her happiness.

I’m sure Anne is delighted that her sister-in-laws letters were the spark that lit this wonderful story, Sue. Thanks so much for dropping by to talk to us today.

Meet Sue

A brief Author bio.

Sue Moorcroft is a Sunday Times bestselling author, and her books have been #1 on Kindle UK and Top 100 on Kindle US, Canada and Italy. She writes two books a year for publishing giant HarperCollins and has won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Novel of the Year, Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award, a HOLT Medallion and the Katie Fforde Bursary. She’s the president of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. Her novels, short stories, serials, columns, writing ‘how to’ and courses have appeared around the world.

Contact Sue

Amazon page: Sue Moorcroft

Audible page: Sue Moorcroft

Website: www.suemoorcroft.com

Facebook author page SueMoorcroftAuthor

Twitter: @SueMoorcroft

Instagram: @SueMoorcroftAuthor

Linked in: Sue Moorcroft

Link Tree: linktr.ee/SueMoorcroft

Bookbub: SueMoorcroft1

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