Saving Missy
Debut Novel by Beth Morrey
(HarperCollins, February 2020)
The world has changed around Missy Carmichael. At seventy-nine, she’s estranged from her daughter, her son and only grandson live across the world in Australia, and her great love is gone. Missy spends her days with a sip of sherry, scrubbing the kitchen in her big empty house and reliving her past–though it’s her mistakes, and secrets, that she allows to shine brightest. The last thing Missy expects is for two perfect strangers and one spirited dog to break through her prickly exterior and show Missy just how much love she still has to give.
The story is Beth’s first novel and she is a writer worth watching.
Beth Morrey, 42, grew up in Derbyshire before studying English at Cambridge, and left university with ambitions to become a comedy writer. A career in factual television beckoned instead and she eventually joined the production company RDF Television, rising to become creative director, responsible for shows including The Secret Life of Four-Year-Olds and 100-Year-Old Drivers. It was while on maternity leave that she decided to embrace her long-held ambition to write a novel and the result, Saving Missy, became the subject of a 10-publisher auction and has since sold in 16 overseas territories. It’s a book about community, loneliness and unexpected friendships,
