Emily Banting

The village of Nunswick and its ruined abbey give Emily Banting the setting for Lost in Love, first of three books following abbey tour guide Anna Walker and Doctor Katherine Atkinson through an age-gap courtship complicated by Anna's care of her ailing father and by what a medical board makes of a doctor dating a patient's daughter. Trust in Truth and Forgive Not Forget close the trilogy. Banting is a British writer of contemporary sapphic romance who also works in screenwriting, and she sells straight to readers rather than through a trade house. Her books lean on English settings, dry humour and older leads, since she argues for putting women past forty at the front of a love story. Broken Beyond Repair, the opening South Downs novel, took a Lesfic Bard Award and a Queer Indie Award in 2022.