INTERVIEW
Bestselling author Milly Johnson is known as ‘the queen of feel-good fiction’. She writes from her home in Barnsley and has just published her 21st book in her 60th year
READ ON
A taste of Milly’s latest novel: Polly Potter seems to be taken for granted by everyone in her life – especially her terrible new boss, Jeremy, and her cheating partner, Chris. In her Monday evening class she creates a feistier, bolder, more successful version of herself – as the fictional Sabrina Anderson.
Resolved to make a change, Polly is counting down the days until she can take a leaf out of Sabrina’s book and finally move on. But Polly finds herself in a seaside hospital with no recollection of how she got there. The only things she is certain of; that she’s a successful business analyst, and that her name is Sabrina.
Struggling to remember anything about her life before, and mistakenly believing she is the fictional Sabrina, Polly finds comfort and support in Marielle, who offers her a home, and her son, Teddy, who gives her a job at his Italian restaurant. Soon she discovers what family life should really be about.
The Happiest Ever After by Milly Johnson is out now. Simon & Schuster, £16.99, hardback
A place in Yorkshire that makes you smile?
Haworth. I have always loved that quirky little village, especially after Christmas when it was quiet and foggy. I used to skive off work and drive there and wish I lived there. So in my mid-t wenties, I upped sticks and moved there, hoping to be bitten by a Brontë muse.
Living a village life informed my writing so much and I met so many wonderful people and had very happy times. I was married there and had my children. Whenever I go back, I visualise myself riding a horse on Sunday morning hacks through the heather on the moors and at the time it felt as close to heaven as I was ever going to get.
A place in Yorkshire that you love to eat at?
There is an Indian restaurant on Mill Hill in Leeds near the train station called Tharavadu. The cuisine – Kerala influenced – features very different dishes to the ones you would usually associate with a typical Indian menu and we absolutely love it. My tastebuds exploded with joy the first time I tried a ‘dosa’. My partner is a vegetarian and this place caters beautifully for non meat-eaters. The ambience is wonderful and manages to be both buzzing and intimate at the same time.
A place in Yorkshire that you like to take friends?
I wrote a book featuring falconry a few years ago and contacted the Thirsk Birds of Prey Centre to see if they’d help me with my research. I fell in love with the family – and the birds – and I go up there whenever I can to fly eagles and owls. It’s truly my happy place and I’ve taken friends up there to experience something really s
