WINNER OF THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE | BEST PUBLISHED NOVEL
WOMAN & HOME BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR and A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'The perfect escape novel for our troubled times.' PATRICK GALE


It is 1950. In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist.
Enid Pretty, in her unlikely pink travel suit, is not the companion Margery had in mind. And yet together they will be drawn into an adventure that will exceed every expectation. They will risk everything, break all the rules, and at the top of a red mountain, discover their best selves.

This is a story that is less about what can be found than the belief it might be found; it is an intoxicating adventure story but it is also about what it means to be a woman and a tender exploration of a friendship that defies all boundaries.


'A girl's own adventure...This is Rachel Joyce's best book yet ...Exciting, moving and full of unexpected turns.' THE TIMES

'Brilliant and elegant and wise...powerful and moving...I can't recommend it enough.' JOANNA CANNON

'A beautiful portrayal of female friendship in all its frailties, contradictions and strengths.' RAYNOR WINN

WOMAN & HOME BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020; DAILY MAIL BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020; BOOKMARK BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020; GOOD HOUSEKEEPING BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020

'Impossible to put down' TIMES
'Life-affirming delight. A comic pleasure' WOMAN AND HOME
'Profoundly moving' RICHARD MADELEY

OVER 4 MILLION COPIES SOLD. SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOVIE STARRING JIM BROADBENT AND PENELOPE WILTON
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When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other.

He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else's life.

Harold Fry is the most ordinary of men. He just might be a hero for us all.

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'A gorgeously hopeful book' OPRAH MAGAZINE

'A funny book, a wise book, a charming book . . . Harold Fry is just wonderful ... I love this book' ERICA WAGNER, THE TIMES

'The odyssey of a simple man, original, subtle and touching' CLAIRE TOMALIN

'One of the sweetest, most delicately-written stories I've read in a long time. One man's walk along the length of England to save the life of a dying woman . . . Philosophical, intriguing, and profoundly moving' RICHARD MADELEY

'Full of heart, laced through with wry wit. I loved Harold and Maureen and their separate journeys . . . A celebration of being alive, being human. Beautiful!' NIAMH CUSACK

'Tender and funny, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry shows that even our frailties can be uplifting and redemptive' EDWARD STOURTON

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RACHEL JOYCE'S NEW NOVEL MISS BENSON'S BEETLE IS OUT NOW.

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'Warm-hearted, unusual, romantic with a sense of hope' The Times
'A beautiful novel, a tonic for the soul and a complete joy to read.' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

A story of love, community and how music can bring us back to life from the worldwide bestseller of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

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1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk - as long as it's vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need.

Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.

Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind...

'Hits all the right notes...a love story that's as much about the silences between words as what is said - the spaces between people that can be filled with mystery, confusion and misunderstanding as well as hope.' Observer

Readers are falling in love with The Music Shop:
***** 'Joyous and perfectly done'
***** 'A beautifully crafted love story. It will make you laugh and cry'
***** 'I totally fell in love with every character in this book'

RACHEL JOYCE'S NEW NOVEL, MISS BENSON'S BEETLE, IS OUT NOW

‘It is her clever did-I-read-that-right twist at the end that really got to me and had me scrabbling through the chapters, open-mouthed.’ Evening Standard

Summer, 1972: In the claustrophobic heat, eleven-year-old Byron and his friend begin ‘Operation Perfect’, a hapless mission to rescue Byron’s mother from impending crisis.

Winter, present day: As frost creeps across the moor, Jim cleans tables in the local café, a solitary figure struggling with OCD. His job is a relief from the rituals that govern his nights.

Little would seem to connect them except that two seconds can change everything.
And if your world can be shattered in an instant, can time also put it right?

'Touching . . . a quiet, gentle, moving novel' Observer

Queenie thought her first letter would be the end of the story. She was wrong. It was the beginning.

When Queenie Hennessy discovers that Harold Fry is walking the length of England to save her, and all she has to do is wait, she is shocked. Her note had explained she was dying. How can she wait?

A new volunteer at the hospice suggests that Queenie should write again; only this time she must tell Harold everything. In confessing to secrets she has hidden for twenty years, she will find atonement for the past. As the volunteer points out, ‘Even though you’ve done your travelling, you’re starting a new journey too.’

Told in simple, emotionally-honest prose, with a mischievous bite, this is a novel about the journey we all must take to learn who we are; it is about loving and letting go. And most of all it is about finding joy in unexpected places and at times we least expect.

From the author of the 2 million+ copy, worldwide bestseller, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, an exquisite, funny and heartrending parallel story.

COMING IN JUNE 2020 - the heart-warming Miss Benson's Beetle . . .

As read on Radio 4, seven linked stories set in the Christmas holidays - all as funny, joyous, poignant and memorable as Christmas should be:

A Faraway Smell of Lemon: The School Term has ended. It is almost Christmas but Binny, out last-minute shopping couldn't feel less like wishing glad tidings to all men. Ducking out of the rain she finds herself in the sort of shop she would never normally visit.

The Marriage Manual: Christmas Eve. Two parents endeavour to construct their son’s Christmas present from a DIY kit and in the process find themselves deconstructing their marriage.

Christmas at the Airport: A glitch in the system, travellers stranded and all sorts of lives colliding in the face of a sudden birth...

The Boxing Day Ball: Maureen has never been out with the local girls before. Who knew that a disco in the Village Hall could be life-changing?

A Snow Garden: Two little boys, dumped with their divorced father for his share of the Christmas holidays and none of them with a clue how to enjoy it.

I'll Be Home for Christmas The most famous boy in the world comes home hoping to escape the madness with a normal family Christmas.

Trees: As if Christmas wasn't wearing enough, now his elderly parent is asking for a hole in the ground … Father and son break old habits and plant a tree to mark the start of the new year.

It is Christmas Eve. Binny has four hours to make Christmas happen and she couldn’t feel less like wishing glad tidings of good will to all men – least of all to Oliver. It is raining, her house is falling apart, the streets are jammed with people and it is all Oliver’s fault. Darting into a shop to escape a conversation, Binny finds herself in the sort of place she would never normally visit. But in amongst the shelves is a surprising source of peace.
A beautiful gem of a short story from Rachel Joyce, bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Perfect The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.