Julie - Beverley Hansford

Julie Marsden has learned to deal with life. She has already survived the early loss of her parents, a repressive upbringing by her aunt and a brief marriage and divorce. When her aunt dies suddenly, she moves to London and, encouraged by her best friend Penny, reinvents herself as a chic office girl. The transformation leads to her meeting the men who will shape her life.David is a quiet, budding writer, and for a while life with him is idyllic. When David goes to America, Julie finds solace in an offer to work in Paris. There she meets the debonair film producer Ren and is introduced into his world of glamour and expensive living. Ren would like to make the relationship permanent, but Julie remains loyal to David. Only when she receives a letter from David announcing that he intends to marry someone else, does Julie agree to marry Ren.Immersed in the role of being the wife of a minor celebrity, Julie tries to be all that Ren demands, but all too soon she realises that she has been the innocent victim of a plan by her new husband and his close friends to ensnare her into marrying him, having carefully concealed his darkest secrets from her. As a result, Julie finds herself trapped in a loveless and unhappy marriage.But before she can extract herself from her predicament, tragedy plunges her into the biggest and most traumatic challenge of her life.

Beverley Hansford has wanted to write since he was a child, but in adult life his job got in the way. Now retired, he has returned to writing and Julie is his first novel. Astrology, genealogy, photography and a large allotment occupy the rest of his time. He lives in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.