Erica James

Erica James writes British relationship fiction shaped by family history, emotional secrets, and a strong sense of place. Her novel Gardens of Delight won the Romantic Novel of the Year award in 2006, and several later books became Sunday Times bestsellers. HQ Stories published A Secret Garden Affair in 2023. Set primarily around Suffolk's Larkspur House, it begins in July 1981 as Libby leaves London after a broken engagement and seeks refuge with her great-aunt Bess and garden designer Elfrida. The arrival forces old friends to confront a past extending across six decades. James uses the house and its garden as living parts of the story, linking changing relationships to memory and renewal. The book continues her long interest in intergenerational friendship, private loyalties, and evocative domestic settings.