About The Author

Hi, I’m Santa Montefiore and I’ve been writing a novel for a year for twenty-six years now, which is quite astonishing as I didn’t really think beyond the first book, which took me five years to write. I didn’t think I had another in me, but here I am, celebrating my twenty-first and polishing my twenty-second for publication next year! Most of my novels are set partly in England and partly in a beautiful location, like Argentina, Italy or France. I write primarily for myself so I figure, as I’m going to be living in my imagination for the best part of six months, I might as well choose somewhere lovely. I adore nature, so I tend to plant my characters in rural settings – by the sea or in the countryside – and most of them are stand-alone, except Last Voyage of the Valentina and The Italian Matchmaker, and my recent trilogy, The Deverill Chronicles, which is set in Ireland from 1910 to the sixties. It started out as three books but is now five: The Secret Hours is number 4 and The Distant Shores is number 5. I suppose I just loved writing about that family so much, I didn’t want to stop. But I have now… I think The Distant Shores is the last!