Escape to Portugal for a new book from novelist and podcaster Chris Penhall, who Tomorrow first interviewed in 2020.
Chris lived in Cascais many years ago and now regards Lagos as almost her second home. Her writing reflects her love of the region, with her first published novel, The House That Alice Built, winning the Choc Lit Search for a Star competition in 2019. Set in Cascais, it was to be the first of her four Portuguese Paradise novels, with New Beginnings at the Little House in the Sun based again in the area around the Lisbon coast and her third – The House on the Hill – and now her most recent – The House That Florence Left – based in Lagos.
“I love Lagos,” says Chris. ”Not only is it beautiful, vibrant and welcoming, I also find it hugely inspirational. I started to visit regularly in 2000 with my daughters. Then, one year, I decided to take a holiday somewhere else. Whilst that was a lovely holiday, I remember deciding to revisit Lagos the following year and landing at Faro airport late one night. It smelled of sea and sand and Portugal, and I thought, if I feel like this now, what am I doing staying away for so long? I started to come back more frequently, and it’s now like a second home to me. I love all of it – the centre of the city and its cobbled streets, the beaches, the buskers, the food and every single person I meet. I could go on. In fact, I do in my novels, where I try to paint a picture of it for people who have never been fortunate enough to experience it for themselves.”
Chirs has also witnessed how Lagos has grown and grown since those first few years when she used to come over, and she wanted to reflect that in the story of The House That Florence Left: “It’s changed a great deal since our main character, Bella Creswell, visited, and there are complexities regarding land and housing and all of the questions and pressures that it brings. It’s also life-changing for Bella, who originally planned to get the house that her great-aunt left her ready to sell as quickly as possible. But it’s Lagos, so it’s not that easy to let go. Perhaps it’s a reflection of that visit all those years ago after going elsewhere for a while and realising that some connections are so special, you can’t really let them go.”
Available on Amazon: shorturl.at/1mzi9
For the interview with Chris Penhall: shorturl.at/RptLC
