Tenby writer Vikki Heywood and Chapter One Bookshop Narberth are staging the Pembrokeshire launch of her debut novel on Friday, October 3.

‘Miss Veal and Miss Ham’ has already attracted great acclaim from authors such as Reverend Richard Coles and prize-winning author Francis Spufford alongside a large number of five star reader reviews.

Vikki was a leading light in the theatre world running the Royal Court Theatre in London and the Royal Shakespeare Company before she began her novel writing career. She has been an executive producer of many West End and Broadway productions, including Matilda the Musical.

She was Chairman of the Royal Society of the Arts and in 2020 was awarded a Damehood by the Queen for services to the Arts.

Vikki and her Welsh husband Clive Jones, the Ofcom board member for Wales, live above Castle Beach in Tenby and she credits the dramatic view out over St Catherine’s Island and Carmarthen Bay for helping to give her the peace of mind to concentrate on her writing and complete her first novel.

It is 1951 and behind the counter of a modest post office in a leafy Buckinghamshire village Miss Dora Ham and Miss Beatrix Veal maintain their careful facade as respected local spinsters. But behind their public façade is a story of passion.

Over the course of one pivotal day their carefully constructed world begins to fracture.

Through Beatrix’s wry perspective we witness the severe impact of post-war changes on their peaceful existence. Changes that will lead to heart-breaking decisions for Miss Veal and Miss Ham.

At the heart of this intimate, moving and witty novel is a story of resilience, the dignity of love that cannot be spoken, and the challenges that come when the future no longer feels safe.

With echoes of Barbara Pym and Sarah Waters, this debut novel is a moving and witty love story spanning four decades from the suffragette movement, through WWII, to the early ‘50s.

The book launch will take place at Chapter One Bookshop Narberth on Friday, October 3, at 6.30pm.