⏰⏰The countdown begins! ⏰⏰ The Importance of Being Delia lands 30 June and you can WIN a copy 🎉🎉
The clock is ticking! Delia is about to hit bookstores and libraries near you. Fancy getting your hands on a signed proof copy? Read on!
Well hello lovely,
I was sitting here trying to think what I’ve actually been up to since we last checked in. I was going to say, not much but then I remembered the one most important thing. I went to Edinburgh to meet my granddaughter in April. Little Miss Sweet Pea or, as she is officially known, Phoebe. Of course she is gorgeous. Did you really expect me to say anything else 😊 And Edinburgh is so beautiful in the spring with all the bulbs out. I walked all over the city and took multiple photos of houses. That might sound strange but I was looking for the house one of my characters would live in for my new novel. And I think I found the perfect one, right near the Botanics.
And, as of this week, my youngest has flown the nest. He’s started his degree and I’ve been going through that nerve-shattering experience of worrying about his complete inability to fend for himself. (If you knew him, you’d know I have every right to think this!) But also knowing that when I left home at 19, I too had NO CLUE. Adulting is hard but we all have to start somewhere, right?
So much has been going on Behind the Scenes. Mainly lots of publicity and marketing activities. I’ve been organising my tour dates, which remains a work in progress but I have popped the July and August confirmed events at the bottom of this email. Hopefully, one of these is in your neck of the woods and we can get to meet in person.
But the really big deal is that I have proof copies of The Importance of Being Delia to share with five lucky subscribers. They’ll be personalised and signed by me, which means that one day, when I’m rich and famous, you might own a rare original 😊 Read on for the details on how to win a copy.
I’ve been reading a lot, mostly a blend of much-hyped books, like The Correspondent and Yesteryear. In Books To Love, I’m sharing two novels that might have slipped through your net. First of all, the new Rachel Joyce, The Homemade God, which is about a very dysfunctional family in the aftermath of the death of their famous father. The characters are wonderful and there is the intrigue of the unknown but much younger wife. Lots of fun. And if, by some chance, you have yet to hear of this title, you really must read Theo of Golden. Allen Levi originally self-published this debut, which has gone on to be a #1 New York Times bestseller. He also wrote it in his 60s, which all goes to show that it is never too late to follow your dreams. This is the most gorgeous story and one of those books that feels like an antidote to all the craziness in the world right now.
Okay, now you’ve read the intro, let’s get into all the details.
Behind the Scenes
To all of you who heeded my call to pre-order The Importance of Being Delia, thank you! Someone, who we shall call B because that is the first letter of her name, even emailed me to say that she asked her local library to order the book. They did! And even better, she is number one on the borrowing list. Go B!
It’s not too late to pre-order a copy. Every order counts towards the first week of sales which means your purchase might mean that Delia hits the bestseller list in its first week out. That would be amazing! I’ve popped the link to pre-order below, in case you feel so inclined.
Early copies of the book went out to fellow authors who might be kind enough to lend a comment for the cover. It’s always a bit nerve-wracking because at this stage, you have no idea if anyone is going to like it as the only people who have read it are your editors and yourself. I was so thrilled to get this quote from the very fabulous Nikki Gemmell.
'Just the medicine needed right now. Delicious fun - with some resonant things to say about where we are now as women (stop the people pleasing!). Cataliciously addictive' Nikki Gemmell
Copies of the book are also in the hands of Bookstagrammers who I also hope love meeting Delia and Igor. Again, though, so nerve-wracking but I’m also curious to see how Delia lands with these readers. But most importantly, I want YOU to read it. So I’ve put the giveaway details below separately.
As I said, I’m madly organising my tour dates. The focus this time around is very much on regional libraries. I love doing events in regional areas because readers are so engaged with the book and having a fun time out. Often accompanied by delicious home-baked goodies and a good old chinwag afterwards. I do hope I am coming to a library near you but if you want to make sure I am, please let me know the name of your local library and, if possible, the name of the person who organises Author Talks and I will do my level best to make it there.
All the July and August events that have been locked in are listed at the bottom of this email.
And while I’ve been organising all the promotional stuff for Delia, I’ve also been writing a new story. I am about 75,000 words into the very messy first draft of my next novel. I don’t even have a working title to share with you yet but I have been having a lot of fun hanging out in London in 1969. That’s all you’re getting!
Thanks to my lovely publisher, HarperCollins Publishers, I have five proof copies of The Importance of Being Delia to give away. What’s a proof copy? It is the unfinished copy of the novel before we’ve ironed out all (hopefully) the little errors that sneak in when editing or typesetting. It’s this version, known in publishing speak as an Advanced Review Copy, that goes out to Bookstagrammers and media to get early reviews and coverage for a novel. That means that, effectively, it is a limited edition as only a certain number of copies are produced.
So, would you like to get your hands on one? I have five to giveaway to subscribers. There’s no tricky questions or hoops to jump through. You just have to drop me a reply email to this newsletter or send me an email at meredith@meredithjaffe.com. It will definitely be first in, best dressed.
Once you’ve read The Importance of Being Delia and, if you feel so inclined, you could consider leaving a review on Goodreads or Amazon to help other readers discover the novel.
It’s that simple!
The fine print: Giveaways are currently only open to subscribers and you must reside within Australia to be eligible to win (postage!) The winners will be picked at random and will be emailed on Wednesday 10 June 2026. Good luck!
Books to Love
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One Spring morning, an enigmatic 86 year-old man called Theo arrives in the town of Golden. He goes to one of the local cafes where ninety-two portraits hang on the wall. They are each of Golden locals and are painted by the same artist. They are for sale but for reasons unknown neither the subjects nor anybody else has bought them. So Theo takes it upon himself to buy each painting, one at a time, and give it to the person depicted. He will meet them, learn their stories and insist they allow him the pleasure of returning the portrait. Each meeting brings a story and spawns a new friendship. More importantly, meeting Theo turns out to be, for many, irrevocably life-changing.
There is so much joy in reading a book that is simply a feel-good story. Theo of Golden is a gentle, kind and an incredibly heartwarming allegorical tale. It oozes nostalgia for a quieter, slower pace of life where goodness flourishes. Although, it has a shocking twist and it takes until almost the very end before Theo’s true identity is revealed. As the premise implies, this is a story populated with wonderful and memorable characters, young and old. There is Tony, the Vietnam War veteran who owns the local bookstore which he constantly threatens is about to close any day now. There’s Ellen the homeless woman who gets about town on her trusty bicycle. Although, the town of Golden is not all sweetness and light, it does feel, well, golden.
Allen Levi was in his sixties when he wrote Theo of Golden. He had no intention of publishing it until close friends read it and told the first-time novelist he simply had to. With some help, he independently published it and in its first year, it sold a modest 3,000 copies. In it’s second year, 25,000 and the numbers kept growing. Theo of Golden was a genuine word-of- mouth hit before it attracted the attention of traditional publishers who, in turn, catapulted the book to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. All of which is interesting and inspiring, much like the book itself.
The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
Vic Kemp is a contradiction. He is a rich artist. He is a man whose art captures the public imagination and is despised by critics. He is loud, drunken and a pretty mediocre father to his four now-adult children — Netta, Susan, Goose and Iris. None of his children have ever escaped their father’s shadow but neither have they any desire to leave his charismatic orbit. All of them are scarred.
With Europe in the grip of the hottest summer in living memory, Vic summons his children to lunch. He has big news. There are whispers of a new painting, one that will silence his critics and astonish his admirers. His masterpiece. As the children wait in the London restaurant, they are about to discover that their guesses are wide of the mark. Vic, as always, is late but he is stone-cold sober, has lost a significant amount of weight and is dressed all in white. Is he dying? the children speculate. No. Vic is in love and plans to marry a woman he met on a chat forum. Bella-Mae is young enough to be his daughter. None of them have ever met her, nor will they. Vic and Bella-Mae sneak off to the family villa on Lake Orta, Piedmont and marry in secret. Six weeks later, Vic drowns in the lake.
This is the set up for what is a complex and delightfully entertaining novel. Rachel Joyce’s characterisatons are fantastic. Both wickedly insightful and deeply compassionate. As each child’s point of view on the death of their father is revealed, so too are their wounds. It is clear that Vic Kemp was a nightmare parent and as hopeless as he was generous. Netta, the eldest, has been the substitute mother to her brother and sisters and has become a functioning alcoholic herself. Susan married a much older and very boring man at a tender age and buried her life long dreams to be a chef. Goose (real name Gustav) tends his father’s studio, prepping canvases, ordering paints but never actually daring to paint himself, not after his mental breakdown a few years earlier. Then there is Iris who refuses to grow up and take herself seriously. Condemned by both her siblings and her father to always be the baby of the family. And last, but by no means least, is the elusive Bella-Mae. Is she really an artist as their father claimed? Why does she hide away and refuse to engage. And what has happened to Vic’s masterpiece he said he’d finished in Lake Orta?
Anyone with a family knows how easy it is to slip back into their childhood roles. The Homemade God is a study of a family that is closely knit, highly opinionated and quite unconventional. Joyce brings all the characters together at the villa on Lake Orta and the use of multiple viewpoints soon reveals that the siblings are trapped by old assumptions, prejudices and unhealed wounds. That memory is not necessarily faulty but there are as many versions of events as there are witnesses. But, it is the addition of Bella-Mae and her ‘cousin’ that really sets the cat amongst the pigeons. Vic’s new wife retires to a darkened room to wallow in her grief like some character from a Victorian novel. Her proxy is her ‘cousin’ who is voluble, sweaty and shifty. He sneaks about the house doing things as the siblings squabble about where to find their father’s will and, more importantly, his masterpiece.
Of course, all is not as it seems. Where would be the fun in that? The Homemade God is engrossing and, as a reader, you get the very real sense that Joyce has thoroughly enjoyed flexing her creative muscles in this multi-layered, darkly funny story. Ever since her first novel, the international bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Joyce has consistently proven herself to be a consummate storyteller. This is a hard recommend.
Events
If it were up to me, I’d be touring the whole country but I guess that’s not entirely practicable. But, I am doing my level best to visit as many places as possible so that I can meet readers and share the joy of Delia. Here are some dates for July and into August. I would love to come to your neck of the woods, so if your local library is not on this list, yet, shoot me an email and I will see what I can do to make it happen.
All of this information will be available on my website page and will be updated as events are confirmed. You can find that over here (but give me a couple of days, I haven’t actually done it yet!)
JUNE
Ulladulla Library on Tuesday June 23 at 2pm
I’ll be in conversation with Lauren Keegan about her new novel The Woman in the Seal Skin and life after her first novel, All the Bees in the Hollows was voted Best Debut Fiction in the 2025 Indie Book Awards and longlisted in the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2025.
JULY
Nowra Library on Friday July 10 at 1pm
Bookings here
Ulladulla Library on Monday July 13 at 2pm
Erina Library on Wednesday 22 July at 10.30am
Bookings here
South Coast Readers & Writers Festival 25 & 26 July 2026, Thirroul
Bookings here
I’ll be doing a couple of events at the festival. There’s a terrifc line up of authors, including EVELYN ARALUEN, ANTOINETTE LATTOUF, JAMES BRADLEY, SULARI GENTILL, MICHELLE DE KRETSER, TARA RAE MOSS, KATE MILDENHALL and ANDREW PIPPOS.
Batemans Bay Library on Wednesday 29 July at 10am
Bookings here
Moruya Library on Wednesday 29 July at 2.30pm
Bookings here
AUGUST
Orange Readers & Writers Festival on Saturday 1 August
More details to come
New Voices Down Under
I am not even going to pretend I wasn’t a tiny bit starstruck by the opportunity to chat with Robert Forster in the May edition of New Voices Down Under. If you were around in the 1980s, then you know him as a driving force of the iconic band, The Go-Betweens. Forster joins us in Meet the Author to talk about the inspirations for his debut novel, Songwriters on the Run. Cool and funny with a tiny bit of a Quentin Tarantino-esque vibe, this was a great read.
Books to Love features reviews of two novels that feature older women. Simply Beside Herself by Judith Katherine is the story of Elizabeth who finds herself living in The Cloisters after her husband has a fall. But after he dies, she realises she is too young to be signing her life away and simply ups and leaves with a wave of repurcussions. The Secret Garden Club by Wendy Lynn Newton is a gently comic tale about grief and how to create a space in your life to accommodate it. A little bit of gardening therapy, a little bit of friendship therapy and a lot of hilarious consequences for Hilary navigating the sudden death of her husband. Plus, in Snapshots, discover a whole swag of new Australian fiction released in May.
As always, Freebies gives you the opportunity to win a copy of all of the review titles BUT you have to be a subscriber. What!! You’re not a subscriber yet? Then click on the link below to subscribe and receive a monthly newsletter with even more bookish news, interviews and the chance to win free books.
The end of the cup
And now, my friend, my cup is empty. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I will be sending a very special Happy Publication Day edition of A Cuppa With Meredith on 30 June. I don’t know what exactly is going to make it very special, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to email me your ideas!!
If you know someone who might enjoy my ramblings, please share via the link below. Don’t forget, you can check out updates on events at www.meredithjaffe.com or, why don’t you leave a comment below or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!
Keep well,
Aw congrats, Grandma! Can't wait for your new book. I also LOVED The Homemade God (wish I could write like that). We're chatting THEO OF GOLDEN on next week's episode of Reading Between Deadlines!