Fanny Blake signs up for two more with Orion

Orion Fiction has bought two more books by Fanny Blake. The deal includes An Italian Summer, a novel about friendship, family secrets and second chances set in southern Italy, due for publication in summer 2018.

Clare Hey, publishing director at Orion Fiction, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Clare Alexander at Aitken Alexander in An Italian Summer and one further untitled book by Blake which will follow in summer 2019.

An Italian Summer centres on Sandy, a woman in her fifties "at a crossroads" in her life. In her job as a teacher, she feels she is being sidelined in favour of younger colleagues. When her mother dies leaving her a sealed envelope addressed to an unknown woman living in Naples, she therefore decides to head to Italy to resolve the mystery by delivering the letter herself. She books herself on to a small sightseeing trip from Rome to Naples and the Amalfi Coast, hoping to meet some like-minded people. The blurb asks, "Who is the mysterious woman she is searching for? And will Sandy find friendship, or even love, along the way…?"

Blake, books editor of Woman & Home magazine, was a publisher and editor in fiction and non-fiction before becoming a freelance journalist and writer. Her latest book, Our Summer Together, will publish in July 2017.

Hey said: "Fanny writes with warmth and wisdom and speaks to women about grabbing their chance in life, no matter when it comes. She is a joy to publish and I am delighted to be renewing the relationship between her and Orion Fiction with two wonderful new books."