Author: Caroline James Author
Caroline James is an author of popular women's fiction. Her novel The Cruise is an Amazon Top Five Best Seller. She has owned businesses encompassing all aspects of the hospitality industry, a subject that features in her novels. She is based in the UK but has a great fondness for travel and escapes whenever she can.
A public speaker, consultant and food writer, Caroline is a member of the Romantic Novelist’s Association, the SoA and The Society of Women's Writers & Journalists.
In her spare time, Caroline can be found walking with Fred her Westie, or swimming in a local lake.
Book Review The Arctic Cruise
The Arctic Cruise Review
Not seen me for a while? Join My Newsletter …
Hello lovely subscribers! Caroline James here….
I haven’t posted here for sometime and if you would like to keep up to date with my news, please join my NEWSLETTER which updates each month with book news, competitions and giveaways. I promise not to bombard you!
Sign up today and you will receive a copy of the newsletter in your email box in the couple of days.
Sign up here: Caroline’s Newsletter
To celebrate the forthcoming publication of The Arctic Cruise, this month there is a fantastic opportunity to win a FREE 10-day cruise to see the Northern Lights – courtesy of Fred Olsen Cruise Lines and Harper Collins Publishers.
Yes! Someone will win this fabulous holiday and having experienced the cruise myself I can promise you it is a memorable and wonderful experience.
I’m also celebrating a wonderful trip to Egypt where I enjoyed a cruise on the Nile whilst researching for my next novel The Nile Cruise. I know you will enjoy sharing this trip with me and hearing all the news.
I had the pleasure of being shown around the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan, including the room where Agatha Christie stayed and wrote Death on the Nile. What a treat this was! More in the next couple of days in my newsletter…
There are four feel-good discounted books in the newsletter which you can add to you reading list for Christmas,
so do enjoy a bargain while you can! Have you read Atticus Arnott’s Great Adventure? Set during Christmas in Spain it is a lovely festive read. Grab a copy now before the price increases.
This will be my last post here, but it’s not goodbye. I hope you’ll continue the journey with me by joining my newsletter—I’d love to have your company each month.
I wish you every happiness this Christmas season and send my very best wishes for the year ahead. May 2026 be a truly special year for you all, and thank you for your continued support. Without readers, there would be no writers.
With my love to you all,
Caroline xx
Autumn catch-up and giveaway
Hello lovely subscribers!
We are motoring through November, and I cannot believe that 2024 is slipping away so quickly. I remember getting my driving licence many years ago, as a teen, and seeing that it was up for renewal in 2020. I never imagined I’d get this far! By the time this drops into your mail, I will be recovering from knee replacement surgery, so on a wing and a prayer, I am looking forward to racing around again in the new year.
NEW NOVEL
I am thundering through the final draft of The Cruise Club, which will be published in 2025. So many of you have asked for another ‘cruise’ book, to follow The Cruise, and my publisher agreed. You can expect to see this book online, in bookshops and on a supermarket shelf very soon. There is a new set of characters, taking in the Mysteries of the Mediterranean on the familiar Diamond Star ship, but comedian Dicky Delaney is back, alongside Fran and Sid Cartwright from The French Cookery School.
GIVEAWAY
I have a lovely GIVEAWAYin this newsletter. To enter, simply comment on my Facebook page (or, for those not using Facebook, email me below) saying why you’d like to go on a cruise. A draw will occur on 15th December, in plenty of time for Christmas. The gift is a personalised box of Lily O’Briens chocolates and a signed copy of The Cruise.
Good luck!
Caroline James Author Facebook
caroline@carolinejames5683@yahoo.co.uk
CANADA
I travelled to Canada in October to meet my beautiful new granddaughter, Mika Mei, and my lovely Willow, Mika’s sister. It was a great family holiday. Willow and I made a Halloween house and piping took forever, but she loved the result.
Ontario is beautiful in the fall. I enjoyed exploring quaint towns and gorgeous farmer’s markets, and my favourite pastime was browsing antique and vintage fairs.
| HALLOWEEN Halloween is crazy in Canada, and we had two days of trick-or-treating. It is fascinating to see how much effort is put into decorating houses, and the community spirit and warm welcome that the children receive is heartening. |
I found this fabulous model of a cruise ship which lit up. I would have loved to have brought it home and styled it as the Diamond Star (from The Cruise), but it weighed very heavy and would have been impossible.
TORONTO ZOO
We went to Toronto Zoo, a wonderful experience, and met Charles, a fifty-two-year-old Western lowland silver-backed gorilla. Charles was very sleepy and, unlike other gorillas around him, didn’t move around. We were terribly saddened to learn that Charles died the next day, and the initial diagnosis was heart failure. Given that the life expectancy of most Western lowland gorillas is between thirty and forty years in the wild, it is a real testament to the zoo for the care he received that this gorgeous creature had such a long and happy life. RIP, Charles – you will be sorely missed.
FREE READ
If you want a quick read, JUNGLE ROCK is currently FREE! But only for a few more hours…. Please snuggle down, put your feet up and enjoy a romp with much-loved characters Jo and Hattie as Jo’s son Zach becomes a contestant in a reality TV show down under.
| 99P BARGAINS Don’t forget that THE SPA BREAK and THE FRENCH COOKERY SCHOOL are currently at a bargain price of 99p each in the UK. For later-life comedy and fun, fill your boots with reading! |
TALKS I’ve wrapped up my talks for 2024 and will start again in mid-January 2025. Thank you to everyone who comes to listen to me. I hope I inspire and entertain in some small way. It’s so good to get out and meet everyone. |
RECENT RECOMMENDED READS
I’ve really enjoyed these three books. I realised I’d read the Jo Jo Moyes a good while ago but still enjoyed it immensely. Have you got any recommendations? Do drop me a line 🙂
INTRODUCING ATTICUS…
Christmas is fast approaching, and given that my knee is recovering, we won’t be setting off with Venus and heading to the sun this winter. I shall miss my Christmas day swim in the Mediterranean and enjoying walks with Fred, the Westie, on a sunny beach, but there’s always another year.
I’ve written a book called Atticus Arnott Goes Camping, which tells the story of Atticus, a seventy-year-old who sets off to Spain in his vintage Westfalia Camper with his collie dog called Ness. I love this book and can’t wait to share Atticus’s travels with you in 2025 – watch this space!
Wherever you are in the world, I hope this finds you safe, secure, in good health and happy. As always, lovely subscribers, thank you for all your support. I love my job, and your kind words and messages keep me going when my mind is blank, and I can’t write another word. Your encouragement means so much and helps me write on. |
As Winston Churchill said, ‘When you find a job you love, you’ll never work again.’ I hope you found yours. With my love Caroline xx |
BOOKS BY CAROLINE JAMES
A Writer’s Quest for Inspiration – catch up with Caroline – news and a giveaway
| Hello everyone! hope that the sun is shining wherever you are in the world, and that your summer is going well. Here in Lancashire the weather is very mixed, with hot sunny days one week and cold damp days the next. |
 Beautiful Cornwall |
| I have been on my travels and, in May, set off in Venus (my office on wheels) and headed to Cornwall to research a possible novel. I haven’t been to Cornwall for ages, and it is a gorgeous county. I especially liked swimming in the sea at Bude because the sea pool there, on the beach, is filled when the tide comes in. Cream teas are a must in Cornwall and I was treated to a lovely birthday tea with scones and clotted cream. |
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| In May, I also got an invite to the House of Lords for a luncheon to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists. It was a great event, hosted by the society’s president, Baroness Floella Benjamin. |
| I loved a mixed bag of genres and below are my very recent reads. Steve Cavanagh blows me away, his books are gripping, always contain lots of twists and are meticulously researched. If you like legal dramas, get a copy now. I listen on audio at every opportunity when doing housework, driving etc and have been enjoying Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope – I read this years ago but it is just as good today, as are all her novels. Shelley Read – new to me but I couldn’t put this down. It is beautifully written and reminded me a little of Where the Crawdads Sing. A stunning book, little wonder this amazing debut has been optioned as a film. |
Recent Reads
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| I went to Canada in June and had a fantastic trip, travelling from Toronto to Prince Edward County. We stayed in a house on the lake near the town of Picton, and I took the opportunity to swim each day, despite the icy water. The county has great towns, including Bloomfield, Wellington, and Picton, and very arty and hipster places with fabulous shops and eateries. |
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| The countryside is green and lush, and I enjoyed visiting the breweries offering great food and family activities. Ever the ‘tatt’ hunter, I can’t resist an antique store, and there are some great finds in the many barn-like vintage stores that appear on the roadside. I am heading back to Canada in October and feel a book may be bubbling away in my head, so more research is required! |
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| My writing has gone well this year, and after returning from Spain in January, you won’t be surprised to hear that a new romcom based on the Costas will soon (fingers crossed) be on the way. Readers keep asking me when I will write a follow-up to The Cruise, and I can say, “Watch this space…” |
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I was delighted to attend my publisher’s annual party at the wonderful Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It is always a great event and a good opportunity to catch up with other authors. |
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| THE FRENCH COOKERY SCHOOL |
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| This month’s giveaway is a copy of The Spa Break together with a personalised mug, personally signed to the lucky entry that is drawn on 28th July. To enter, add a comment on my Facebook page: Caroline James Author Or email me here: caroline@carolinejamesauthor.co.uk Just say why you’d like to receive the gift. |
 That’s all from me. Please keep safe, well and happy. Spread kindness, embrace joy and have a wonderful summer. Wishing you all many happy reading hours. With love to you and yours.Caroline xx |
What Makes Me A Writer
I am delighted to share this post that appears on the wonderful blog of the talented author, Morton S Gray.
In the post I discuss my journey to writing best-selling novels after being told at school that I would never be good enough…
To the teacher who told me I would never be a writer – Just look at me now!
Remember to follow your own personal dream – you have to have a dream to make a dream come true. To those aspiring writers, also remember that it is never too late to write a novel.
Happy writing and reading everyone,
With my love
Caroline xx
The French Cookery School book tour continues…
My new novel The French Cookery School is currently on an online book tour and above is an example of posts on the blogs that host the tour. The book is receiving fantastic reviews and I am so grateful to every reviewer and reader who takes the time to post their thoughts.
This from the wonderful award-winning book reviewer Anne Williams: “This was a book I totally adored…” continued…
The French Cookery School is currently on a limited time deal on Amazon: THE FRENCH COOKERY SCHOOL (FOR ONLY 99P!)
I loved researching and writing this story after being inspired by an actual cookery school week many years ago with the talented celebrity chef Valentina Harris, in the Charente region of France.
In The French Cookery School, while shopping in a market, Fran tries ‘Tourteaux Fromage’ – a type of cake with a burnt top 
Sadly, she didn’t like it.
I was inspired to write this after trying them myself in a market in Chauvigny. I have to say it is an acquired taste …
In The French Cookery School the characters enjoy many outings when away from the kitchen and I thank everyone I met in France last summer who inspired the story. France is a very beautiful country.
Happy reading everyone
With love
Caroline xx
Caroline James Author 