Charlotte Leonard

author

Writer of contemporary book club fiction including ‘Afterwards’ and 'One Little Lie' published by Simon & Schuster.

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© Charlotte Leonard. All rights reserved.

Afterwards

*** A Tea Leaves & Reads Book Club pick ***This is the story of loss – and what happens afterwards…When Emma gets home after work one evening, she calls hello to her husband Jay, as she always does. Stepping into the kitchen, she sees he has done the shopping, as she had reminded him to; remembered to buy peppercorns; has bought her flowers. Everything is neatly put away. But Jay is not there.A photographer, all Jay has left behind is his camera containing five photographs, which are unlike his other work. Emma follows the images to Cornwall, beginning a journey in which old relationships are re-written and new ones are formed. As the visual mystery of each photograph unfolds, Emma finds herself unravelling and perilously close to breaking point. But could her unlikely salvation lie in the sea, a small community of swimmers and the promise of something Emma thought she didn’t want?‘Truly beautiful’ Debbie Johnson'A stunning story about love, longing and learning to live again after loss. Utterly immersive, and brimming with exquisite prose, AFTERWARDS is a thought-provoking and powerful debut with a message of hope at its heart. Emma's journey is guaranteed to stay with you long after you turn the final page' Holly Miller'A delicately crafted literary novel, capturing in pin-sharp prose the myriad of emotions that grief can cause and how even in the darkest of circumstances, we can learn to live again' Living Magazines'I've already given this debut novel to my mum and my best friend. It's a raw and very human account of what happens "afterwards"' Back Story

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One little lie

One little white lie. One tiny omission. A slight manipulation of the truth. But that moment would change everything.It was the small things that weighed Sarah down. The dirty dishes abandoned in the sink. The empty bottle of milk put back inside the fridge. The clothes left crumpled on the floor. A life of never-ending mental load and constant demands. Somewhere along the way, Sarah had become a caretaker for everyone around her, both at home and at work.Then came the lie. One harmless white lie, she thought. Just a little shift in the narrative.And for a while everything became better. But one lie wasn’t enough. It was soon followed by another. And another. Until the truth became something unrecognizable, a distant memory swallowed by fiction.She never intended for it to spiral this way. It was just one little white lie. But the truth would inevitably threaten everything she held dear…

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About

Charlotte Leonard completed a law degree at Warwick before running away from Law School to travel the world. She returned to the UK and embarked on a career in advertising as a planner, where she fell in love with both writing and her husband. Her first novel ‘Afterwards’ was shortlisted for the Bath Novel Award as an unpublished manuscript and was published by Simon & Schuster in 2022. 'One Little Lie' is Charlote's second novel. Charlotte lives in London with her husband and sons. When she isn’t writing, Charlotte is happiest swimming in wild and cold water.

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