Caroline Sanderson - Debbie Young's Writing Life

cover of Death at the Village Christmas Fair against snowy background

Music to my Ears

Posted on August 18, 2025August 17, 2025 by Debbie Young

This week’s post is literally about music – but another kind of music to my ears is readers’ early reactions to my new novel, launched last Saturday, and now available in ebook, paperback, hardback and audiobook.

Death at the Village Christmas Fair is the third in the Cotswold Curiosity Shop cosy mystery series, a festive edition launching in midsummer, because that’s the way the publishing industry works – operating a season ahead of reality, just like the fashion industry!

I’m delighted by how many readers are already getting stuck into this story when the weather in the northern hemisphere, where I am, is far from wintry! Some readers have told me they prefer reading wintry books in hot weather to cool them down. So maybe Death at the Village Christmas Fair, with its snowy cover, is really the perfect beach read

Here’s the blurb for the book to whet your appetite:

It’s been a busy year for Alice Carroll, with her Curiosity Shop opening for business, and not one but two murders shaking things up in her quaint Cotswold village. She’s looking forward to her first countryside Christmas, complete with traditional Christmas Fair and Santa Run.

But her hopes for innocent festive fun are thwarted when one of the Santa Runners steals something from her mum’s knitting stall. His festive outfit makes him hard to spot, until he’s found fatally injured outside the village hall with the stolen item.

Despite what the police say, Alice suspects there’s more to his murder than meets the eye. She’s determined to solve the mystery – including why, once more, a stranger thought something from her Curiosity Shop was worth killing for.

With the help of her charming neighbour Robert Praed, can Alice find the killer before the bells ring out this Christmas?

Perfect for fans of Fiona Leitch, Faith Martin and Agatha Christie.

Here is what early reviewers have said about it so far:

‘A nice easily enjoyable cosy crime story with a smashing ending’ – Alyson Reads
‘A cosy mystery full of mystery and intrigue, and is my favourite of the series’ – StaceyWH100
‘A brilliant page-turner readers will devour in a single sitting’ – Bookish Jottings

To order your copy online now, click here.

Now onto a different kind of music to my ears: Caroline Sanderson’s new memoir, Listen with Father: How I Learned to Love Classical Music…

For the Love of Music

The photo of the vintage reel-to-reel tape recorder on the cover of Caroline Sanderson’s new memoir, Listen with Father, made me realise how much our access to recorded music has changed during my lifetime.

My first memory of listening to records is via a wind-up record player when I was three years old. I’m not as ancient as that suggests, but the previous owner of the house we moved into had left it behind, and my brother and sister and I were allowed to treat it as a toy.

Then came a reel-to-reel tape player, like the one on Caroline’s book, followed by a fancy radiogram, housing an analogue radio and a turntable in a classic mid-century design, its wide, low cabinet on spindly legs. Its turntable had three speeds: 33rpm for LPs (long-playing records), 45rpm for singles, and 78rpm for any discs left over from the days of wind-up gramophones.

Not long after I started secondary school, compact cassette players were on my friends’ Christmas wish lists. Others favoured 8-track cartridge players, with the figure-of-eight set-up of the tape allowing non-stop music.

By the end of the Seventies, many music buffs aspired to a sleek stacking hi-fi system, with separate layers for records, cassettes and radio tuners. My university friend Tim was proud of his shiny new hi-fi until his confession that he had only two records, one of which was Supertramp, cued merciless teasing.

My stereo at this time was much more modest – a tiny turntable and diminutive speakers encased in bright orange plastic. Well, it was the Seventies.

By the time I was earning my living, the Sony Walkman, first for cassettes, then with newfangled CDs, was every commuter’s must-have accessory. These compact devices look huge and unwieldy compared to their successor: the tiny, lightweight iPods with no moving parts.

Now that we all stream music on our smartphones and smart speakers—and in my husband’s case, to his hearing aids – our family’s old iPods, in seaside-rock pink and vivid lime green, look like museum pieces.

Whatever next? Tiny receiver chips embedded in our heads? Douglas Adams’ Babel fish—a live fish dropped into the ear to act as an instant translator—seems less fantastical now than when it first appeared in The Hitchhiker’s’ Guide to the Galaxy, published in 1978 (the year I bought my orange stereo).

While afficionados argue the case for which recording format produces the better listening experience, to my mind none of them beats hearing music live.

Although a live performance lacks studio edits and polish, no recording can reproduce the excitement of watching a musician physically present, complete with body language, facial expressions, and emotions.

That’s one reason why it’s been such a joy to attend this summer’s Badminton Benefice Music Festival events – three down…

two still to come…

The immediacy adds an extra dimension, as does the glorious setting of our ancient Cotswold parish churches.

Plus, the concerts are free to attend, with free parking and complimentary refreshments, so no-one is priced out of the pleasure.

That includes families with children or grandchildren. The concerts provide the perfect way to enthuse young people about live music. They may even encourage them to take up an instrument or singing lessons themselves—or to do more practice, if they’re already learning. In an age where young people’s opportunities to learn and play music are diminishing, we’re lucky to have access to so many live, free music events on our home turf.

So, let’s turn off the tech for what’s left of the summer, and enjoy the original source of all music: the human being, in real life, in real time.

(This article first appeared in the August 2025 edition of the Hawkesbury Parish News.)

WHAT I’VE READ THIS WEEK

As you may know, I’m a course tutor for Jericho Writers. and I try to read as many of my students books as possible. This one was a real treat-to-self – and the first in Kalyn’s series was a great read too.

For the Love of Mark Twain: A Cozy Academia Friends-to-Lovers Story by Kalyn Gensic
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a great read for back-to-school time! I very much enjoyed reading this gentle, slow-burn romance between likeable characters on the staff of a small American university, a setting I wasn’t familiar with, so that added extra interest and enjoyment for me. Well written, witty, and engaging, with a cast of well-drawn and endearing supporting characters, this is a cosy read to linger over and make it last. Highly recommended.

Family, Personal life, Writing

Inspired by the Badminton Benefice Festival of Music

Posted on June 6, 2025 by Debbie Young

“If you want something done, ask a busy person.”

That may be one reason that I’ve found myself helping behind the scenes with a wonderful new music event founded by Badminton Benefice Music Director Ben Humphries. Badminton Benefice – part of the Diocese of Gloucester – contains ten ancient and beautiful rural churches, each in an idyllic, timeless setting. Sharing one vicar between them, the Reverend Richard Thomson, there is a limit to how many church services they can host each month.

One of the aims of the Festival is to provide occasions for more people to visit the churches and to enjoy these historically significant settings which are such a rich part of our local heritage. The other aim is to create live, accessible music events to the local community. All of the events are free to attend, but donations towards the maintenance of the churches and to the music charity Youth Music, which gives young people the chance to transform their lives through the power of music.

Each event will be different, resulting in a glorious mixture of musical offerings, some with art and/or flowers, and always refreshments, to be held on Sunday afternoons, one each month, from May to September. The event poster provides a handy summary of the programme:

The charming line drawings of each church are by Gillian Dawson, a former member of Hawkesbury Choir.

My role in the Festival has been as part of a small team behind the scenes, helping to raise awareness of the concert series and to attract an audience. I sang in the first event, which took place last month at my home church of St Mary’s, Hawkesbury.

photo of St Mary the Virgin Hawkesbury in its idyllic rural setting — The Church of St Mary the Virgin, photographed in its gorgeous ancient rural setting one Easter Sunday, viewed from Hawkesbury Knoll

The Come & Sing! event, directed by the brilliant singing teacher Amy Garry of Voices Together, also inspired me to write the following article for the May issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News. Even though the event has happened now, I thought you might still like to read it.

For the Love of Singing

One of the highlights of primary school for me was the daily assembly, in which we’d all sing together in the school hall.

Days Lane Primary School, in Sidcup, Kent, was actually two schools in one, a single-storey brick quadrangle built in the 1920s. The infants were in one half, the juniors in the other, each with their own school hall and head teacher.

The daily assembly included two hymns from the pale blue Songs of Praise book and a few thoughtful words to inspire us. Every Tuesday, the Juniors stayed on after assembly while the teachers went back to their classroom (or maybe to drink coffee and smoke in the staffroom), leaving our jovial headmaster, Mr Bowering, to lead the whole school in hymn practice. From his lectern on the stage, accompanied by a pianist, he taught us new hymns. He also insisted on a rousing weekly rendition of ‘Jerusalem’. I still remember the words and numbers of my favourite hymns.

Cover of the Songs of Praise hymnbook — The Songs of Praise hymnbook – the soundtrack for my childhood

I loved this vibrant act of community – the only occasion that all the pupils were engaged in the same activity. How Mr Bowering must have enjoyed conducting our singing in one roof-raising voice as we gazed up at him.

I also loved the sense of place. A simple map of the globe hung above the stage, making us feel like citizens of the world. Tiny lightbulbs picked out the capital cities of the most important countries. Mr Bowering controlled them from a box of switches beneath his lectern. When he lit up a city, we’d have to shout its name.

I miss those Tuesday mornings. That’s one reason I joined Hawkesbury Choir. Like those school hymn practices, weekly choir practices have become an important fixture in my calendar. I count them as an act of self-care, good for my well-being mentally and physically. I even managed to persuade my GP they count as exercise. (He gave me another tick for bell ringing practice.) I’ve been lucky enough to sing with Hawkesbury Choir not only in our own ancient parish church, but also in the beautiful parish churches of Badminton, Cirencester, Didmarton, and Leighterton.

photo of choir outside Badminton Chiurch — Hawkesbury Choir with guest singers after singing at the Badminton Horse Trials Morning Prayer service earlier this year (I’m fourth from the right)

While community singing can make everyone feel better, hymns aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. So, it’s great news that a fun, free, secular singing event, COME & SING, will take place on Sunday 18^th May at St Mary’s Hawkesbury, and it’s open to all ages from 9 to 109. Although it’ll take place in the church, we’ll be singing popular contemporary music rather than hymns. Think ‘Mamma Mia’ rather than ‘Ave Maria’, although I can’t promise Abba will be on the agenda.

From 1pm, there’ll be a singing workshop led by professional singing teacher Amy Garry of Voices Together, accompanied by Ben Humphries, Badminton Benefice Music Director.
At 4pm, the singers will perform an informal concert for anyone who cares to attend. Light refreshments will be provided.

All of this is free of charge, although donations will be welcome. Any profit will be shared between St Mary’s PCC and the music charity Youth Music.

To join the workshop, please register at badmintonbenefice.com.
To attend the concert, no booking is necessary – just turn up.

COME & SING! is the first in a series of musical events in the new Badminton Benefice Festival of Music to be held this summer in churches throughout the Benefice. All of the events will be free to attend, apart from the grand finale at Great Badminton in November featuring the newly restored organ. More information and dates will be shared on the Benefice website as details are confirmed.

In the meantime, you know what to do… COME & SING!

(This article first appeared in the May 2025 issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News.)

NEXT EVENT IN THE BADMINTON BENEFICE FESTIVAL OF MUSIC: Young Musicians at St Mary the Virgin, Sopworth on Sunday 22nd June

While it’s too late for you to join in the COME & SING! event described above, if you’re within striking distance of the Badminton Benefice, you might like to come along to our June event, an uplifting recital by students of Westonbirt School at Sopworth’s Church of St Mary the Virgin. (In all, five of the Benefice churches are St Mary’s!) It will take place on Sunday 22nd June, starting at 2.45pm. Yes, that is an unusual starting time, but it’s carefully chosen to fit in between the students’ Sundy lunch and their rehearsals later in the day for the school’s annual musical production!

For more information about the Badminton Benefice Music Festival, visit its website page at www.badmintonbenefice.om/festival-of-music

IN OTHER NEWS

cover of Listen with Father by Caroline Sanderson — To be published on 3rd July by Unbound

Yesterday I met my friend Caroline Sanderson, author and books journalist, for lunch, and I was delighted to hear all about her plans for the launch of her new book, which is on a musical theme.

The title, Listen with Father, is a nod towards those of us old enough to remember the daily children’s BBC Radio programme, Listen with Mother, heralded each week by the delightful theme tune, the Berceuse from Fauré’s “Dolly Suite“. However, the subtitle, How I Learned to Love Classical Music, alludes to Caroline’s father’s legacy – a lasting love ot the classics. Caroline’s publisher, Unbound, describes her book as follows:

Listen with Father is a book about the transformative power of listening, and about how we remember those we have loved and lost.

At four years old, Caroline Sanderson fell in love with the music of Mozart after listening to it with her father. At eight, she fell even harder for the songs of David Bowie. Her dad made many gentle attempts to persuade her back to his world of classical music, but it wasn’t until after he died that she returned to it, in memory of him.

In a beguiling blend of memoir and biography, we follow Sanderson as she set out to listen, with great care and attention, to the music her dad loved, to work out why he so appreciated it and whether she could too. From hearing Mozart recitals in Salzburg to visiting Sibelius’s house near Helsinki and playing Robert Schumann at home on the piano, this is a beautifully touching and absorbing story of a beloved father, told through the classical music he cherished.

Order your copy in paperback or ebook from the publisher’s website here.

Meanwhile, there is lots of pending news about my books, but some of it’s embargoed until next week, so watch this space!

Events, Writing

An Eventful June

Posted on June 26, 2019June 26, 2019 by Debbie Young

A round-up of what I’ve been up to this month.

Bleddfa Centre Self-publishing Workshop (16th June)

This month I was delighted to revisit the beautiful Bleddfa Centre near Knighton in Wales. It’s an inspiring setting for creative activity, and perfect for the self-publishing workshop that I’d been invited to run there with fellow authors David Penny and Katharine E Smith who also runs Heddon Publishing, a self-publishing services company.

Photo of David Penny, Debbie YOung and Katharine E Smith — David Penny and Katharine E Smith enjoyed the day as much as I did

Together we provided an eager group of delegates with an overview of how to become an independent author, drawing on our own extensive experience, and with much reference to the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), of which we are all members and of which I’m UK Ambassador. I was especially pleased to meet John Musgrave, who had been on another publishing course there two years before, there I had spoken about self publishing. He had since joined ALLi, self published his first book and had more in the pipeline.

I’m kicking myself for forgetting to take any photos of the gorgeous setting, but the expressions on our faces in the photo above taken by event organiser Caroline Sanderson, author, journalist and Bleddfa Centre trustee, at the end of the day, shows how much David and Catherine and I enjoyed ourselves.

Do take a moment to check out the Bleddfa Centre’s website for the details of further arts events in their programme. It’s always good to have an excuse to go there.

BBC Radio Gloucestershire Book Club (26th June)

On this month’s show, the usual gang – lunchtime presenter Dominic Cotter, fellow panelist Caroline Sanderson (yes, the same Caroline as at Bleddfa – she’s everywhere!) and I discussed The Salt Path by Raynor Winn.

Photo of Debbie and Caroline with The Salt Path by Raynor Winn at the BBC Radio Gloucestershire studio — Shame I had my eyes closed for Dominic’s photo!

The book is an extraordinary tale of a middle-aged couple whose way of dealing with a double crisis – bankruptcy and the diagnosis of terminal illness for Rayner’s husband Moth – is to backpack and wild camp their way around the south-west coastal path. In turns poignant, shocking, funny and lyrical, this is an unforgettable memoir of triumph over adversity and the redemptive power of nature. It is also beautifully written. Caroline and I had the good fortune to attend one of Raynor Winn’s many speaking engagements, organised at the Nailsworth Quaker Meeting House by the Yellow-Lighted Bookshop a couple of months ago, and we can confirm that she speaks as beautifully as she writes.

As always on Dominic’s show we talked about all manner of bookish things, and also chose next month’s book, Daniel Defoe’s seminal Robinson Crusoe, arguably the first English novel and inspiration for so many further works from The Swiss Family Robinson to Lost in Space to Desert Island Discs. I can’t wait to see what we all make of it when we reconvene at noon on Wednesday 24th July.

In the meantime, you can catch the show on iplayer here – Book Club starts eight minutes into the show, just after the news. And if you’d like to track down a Raynor Winn talk near you, her current schedule is below – and you can find out the latest news on her Twitter account at @Raynor_Winn.

graphic of cover of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn and list of her coming talks

Evesham Festival of Words (27th June)

At the time of writing, this event has yet to come! Tomorrow night I’l be chairing a panel of crime writers as part of the Evesham Festival of Words, with a fabulous trio of authors: David Penny (yes, as at Bleddfa, above!) who writes historical thrillers set in medieval Moorish Spain; Barry Faulkner, who writes contemporary police procedural novels; and Angela Buckley, who writes true crime. We’ll be discussing all different kinds of crime fiction, past, present and future, both as professional writers and as avid readers. The event is at 7pm in the enticing setting of Evesham Rowing Club on the banks of a beautiful stretch of the River Avon. Tickets are still available at £7.50, so if you are in town, do please come along on the night – it would be great to see you!

Photo of Evesham Rowing Club — Evesham Rowing Club is the congenial setting for our Crime Panel discussion

In Between Times: Lots of Writing!

I love doing events like this and am always open to invitations – so if you would like me to speak at an event for you, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’m now taking bookings from mid-July onwards. At the moment I have no bookings for July and am looking forward to spending lots of time with my daughter, now on an extended holiday from school after completing her GCSE exams.

It’s also been good to have space to catch up with online activity, including this delightful review on YouTube of Best Murder in Show by vlogger J P Choquette.

However I’m also pleased when I can space them out in the diary to allow plenty of writing time – and this month I’m thrilled that I managed not only to finalise the manuscript of my next novel, Secrets at St Bride’s, due to launch next month, but also to write an 11,000 word short novella, The Pride of Peacocks, a bonus extra to my Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series, and which also segues into the world of the new series! Also coming soon is the new audiobook of Best Murder in Show, narrated by Siobhan Waring, who I thought was the perfect voice for Sophie Sayers.

Thanks to my designer Rachel Lawston for creating the required square cover for the audiobook!

If you’d like to get an email telling you when Secrets at St Bride’s and the new audiobook of Best Murder in Show are available – and also to receive a free ebook of The Pride of Peacocks next month (it’s an exclusive gift for members of my mailing list – not available to buy in shops!), just leave your email address in the form below, and I’ll add you to my list.

Cover of Secrets at St Bride's by Debbie Young — Coming in July – join my mailing list to receive notification when it’s available to order

Like to Join My Mailing List?

To be among the first to know about my new books, special offers, coming events and free downloads, just type your email address into the box above and click the grey button. You’ll also receive a free download of a short novella, The Pride of Peacocks, a lighthearted quick read in the Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series, available exclusively to my subscribers. I promise I won’t share your email address with anyone else and you may unsubscribe at any time. Thank you!

Reading, Writing

Not So Lonely with “The Loney” on BBC Radio Gloucestershire Book Club

Posted on June 15, 2016July 18, 2016 by Debbie Young

It’s always a joy to appear on BBC Radio Gloucestershire’s Book Club feature with presenter Dominic Cotter and fellow local author and Bookseller journalist Caroline Sanderson. The June 2016 edition of the show was especially good fun, as we had three extra folk for company! Continue reading “Not So Lonely with “The Loney” on BBC Radio Gloucestershire Book Club” →

Group photo of Caroline, Claire and Debbie

Personal life, Reading, Writing

The Joy of Book Clubs and Local Radio

Posted on December 14, 2015July 18, 2016 by Debbie Young

A post about the book club I’ve been part of during 2015 on BBC Radio Gloucestershire

Until last year, I’d never belonged to a book club, and have since joined two that have added a new strand of enjoyment to my writing and reading life.

Continue reading “The Joy of Book Clubs and Local Radio” →