He's Behind You

By Freya Thornbury

She came home to hide. The village put her in charge of the pantomime.

West End director Marnie Lowther arrives back in Thornwick with two suitcases, a career-ending flop behind her and no intention of saying the word failure out loud. Her mother has already volunteered her to rescue the village hall panto - and the leading man, it turns out, is Isaac Reeve, the vet she left standing on the station platform sixteen years ago.

Marnie fixes things the London way: cut the chorus, recast the Dame, everyone off-book by week two. Within a fortnight half the cast have quietly stopped turning up, the parish council is eyeing the booking, and Isaac tells her - kindly, and unforgivably - that she is doing to Thornwick precisely what the critics did to her.

Rebuilding the show on the village's terms, around a lame donkey, a nine-year-old with a tin whistle and a man who will do anything for the production except sing, turns out to be the happiest work she has done in a decade. Which is exactly when London rings back.

A warm, funny, closed-door Christmas romance for fans of Jenny Colgan and Cathy Bramley. Bring a mince pie and a mug of something - the whole room is about to tell these two what has been behind them all along.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1913940896
• ISBN13: 9781913940898
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Ribbon & Flint
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"