Synopsis: Myrtle is 58 years old....and she’s just coming of age.

When Myrtle’s husband, Austin, dies suddenly on the bus one morning, she is frozen with shock. But in reality, Myrtle’s life has been frozen for nearly 40 years; locked in an emotionless marriage with little responsibility for her own life and future.

Myrtle’s daughters couldn’t be more different. Gillian, prickly and defensive like her doting father and Beth, creative and emotional yet guarding a secret she couldn’t reveal to a father she felt distanced from. Austin’s death throws the family together again but also exposes a secret that will force each and every one of them to reassess their identity and their place in the world. How is a widow supposed to find herself when she has no friends; does hope lie with Gianni, the kindly stranger who witnessed Austin’s death, or with Dorothy, the effervescent neighbour who takes her under her wing, and will Gillian and Beth come to forgive the secret they are about to discover?

A beautifully written debut novel about hidden lives and second chances, The Importance of Being Myrtle is sad, romantic and heart-warming but above all, it is a story about one family and a life reborn.

ULRIKA JONSSON is the Swedish born TV presenter who started her career as TV-am’s weather girl. She went on to host Gladiators and continues to act as a Team Captain on BBC2’s cult TV show, Shooting Stars. She won 2009’s Celebrity Big Brother, reached the final of Ultimate Big Brother and published her bestselling autobiography, Honest, in 2003.

Ulrika started writing stories when she was 9; her father bought a typewriter home from work one day and her love of writing was born. Books and writing were her escapism during a difficult childhood and it was when she moved to England at the age of 12 that her passion for English, its language and literature, was ignited. Early inspiration came from authors as diverse as Roald Dahl and Jilly Cooper but one of the first books that made a powerful impact was Lynne Reid Bank’s The L-Shaped Room.

Ulrika Jonsson lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband and four children and is available for interview and to write features.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Importance-Being-Myrtle-Ulrika-Jonsson/dp/0141043202/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314613698&sr=1-1

Hot Brands Cool Places Verdict
This debut novel charts the life of Myrtle, and the relationships throughout her life, with her parents, her husband, her daughters, and latterly for the first time in her life, her friends. Sensitively portrayed, you gradually see Myrtle blossoming in this heart-warming tale of freedom, and the re-birth of a new family life.