The majority of them aren’t particularly likeable but that makes them all the more interesting I feel! Seven of us arrived at a villa on the Amalfi Coast, ready to enjoy a sun-soaked weekend with our oldest friends - and one new face.

My ire is mostly reserved, however, for someone else, because what I found indicates there must have been a someone else. But as the story progresses and you get to know the characters in a little more depth, it all becomes clear. It’s the day of Andrew’s funeral…although his body has not yet been found, he is presumed dead due to drowning in the sea whilst on holiday in Italy with his wife, Liz, and their friends.The Chalke History Festival announces a new name, new look, and tons for history buffs to get their teeth into!

When Andrew and I were first together we would lie entwined in bed, discussing which of each other’s friends we found attractive. Themes in the book included but were not limited to, friendship, love, power, class, widowhood, and grief. Mourners – family, friends, colleagues, red-eyed but offering supportive smiles - reach out from the end of almost every row.The story flows in the past and present tense as, the exotic break away with the friends and new partners. Mom does her Richard Kimble thing and somehow moves all around the town after assaulting a cop AND at gunpoint takes another one hostage. I sat up at the kitchen table late into the night, crafting every word, retrieving every memory I could, contacting his family and old friends to ensure I didn’t leave any vital facet of him out. The author left a huge impression on me after I read The Anniversary and this blurb was irresistible.

My children, Ethan and Josh, are downstairs looking younger than their eleven and nine years, upright and silent in their formal clothes. Some of the characters are completely unlikeable but are tempered by some truly likeable characters. This started well but as we got to know the characters I found myself increasingly irritated by their selfishness and couldn’t wait to find out exactly who’d done what. Todd is an an improbably good-looking, rich American with whom it transpired she’d been having an affair for some time, a betrayal of his best friend that Andrew – and I, if I’m honest - have struggled to come to terms with.Lots of red herrings, unfortunately the characters were very unlikable and self- centred so could not fully invest in the story saying that I have listened to worse! Briefly, in the past; Liz and Andrew were invited to a weekend villa in Italy to celebrate the birthday of Todd, the boyfriend of the soon to be divorced Saffie (from Owen who is not there but is Andrews best friend).

Also invited were Trina and husband Julian, Poppy who was Andrews business Partner and Todd’s twenty four year old daughter Kitty. Slipping between “then” and “now” timelines, we witness trouble in paradise during the friends’ fateful Amalfi Coast trip. The vicar’s voice echoes up to the rafters, sonorously reading out the eulogy I wrote, the eulogy I put my whole heart into.

A mother discovers that the nanny who framed her for abandoning her 3-year-old daughter is her ex-husband's new girlfriend, but no one believes her version of events. I must have been asked it hundreds of times over the last three months and each time I’ve been at a loss as to how to answer. Liz and Andrew were a great match, and I watched as first love, and then fatherhood, transformed him.