Welcome to another Friday Reads post. Today I’m interviewing bestselling author Julie Houston, who’s dropped by to tell us about A Class Act, the first book in her funny and fablous Beddington series. So grab yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get talking to Julie. 😊

‘Warm and poignant, brimming with heart and humour and filled with characters I was rooting for. Loved this class act!’ Fiona Gibson

Robyn Allen is finally getting closer to her dream of West End stardom. And along with her role dancing in the latest hot musical, she’s being wined and dined by an equally hot man – the wildly successful and well-connected Fabian Carrington. But one slip up and her dreams are shattered, and Robyn has to hobble back to the Yorkshire village of Beddingfield, and the life she hoped she’d escaped.

Moving back into her mum’s house with her recalcitrant teenage sister Sorrel, next door to her older sister Jess who’s fed up with picking up the slack, is not how Robyn pictured her year. But there’s more to come. Sorrel needs a new school, and the school needs a new drama teacher. Despite having vowed never to teach again, Robyn knows she has to support her sister.

So together Sorrel and Robyn vow to take on St Mede’s – home to jokers, tearaways and trouble-makers, but with a hidden heartbeat ready to be inspired. And who knows, the kids might have something to teach Robyn about life too…

Praise for Julie Houston:

‘This is a gorgeous, warm-hearted read with a cast of characters that you can’t help but root for. It’s a beautiful depiction of the special bond between sisters – warts and all and I can’t wait to see where we go next with the Allen family.’ Freya Kennedy

‘Warm, funny and well written, with a page-turning plot, this book has everything! I loved it!’ Katie Fforde

‘Julie Houston at her best – heartfelt and hilarious’ Sandy Barker

‘Laugh-out-loud hilarious and heartwarming!’ Mandy Baggot

‘A tour de force of beautiful, funny and emotional storytelling’ Fay Keenan

‘A warm, funny story of sisters and the secrets they keep’ Sheila O’Flanagan

‘This book is an absolute gigglefest with characters you’ll fall in love with!’ Katie Ginger

Fancy reading it? A Class Act is out on 30th July, you can preorder here:

http://Mybook.to/ClassActSocial

Welcome to my blog, Julie. Your book sounds fantastic. What inspired you to write it?

My brand-new novel, A CLASS ACT, is published on Tuesday July 30^th. It’s my fourteenth novel, but my first writing for Boldwood. What makes this particularly exciting is that I’ve been reunited with my first editor, the very lovely Sarah Ritherdon, who originally took me on at Aria and proceeded to make A VILLAGE AFFAIR the great success that it was. I like to think this new book is a much-diluted version of Fifty Shades (without the sexual gymnastics) meets Waterloo Road.

Sarah had simply asked that I introduce a new village. My books have all been set in the West Yorkshire village of Westenbury, so it was a bit of a wrench to move house as it were. However, I soon began to fall in love with Beddingfield, another West Yorkshire village. Beddingfield is exceptionally pretty and now something of a tourist destination with a couple of pubs, a duck pond and a very active community, all working for the good of the village, on the edge of the Pennines.

So, this is Robyn’s story who, together with her two sisters, has been brought up by a single mother. I say a single mother because the girls’ father, a Jamaican reggae artist, has not really been around much for them as he’s constantly away touring. Robyn has inherited his singing voice, but her main love is musical theatre. She finally sees her dreams come true when she is given a part in Dance On in The West End. At exactly the same time as she falls in love with the very gorgeous Fabian Mansfield Carrington. I won’t give anything else away at this stage – suffice to say, things happen and Robyn returns to Beddingfield from London.

A girl has to earn a living, and Robyn finds herself teaching dance and drama – something she swore she never would do – in a tough and failing high school.  As a teacher of many years, I know lots about educating kids up to the age of eleven, but absolutely nothing about the key stage after that. But I knew a woman who did. Armed with notebook and pen I went to see K, the daughter of a very dear teaching colleague of mine. I remember vividly my colleague coming into the staff room to say K had been about to face a tough lot of kids on her very first morning teaching dance and drama. She said these kids were unteachable – one girl was hanging out of the window smoking, another racing round with his – shall we say, tackle – out on show and K had fled to ring her mother who said, “Get back in there or you’ll never teach again.”  K verified all this and told me what happened next.

 Which I recreated almost word for word in the chapter when Robyn faces a class at her new school for the very first time.

With thanks to K, I do hope you will enjoy reading A CLASS ACT as much as I loved writing it.

What a story, and K sounds an incredible teacher. I simply have to find out what happened now, and am sure my readers will too!

A Class Act is out on 30th July, you can preorder here: http://Mybook.to/ClassActSocial

Meet Julie

A brief Author bio:

Julie Houston is the author of 13 best-selling Women’s contemporary/Romantic Comedy novels. Represented by Anne Williams at KHLA Literary Agency, she was previously published by Aria/Head of Zeus but now writes for Boldwood. She has had UK top 100 selling books and Looking for Lucy hit the number 1 spot in Australia. Sing me a Secret was shortlisted for, and won, the Popular Romantic Fiction Award in 2021.

Julie is Yorkshire born and bred and lives in Huddersfield where her novels are set. After University, where she studied Education and English Literature, she taught for many years as a junior schoolteacher. After teaching for a few years, she decided to go to New Zealand to work and taught in Auckland for a year before coming back to this country. She now teaches when the phone rings to cover absent colleagues and still loves the buzz of teaching junior-aged children.

Julie is married with a son and daughter, both in their twenties and now living in London. She has been a magistrate on the West Yorkshire bench for the last twenty-four years.

Contact Julie

Email: joolshouston2002@yahoo.co.uk

Twitter: @juliehouston2

Facebook juliehoustonauthor     &  juliehouston

Thanks so much for dropping by to talk to us, Julie. I’m sure you have another bestseller on your hands here! I hope it soars.