BROKEN ENGLISH

Four English women, living in France, are drawn together by the tenuous thread of being foreign.

BROKEN ENGLISH is the darkly witty story of four English women, living in France, drawn together by the tenuous thread of being foreigners. To city girl, Jules, rural France is a shock to the system, but she cannot hide from herself, even in the little town of Bonneville. She is caught between an uncomfortable past and an uncertain future, with an old love and a new passion to consider. Angelica, fey and bohemian, no longer knows what she wants. It is not until she looks beyond her own self-interest and bad behaviour, that she finds the clue to future happiness. Rachel, embraces the rural idyll, but struggle with invisibility and a husband who has forgotten she is a woman. Yet when fate tears Rachel's family apart, she finds new courage and establishes herself in her own right. Rose understands secrets. She understands the currents that churn beneath Bonneville's quiet surface. The death of Agnès Boucher, the baker's wife, on New Year's day, is not clear cut, whatever Inspector Dumas might say. But Rose too, hides a secret, that finally forces itself up to the light. Bonneville may be small, but all of life is here. Its dramas, disappointments and delights are played out as French and English try to rub along.

Sara Sycamore was born in London, but moved to Leeds as a child and has carried on moving ever since. After a brief tussle with art college and time spent proving that she shouldn't be a secretary, she decamped to London to work in marketing and public relations roles. Short story writing was Sara's creative outlet in the face of corporate strategising, and her stories were published in magazines such as Woman's Own, New Idea and Woman's Day (Australia). Sara now lives in South-West France. Discovering for herself the difficulties and excitement of building a new life abroad, and observing how expats survive and reinvent themselves, inspired her to write her first novel.