Summer At Tillingford Hall - Flora Dunn

It’s that time of year again when you’ll no doubt be looking for some light-hearted summer reading to take on holiday. Summer At Tillingford Hall is a delightful feel-good, romantic novel, that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Set in a beautiful stately home where the heroine, art curator Alice, is employed to catalogue the Tillingford family’s collection of valuable miniatures, the book not only has a charming romance, but also unexpected twists and turns in the plot that had me on tenterhooks right up to the end as to whether or not Alice and the Honourable Guy Tillingford, would get their happy ever after – although I was certainly rooting for them.

Flora Dunn, a Finalist in the Romantic Novelists’ Association Debut Novel of the Year 2025 Award, has happily agreed to write a guest blog for me this month.

Over to Flora . . .

Hi. I’m Flora and I’m thrilled that Lynne has asked me to tell you more about Summer at Tillingford Hall, my first published novel.

I was inspired to write this book by the many National Trust properties I was dragged round as a child and by my sister’s job as an art curator, although I’ll state firmly now that my sister is nothing like Alice, the heroine (or not much)! I wondered how it would feel to be a quiet, studious art curator suddenly finding yourself in the glamorous world of an English Country House, and what you might find there if you started to poke about in cupboards. I’ve written more about the inspiration behind Tillingford Hall in this blog.

I originally wrote the book in a notebook while on holiday in Dorset maybe fifteen years ago – I particularly remember sitting in the courtyard at Kingston Lacey house, clutching my notebook and scribbling away in a quiet moment. About four years ago, struggling with writing A Little Treat on Honey Street (which I’ve now conquered and am publishing as my second book on 15th July), I dug that notebook out of a dark drawer and completely reworked the story, making the characters older, with backstories which I think really flesh the novel out and make it more relatable and believable.

But I still like my books to be a bit escapist, maybe slightly fantastical, because we all need a break from the challenges of our everyday life, don’t we? I love Lynne’s books because they really transport you to new places and give you a little holiday, which can be such a pick-me-up when you can’t actually get away.

I hope you might like to pick up a copy and find out for yourself, so I’m offering you a discount on all my books this summer on my website https://www.floradunn.com/shop. Just use the code LYNNE at the till for 25% off everything. Or you can buy the book as an e-book or paperback from Amazon. £1 from the sale of every copy of Summer at Tillingford Hall goes to support the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation, a drugs education charity.

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Thank you, Flora, for being a guest on my blog and explaining a bit about what inspired Summer at Tillingford Hall, an entertaining, captivating and romantic read that I highly recommend. I am very much look forward to reading A Little Treat.  

About Flora Dunn

Flora lives in Wimbledon with her husband, nearly grown-up children and an assortment of fish and cats. She is a charity fundraiser by profession and each of her books supports a different charity. She also loves gardening, both at home and in her allotment, and opens her garden for the National Garden Scheme.

If you’d like to know more about her forthcoming books, get recipes, win stuff and read articles about the English countryside, please sign up for Flora’s newsletter at www.floradunn.com.

You can also follow Flora on Instagram - @floradunnbooks and Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564026770834

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B0DFD3HLWS