WELCOME!
Yorkshire-born Tessa Barrie is a one-quarter Greek writer who is growing old disgracefully in Jersey, UK, writing bittersweet stories about life for women of a certain age.
ABOUT
Tessa Barrie, the alter ego of Sally Edmondson, was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Despite her parents uprooting her at age three and moving her down south, she is proud of her Yorkshire heritage.
Growing up, she recalls her family life being more Little House on the Prairie than The Waltons because her early years were fraught with drama. However, intermingled with all the emotional disruption, she remembers humour squeezing its way through the frayed feelings.
So, incorporating humour in her writing has always been very important to her. She always tries to capture the fragility of human emotion and coat it with a little humour. It doesn’t take away the anguish but makes it more bearable.
Tessa believes that starting to write novels later in life has made her more determined. She self-published her first novel, Just Say It, a character-driven bittersweet family saga, in 2021, and her second novel, the fantastically quirky The Secret Lives of the Doyenne of Didsbrook, will be published by SpellBound Books UK in 2025. Novel number three, The Rebuilding of Freya Michaels, is in the pipeline.
Just Say It
The humour shines through in this bittersweet family drama!
Just Say It is the debut novel by Tessa Barrie and was released in June 2021.
'A bittersweet family drama about what it means to love unconditionally and grow
from the past.' Lauren Jones of Turning Another Page
Turning forty, Lisa Grant is broke, alone and living in rural Gloucestershire, hurtling towards an inevitable midlife crisis.
Romantically, she pushes people away. She cannot say, "I love you." Jack, the only love of her life, put the Atlantic Ocean between them after they fell out the last time and now lives in New York.
Fearing for her sanity, she addresses the problem she has carried with her for the past forty years - her narcissistic mother, Elizabeth.
When Lisa was six years old, her father disappeared, and her mother kept the truth about why he left the family home hidden. When starting her journalistic career, Lisa reconnects with her father and discovers grim truths about her controlling mother.
After four decades of sparring with her impossible mother, Lisa cultivates a more rational and sympathetic approach to discovering why her mother lacks empathy. Believing childhood trauma may be responsible, Lisa harnesses her journalistic skills to investigate her mother's past and is shocked by what she finds.
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FUN FACTS ABOUT TESSA BARRIE
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Cassie the Blog Dog
Cassie the Blog Dog is my constant companion and right-hand paw.
She started blogging as a young pup and became my chief editorial advisor during Lockdown, a role that drives her barking mad.
She is always by my side when I write, before taking me for walkies.
When her busy daily schedule allows, she writes the occasional blog on Facebook.
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JUST SAY IT
When Lisa Grant turns forty, the once well-known columnist for a London-based magazine finds herself alone, stuck in a rut in rural Gloucestershire.
Attempting to avoid a midlife crisis, Lisa tries self-therapy and finishes writing a spoof about her life, which only scratches the surface of the problem that has followed her around for the last four decades – her narcissistic mother, Elizabeth.
She blames her mother for many things, including her inability to commit to a long-term relationship and saying the words 'I love you' without choking on them.
Believing a childhood trauma may be responsible for her mother's total lack of empathy, Lisa harnesses her journalistic skills to explore her mother's past and is shocked by what she finds.
BRIAN TRUBSHAW - Test Pilot
This is the story of my late stepfather’s career.
Brian Trubshaw was the chief test pilot for BAC before he became the chief test pilot for the British prototype Concorde 002 during its development phase.
He was regarded as one of Britain's most famous names in aviation. As a test pilot for Vickers-Armstrongs, he test-flew the Viscount, the Valiant, the VC10 and Super VC10.
I believed it was important for Brian to record his lifetime achievements in aviation, and I take all credit for persuading him to do it. It wasn’t an easy task because, despite his exceptional career, he was a very modest man.
Once he agreed to do it, the least I could do was offer to help him put it together, which I took tremendous pride in doing, and I miss him every day.
In Brian Trubshaw - Test Pilot, Brian describes his early days as an RAF bomber pilot in World War II, followed by service with Transport Command and the prestigious King's Flight. Brian’s career took off after he left the RAF in 1950 to join the Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) staff at Weybridge as a test pilot.
During the following years, Brian was closely involved with the flight test programmes for the Vickers Valiant nuclear bomber and the BAC 1-11 and VC10 airliners.
In 1965 he became Chief Test Pilot for BAe and later piloted Concorde 002 on her maiden flight on 9th April 1969.
Brian's descriptions are interwoven with insights into the manoeuvrings of politicians, industrialists and trade unions, ultimately leading to the decline of the British aircraft industry in the 1970s.