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Meet Josie

'Her characters live and breathe' — Sunday Times
'Told with real wit and flair' — Kirkus Reviews
Photo of bestselling author Josie Lloyd wither her collie dog Ziggy

(For press bio & photos, please click here...)

Handwritten image of the word Hello to start an author letter

I’m Josie Lloyd and I also write as Joanna Rees and Jo.  I live in Brighton with my husband and writing partner, Emlyn Rees.  We have three daughters and a beloved dog, Ziggy (pictured), who keeps us sane and makes us walk and run by the sea every day.

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Growing up in Essex in the 80’s, there wasn’t that much to do for entertainment (apart from Dallas on the TV, obviously) so as a teen I quickly became hooked on books.  Lace, by Shirley Conran, Flowers In The Attic, by Virginia Andrews and Jane Austen soon had me captivated too.  It was my love of reading that made me dream of one day becoming a writer.

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Fast forward a few years and, after a degree in English and Drama at Goldsmiths’ College in London, I was working in a sales promotion agency, writing copy for posters that destined for staff toilet doors, when I had an epiphany moment and thought: I’m twenty-five.  If I don’t write a novel now, I’ll never do it.  So I jacked in my job, sold the car, dumped my then boyfriend, moved out of my flat, got a cheap computer and a box room in a friend’s attic and wrote my first novel, It Could Be You.

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And, as I always suspected it might, by following my destiny and my great dream to be a writer, I met the man I would later marry. Emlyn and I were both writing our second novels and trying to scrape a living together in London and so we had lots in common.  We came up with the idea of writing a novel together about our single lives.  Emlyn would write one chapter from the boy’s point of view and I would write the next from the girl’s.  We wrote two chapters of what became Come Together, a rom-com about Jack and Amy and their single life in London, and to our shock and delight it then went on to become a Number 1 Sunday Times best seller, was translated into 27 languages and made into a film by Working Title. And, as a result of writing a ‘wart’s ‘n’ all’ romance about dating, we got together ourselves and got married.

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We wrote seven more novels together and then, as new parents, turned our attention to writing parodies of our favourite kids books. After extensive personal research, we came up with We’re Going On A Bar Hunt, a take on We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, which we must have read to the kids thousands of times.  We followed it up with The Very Hungover Caterpillar and The Teenager Who Came To Tea

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In recent years, my Joanna Rees novels have been the kind of sweeping, dramatic books I love to read myself. I’m a bit of a magpie when it comes to plotting and so always include a bit of romance and jeopardy in my stories.  My latest books are part of my Stitch In Time trilogy, which starts in London in 1926 with The Runaway Daughter, then goes to Paris in 1928 for The Hidden Wife and to New York and Hollywood in 1930 in The Sister Returns. It’s such a wonderful period to research and I’ve found writing Vita and her friend Nancy absolutely captivating.

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(An original Jenny Sacerdote dress in 1928, as featured in the book.)

I've also recently written The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club, published as The Brightside Running Club in the US.  It’s a contemporary women's fiction novel which draws on my own experience of breast cancer in 2017. I'm currently a patron of Lobular Breast Cancer UK and you can read more about their work here.

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I followed this up with Lifesaving For Beginners, another contemporary novel about a group of women, coming together as part of a Brighton sea swimming group to deal with a very different set of real life problems .

In my spare time, I enjoy cooking for friends, hanging out with the kids, going to restaurants, watching box sets on the sofa or going to the cinema.  I always have at least three books on the go, including poetry.  I run, do yoga and swim in the sea regularly, but my great passion is Qi gong, which is an ancient form of Chinese yoga.  A blast of slow, meditative breathing and movement always sets me up for my writing day.

I still read — and listen — to as many books as I can and co-host a regular podcast with Posh Totty designs founder, Alice Rivers-Cripps, about the memorable stories behind jewellery and keepsakes, called Show Us Your Bits.

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I love to hear from readers, so please feel free to get social here..

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I hope you enjoy reading these books as much as I enjoyed writing them and if there's anything else you want to know, please do feel free to contact me here, or subscribe to my newsletter here.

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More Praise for Josie Lloyd
'Vivid and funny' —  The Times

'I love her writing' — Jenny Colgan, Sunday Times bestselling author

'The pace never slows and nor does the atmosphere of surprise and revelation' — Daily Mail
'Addictive' — Heat
'Brilliantly written and wittily observed' — Daily Express
'If you like losing yourself in epic tales by the likes of Penny Vincenzi and Lesley Pearse, you'll love this' — Woman
'What an engaging and life-affirming story! A page-turner, too, with such wonderful characters. I loved it!' —Rachel Hore, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Love Child

'A gorgeously bittersweet novel, unflinching and heart-wrenching – you will need tissues – yet full of warmth, wit and joy' — Eve Chase, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Glass House
'The summer's sexiest book' —  Company magazine
'An inherently fascinating and entertaining novel about love, family and the power of finding your tribe' —Midwest Book Review

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