Things to Make and Mend

At fifteen, Sally Tuttle and Rowena Cresswell were firm friends, until a shocking event changed their lives. Now in their late thirties, they are estranged, both single mothers, both haunted with memories of their intense friendship. Sally is an embroiderer, a needlewoman ('the homelier sister of Wonderwoman'), who works at In Stitches, a repairs shop in East Grinstead. When she wins an embroidery prize and is invited to a conference in Edinburgh to deliver an embroidery lecture, she has to leave her teenage daughter Pearl alone and step into a new role - lecturer, prize-winner. Rowena Cresswell is in Edinburgh too, helping her son move out of his student accommodation. This beautifully woven, perfectly pitched story of two women caught in the shadow of their teenage years will stay in the hearts of readers long after they put it down.

Ruth Thomas is a novelist and short-story writer. Her work has won or been shortlisted for several awards including the John Llewellyn Rhys Award, the Saltire Society First Book Award and the VS Pritchett Short Story Prize. Her first novel Things to Make and Mend received a Good Housekeeping Book Award and her short story collection Super Girl was longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize. Many of her stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio. The Home Corner is her second novel, and is now available in paperback. Ruth was born in Kent and lives in Edinburgh with her family. She has worked as a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and now teaches part-time at St Andrews University. , Ruth Thomas is a novelist and short-story writer. Her first story collection was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys and the Saltire Society First Book Awards, and her second received a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Her first novel Things to Make and Mend received a Good Housekeeping Book Award. The Home Corner is her second novel. Ruth was born in Kent and now lives in Edinburgh with her husband and three children. She is currently a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow.