Before I Met You

An uplifting, unforgettable story of two women in two different times from theSunday TimesTop Ten bestselling author ofAfter the PartyandThe Making of Us.

London, 1920. Arlette works in Liberty by day, and by night is caughty up in a glamorous whirl of parties, clubs, cocktails and jazz. But when tragedy strikes she flees the city, never to return.

Over half a century later, in the grungy mid-'90s, her graddaughter Betty arrives in London.

She can't wait to begin her new life. But before she can do so, she must find the mysterious woman named in her grandmother's will.

What she doesn't know is that her search will uncover the heartbreaking secret that changed her grandmother's life, and might also change hers for ever...

Lisa Jewell had always planned to write her first book when she was fifty. In fact she wrote it when she was twenty-seven and had just been made redundant from her job as a secretary. Inspired by Nick HornbysHigh Fidelity,a book about young people just like her who lived in London, she wrote the first three chapters of what was to become her first novel,Ralphs Party. It went on to become the bestselling debut novel of 1998.

Fifteen bestselling novels later, she lives in London with her husband and their two daughters. Lisa writes every day in a local café where she can drink coffee, people-watch and, without access to the internet, actually get some work done . . .

Keep in touch with Lisa: www.lisa-jewell.co.uk www.facebook.com/LisaJewellOfficial @lisajewelluk on Twitter