So I've done the thing I said I would never do. Which is write the sequel to PS, I Love You and I have said from the day the book was published that I would never write the sequel for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons was I felt that I had brought the book. I brought the character to the place that I wanted her to be. I couldn't think of where else I would want to bring her. So of course I'm not the kind of author that thinks of an idea - I'm going to write this book. I need to have the story first. And I couldn't see a story for PS, I Love You the sequel. Secondly because I like to surprise my readers I don't want to deliver the same book every time. I really like to write something that's different in tone a very different character and it didn't excite me to return to the same character and write about the same world. And also one of the biggest reasons I suppose is that it was such a successful book and so many people find the book so dear. You know it's so special to so many people that I thought I don't want to ruin that by writing a sequel. Because what if people don't like it.

So there's a lot of reasons running from my head that made me so stubborn that I was definitely not going to write that book. Until it was 2012 and I had my second child and I was changing my will which is a rather depressing thing to do but important. And I started thinking about the things that people do to make the lives better for the people they're leaving behind and all the decisions that you have to make while you're here. And that opened up my mind again you know to all the things that people do for their loved ones before they pass away which naturally was linked in with PS, I Love You and so I wanted Holly to come back to this kind of environment where she was spending time with people who were not just writing letters but who were making preparations in very different ways for the people they're leaving behind. And even though I came up with the idea so very long ago I still question whether I should write it or not.

I secretly wrote the first few chapters for myself just to see if it would work. And then I started asking publishers and testing it out on people. How would they feel. What's the reaction to me writing a sequel. Overall there was huge excitement and I was really happy with how the book was going so I decided to stick with it. I was also looking for a new challenge. With every book that I write I really need a challenge. I really need something to get my teeth into. And so revisiting a character 15 years later was something I've never done before. And I really enjoy developing and creating characters but I wasn't able to I suppose I wasn't able to create Holly from scratch. You know I when I was 21 years old I created her as the writer I was then. And the challenge for me now was how do I help her evolve. How do I tell a story as the writer I am now because I have changed a lot over 15 years. And that was really challenging but enjoyable. I also had to decide which characters do I keep you know who.

She has a very large family but I'm also introducing so many new people with this PS, I Love You Club. Who do I keep and who do I lose and whose story is worth continuing. Who is interesting enough to me to wonder where are they nine seven years later. And so I really enjoyed kind of picking those people from PS, I Love You. I also have to remember I was not writing the sequel to the movie. I was writing the sequel to my own book. And so funnily people have been contacting me and social media saying is Holly still making shoes. And I think she never made shoes in the book. That was from the movie. So I also had to remind myself that so I had to reread the book which was kind of a very very unusual uncomfortable thing to do after so much time because I was reading the book I had written when I was 21 years old. So a few times I was a bit like this. But I had to find the place where. Where what gaps have I left in the story that I can now kind of fill in for the sequel and where have I planted a seed in the book that can I can grow in the next in the next sequel. So it was kind of like it was like research. I was doing research into my own novel which was very unusual to me. But I am happy to say that I. Absolutely loved every second of writing the book. It immediately brought me back to who I was where I was. When I wrote my debut novel which is a very emotional experience. So there was a lot of a lot of tears at my desk. Because it just brought me back emotionally straight away to that moment in my life. And I'm so proud of the book I've written. So I hope the people. I really hope that people love it half as much as I do because I'd be happy with that.
Yeah it's exciting.

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Postscript is released in the UK and Ireland on Thursday 19th September 2019. Order your copy today!