Escape to the Château stars pen second memoir for Seven Dials

Orion imprint Seven Dials will publish Living the Château Dream by Dick and Angel Strawbridge, a follow-up to their 2020 memoir A Year at the Château.

Living the Château Dream will pick up where the first memoir ends to offer insight into the journey the stars of Channel 4's "Escape to the Château" went on to transform Château-de-la-Motte Husson into both a thriving family home and a sustainable business, said the publisher. 

The book will follow the family as they open new suites, explore the walled garden, launch their wedding business and host guests for "Food Lovers' Weekends". It will also recount stories of the renovations that took place over four years at the château.

Vicky Eribo, publishing director, acquired world rights from Julian Alexander at The Soho Agency. The memoir will be published as a super lead title for Seven Dials in October 2021.  

Eribo said: "It was an absolute pleasure to work with Dick and Angel last year on their bestselling debut memoir, so I couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome them back to Orion. With this book Dick and Angel take us even deeper into their world, sharing the highs and lows of the ‘building years’ and the unique journey they went on to make their dreams of rural family life in a fairytale castle a reality. Château fans are in for a real treat with this second installment. We cannot wait to share it with them all!"

The authors commented: "Writing and publishing A Year at the Château was an honour. We thoroughly enjoyed re-living every memory and were delighted people actually read and enjoyed it! Our lives are busy, and sometimes a little crazy, but sitting down and writing has been a pleasure for both of us and created wonderful new memories. Vicky, and the entire team at Orion, completely understood us and our desire to have two voices in our books; right from the moment we started working with them, it felt right! We were simply delighted to be asked to write this second book. In fact, we could not wait to put pen to paper again."