The Library
Welcome to a world of stories.
From wartime ateliers to sun-bleached Provençal kitchens, from the cockpit of a Spitfire to a candlelit Cornish bookshop — step inside each world and meet the characters who live there.
2026 · Historical Fiction
The Silver Thread
A designer, a priceless kimono, and the secrets of a Paris apartment… moving between London, Paris and Tokyo.
Kate's newest novel — a luminous dual-timeline story of craft, memory and inheritance, moving between an Oxford archive today and a wartime atelier in occupied France.
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2025 · Historical Fiction
The Golden Hour
Two women, half a century apart, bound by secrets and the light of an Egyptian summer… moving between 1930s Cairo and 1970s bohemian Beirut in luminous, sun-drenched prose.
An evocative novel of art, memory and the slow art of looking — moving between 1960s Hollywood and present-day Italy in luminous, sun-drenched prose.
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2016 · Wartime Drama
The House of Dreams
Marseille, 1940. A villa above the sea becomes a fragile refuge from a darkening Europe.
Inspired by the true story of Varian Fry and the Villa Air-Bel, The House of Dreams is a richly researched novel of courage, art and the quiet acts of resistance that saved a generation.
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2012 · Historical Fiction
The Perfume Garden
A sweeping tale of secrets, scents, and a legacy hidden beneath the terracotta roofs of Spain.
Shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year and published in nine languages, The Perfume Garden follows perfumer Emma Temple as she inherits a crumbling Spanish villa and unravels the wartime love story buried within its walls.
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2013 · Christmas Fiction
A Season of Secrets
A precious discovery will change everything.
A snow-bound English country house, a long-buried family secret, and one winter that quietly puts everything right — a warm, atmospheric Christmas novel from the author of The Beauty Chorus.
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2013 · Novella
The Last Rose of Summer
A collection of short stories during a single Spanish summer.
A standalone novella — a quiet, perfectly formed companion piece to Kate's full-length novels, told in a single sitting.
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2011 · Historical Fiction
The Beauty Chorus
Three young women, one war, and the runway lights of the Air Transport Auxiliary.
Kate's debut — a Sunday Times top-ten bestseller. Based on the remarkable women of the ATA who ferried Spitfires across wartime Britain, told with warmth, glamour and grit.
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