A Surrey State of Affairs

The trends are changing for writing fiction – Blogs, Facebook and Twitter have altered communication, moreover how we get our information. Bloggers use their online space to explore ideas, fears and the banal, like what they had for lunch. It’s user-generated content in its rawest form.

Ceri Radford is no stranger to blogging. She’s the author of a popular Telegraph character blog, which helped to inform her debut, A Surrey State of Affairs featuring the quintessential Home Counties wife, mother and village bell-ringer, Constance Harding.

Constance starts her blog on 1 January 2008, charting her journey through the trivia of suburbia. Her 25-year-old son refuses to get married, while her 18-year-old daughter has a penchant for reality TV and older men. As Constance struggles to accept that reality isn’t necessarily a bed of roses, through her blog she begins deciphering the true meaning of life. She’s a lovable character, wrapped tightly in her own little world, and as the passages continue there’s a wry humour that grips the novel making it a truly fast, but enjoyable read.

Shirley Stevenson

Bryony Byrne