Tessa Barrie self-published her first novel, Just Say It, a character-driven bittersweet family saga, in 2021. News on novel number two, a quirky murder mystery, is coming soon! Novel number three, The Rebuilding of Freya Michaels, is in the pipeline.
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Tessa Barrie, the alter ego of Sally Edmondson, was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Despite her parents uprooting her at the age of 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. In June 2021, she self-published her debut novel, Say It, a bittersweet family saga. Her second novel, The Secret Lives of the Doyenne of Didsbrook, a quirky murder mystery, is good to go, and her third novel, The Rebuilding of Freya Michaels, is well underway.
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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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.
Snippets of life and other bittersweet stories and everything in between. AKA as the spontaneous ramblings of a Baby Boomer.
For promos, trailers and readings, scroll on down! tessa barrie blog my alter ego and me just say it
I think if anyone tells you the odds are slim, just keep walking. Just do whatever the hell you want to do, because they don't know what they're talking about. When you love something, and you work really really hard at it, you can do it.
Melissa McCarthy tessa barrie blog my alter ego and me
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.
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.
TEASER
Taster video for my forthcoming novel, a quirky murder mystery.
We would never judge a book by its cover, so why would we assume all is well in someone's life just because they face the world with a smile?
Born into the Strand banking dynasty, to the outside world, the charismatic Jocelyn Robertshaw had it all. Beauty, wealth, two successful careers, a handsome husband and two children. She was loved by many across the globe not only for her work in the theatre and for writing award-winning novels but as a philanthropist.
Jocelyn lived in a five-hundred-year manor house in the village where she was born and grew up. A village she loved so passionately, that is steeped in a rich history that Jocelyn strived to preserve and protect all her life.
After Jocelyn is found dead at her home, a bumbling police investigation concludes death by misadventure – Jocelyn took her own life. However, Jocelyn's devastated writing protégé, Lucy, finds it impossible to believe that Jocelyn would have committed suicide.
Jocelyn leaves Lucy her writing space, Manderley, in her will, and there Lucy finds a series of notebooks which Jocelyn started writing at the age of seventeen when she made a mistake that haunted her for the rest of her life, as well as painful secrets she had kept hidden throughout her lifetime.
Had Jocelyn's guilty secrets resurfaced in 2018, and did they lead to her death? Who could have harboured sufficient hate to kill the much-loved Jocelyn Robertshaw?
Reviews for my debut novel, a bittersweet family drama.
Doc Martens takes on Dior as a workaholic daughter who finally rebels against her mollycoddled mother. After forty years of verbal incontinence, will the two ever see eye to eye? Will the twain ever meet?
All my videos are made using www.canva.com
This is a blast from the past! It is from before I gave birth to my first book baby and includes some of the stuff that was going on in my life during 2015, which, at that time, was mostly centred around Tessa Barrie's Lost Blogs and features a nice piece of music by Melinda Ortner.
Random poem!
It's never easy!
The Secret Lives of the Doyenne of Didsbrook - Teaser!
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