“it was an important element of my story”

Miss Julia White, horsewoman, sailor, farmer and haunter of my own farming life (such as it isn’t) first appeared in my life when I was 17, trying to get myself to agricultural college. Or was it when

She’s the UK’s bestselling contemporary poet who’s now sold more than a million books. Here Donna Ashworth, 50, talks about overcoming anorexia, finding huge success in later life and why Christmas is her lifeline

What revealed the magic of books for me was The Wind in the Willows. When I was five, I contracted measles, which meant I had to spend my days in bed in a darkened room. My mother sat outside my bedro

They’d have loved the drama of it – bowing out almost exactly ten years apart. Born in the same year and with the same initials, both queens of the bonkbuster. One was a Hollywood lioness, the other a

Mary Pargeter was starting to feel her age. When did she first attend the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Greenwood House? A quarter of a century, and she was retired even then. Had she loc

The past 12 months have seen some fabulous releases. Prima ’s books editor Nina Pottell looks back at her favourites and the ones you may have missed…