Lucas returns to Little Maudley with Pan Macmillan

Pan Macmillan will publish The Village Green Bookshop by Rachael Lucas, author of The Telephone Box Library (Pan, 2020). 

Fiction editorial director Caroline Hogg has bought UK and Commonwealth rights, including Canada, from Amanda Preston at LBA Books for UK and Commonwealth rights. 

The Village Green Bookshop will be set in the same village as The Telephone Box Library and features some of the same characters. It will follow struggling mum Hannah Lewis as she moves with her husband and teenager to take over the post office in the Costswold village of Little Maudley. Her decision to introduce a small bookshop to the post office causes a stir in the small, tight-knit community. Just as they start to settle in, a shocking secret from their past threatens to uproot the new life they’ve made for themselves, and will have drastic consequences. 

Hogg said: "Rachael’s last book, The Telephone Box Library, was the novel we all needed earlier this year: inspiring, heart-warming and like having a hug from your best friend. It was a runaway bestseller in physical and e-book formats. We can’t wait to take readers back to the village of Little Maudley and introduce them to some new characters as well as some familiar ones! Rachael is so wonderful to work with and has such a natural gift for storytelling."

Lucas commented: "I’m so excited to be working with Caroline and the rest of the brilliant team at Pan Macmillan to build on the success of The Telephone Box Library. It’s been amazing to watch readers take the world of Little Maudley into their hearts and I can’t wait to share another story set in the village."

Lucas' other novels include YA title The State of Grace (Macmillan Children's Books, 2017) Finding Hope at Hillside Farm (Pan, 2019) and Wildflower Bay (Pan, 2016).