One street in a royal town. Twelve people. Twelve secrets.
Known to all but herself as "Minty", royal-obsessed Araminta Cavendish pretends to be posh. Eighty-two, single and lonely, she plans to make friends and become her street's queen bee by organising a Platinum Jubilee street party. But when a last-minute knock on the door threatens to spoil everything, she discovers her neighbours have secrets of their own.
Secret Street recounts the tale of Araminta as she sets out on a quest to find friends. Each friend she makes tells her their secret story, and each story gives Araminta a gift of knowledge that helps her learn the only way to find peace - and friendship - is to be herself.
Secret Street is a fiction-based-on-fact novel. It represents the culmination of the author - who has a background in mental health nursing - spending four decades living and working with traumatised people, observing the relationship between adverse life experience and human connectivity. It blows apart the stereotype of comfortable middle-class England, personified by the infamous fictional letter-writer to The Times, "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells". The true stories woven into the narrative have psychosocial themes such as abortion, addiction, adoption, eating disorder, learning disability, sexual assault, and asylum seeking. These serious themes are approached with both gentleness and energy, creating light as well as shade.
Secret Street offers a discourse on the relationships between stigma, friendship, class, and identity, and will prompt juicy discussions at book clubs. These life-changing stories will stay with you.
'...a charming, personal, and at times challenging, exploration of the complex lives of people living in Tunbridge Wells ...Laugh-out-loud funny at times, and painfully sad at others.'
Tom Davis, St. James
'I felt as if I was part of the story ...Every single character can teach us something...I hope it touches other readers' hearts, as it did mine.'
Sonja Wright, Paddock Wood
''Secret Street' gets under your skin.'
Tom Mortley, Broadwater
'Moving and inclusive, this life-affirming read invites us to share journeys through personal hardships, compassion, and ultimately mutual acceptance. Nothing is off-limits as human tragedies hidden behind closed doors are laid bare. The heartwarming empathy we feel towards these people - who could so easily be you and me - is a credit to the author.'
Sarah Mitchell, Ferndale
