JUSTINE GILBERT, AUTHOR
Born in New York, USA. Lived in London, Rome, the Tuscan Hills and Florida. Currently living on the Kent coast beside the North Sea.
My debut novel, Daisy Chain, (publ in March 2023, Claret Press), won awards including the HFC Silver Award, and was shortlisted for the Paul Torday Memorial Award.
I am a mother and grandmother; a dog lover; a traveller; an educationalist; an alumni of Leeds University, the Open University, and The Novelry.
My third novel will be published shortly. I think of it as my love letter to the Ukrainian people. A story of love, betrayal and hope. Updates to come.
The Anna Puzzle
soon to be published
January 2026
MY BOOKS
MONTECATINI
A murdery mystery set in the Tuscan hills.
A nameless child’s body dumped on an Italian beach; an Italian conman, Alessandro Verdi, murdered in London. But all clues lead to the hillside town of Montecatini della Torre in Tuscany.
When the powerful Verdi family asks Agata, a recently retired agente di polizia, to discreetly investigate the death of her former lover, she believes she knows the whole truth about Alessandro. Determined to prove him innocent of the shocking child murder on the beach, her investigations reveal disturbing hidden events and connections. Luca, her Commissario husband, shares information with her, and the locals share gossip. But it is down to Agata to sift fact from rumour. How many people must die before she uncovers the truth?
Winner of the PageTurner Award 2024.
DAISY CHAIN
It's the Great Depression. The world is tilting towards war. In the White House, nothing is as it seems.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the married president of the United States, has started a long and passionate affair with his cousin Daisy, and moves her into the West Wing.
Daisy is one of FDR's band of unconventional women: Eleanor Roosevelt, the fiery labour organiser, Frances Perkins, the first female Secretary of Labour, and his secretary Missy LeHand, a political operative in her own right. Middle-aged spinster Daisy becomes FDR's secret wife. That's not her only secret.
This fictional biography written by a family member who knew Daisy is the untold true story of a hidden love and hidden contributions, and of a presidency that benefitted from both.
Winner of the PageTurner Award and Longlisted for the Historical Fiction Company Best Book 2022.
DAISY CHAIN was one of five novels shortlisted for the Paul Torday Memorial Award for a first novel written by someone over 60.
I was thrilled to be in the company of many authors signed by big Publishing Houses.
The idea for the Anna Puzzle was born when I learned more about the Ukrainian people from my Homes4Ukraine guests.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, there have been struggles in Eastern Europe unrecorded in the main European news - until 2022. I knew I wanted to tell a love story, not a war story, although the two elements are intwined. I also wanted to tell a story of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events.
Daisy Chain is set in 1930's America.
Montecatini is set in 2016, Tuscany.
My forthcoming novel is set in both 1990 Berlin, (the fall of the Berlin Wall), and in 2021, (leading to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.)
All of my novels are about love & death & loyalties in times of crisis.
More about my upcoming novel in later posts...
The Society of Authors Award Presentation Evening 2024, a beautiful venue with talented people
NEWS
