Absolutely and completely adorable, this all-embracing story will break, mend, and fill hearts with warmth, humour and love. Lana is bitter after her break-up and pours her angst into her new book, while much-admired author Nancy often finds dementia leaves her in a confusing world. Jack acts as a matchmaker with Lana and Nancy and they find their lives forever altered. The main characters light up the story, Nancy, in particular, has taken up residence in my heart and soul. Sophie Jenkins has the most beautiful light and thoughtful touch, little bits of heartache sit right next door to gulps of laughter, while gorgeous literary snippets and references sprinkle the pages. Sophie Jenkins has created a relationship tale for book lovers of all kinds, for people who love hope and even need hope in their lives. I raise my glass to The Forgotten Guide to Happiness and what really matters in this world… love, in all its different shapes and sizes.
'WONDERFULLY UPLIFTING' Trisha Ashley Sometimes, happiness can be found where you least expect it... Twenty-eight-year-old Lana Green has never been good at making friends. She's perfectly happy to be left alone with her books. Or at least, that's what she tells herself. Nancy Ellis Hall was once a celebrated writer. Now eighty, she lives alone in her North London house, and thinks she's doing just fine. But dementia is loosening Nancy's grip on the world. When Lana and Nancy become unconventional house mates, their lives will change in ways they never expected. But can an unusual friendship rescue two women who don't realise they need to be saved? An irresistible story of love, memory and the power of friendship that readers of The Keeper of Lost Things and The Lido will adore.
Sophie Jenkins is a serial joiner of writing groups and workshops and a prolific short story writer. To encourage her creativity she regularly enters half-marathons and trains by running from her home in North London to breakfast in the centre of town with a notepad. The character of Nancy in The Forgotten Guide to Happiness is based on her experiences with her own mother, who was diagnosed with dementia fifteen years ago.
