About this episode

Fearne Cotton discusses the themes of friendship and romance in midlife with author Chloe Ashby, focusing on her book 'Family Friends'.

For 20 years Maggie and Will have spent idyllic summers in the south of France with their friends Lydia and Roland. This year though, tension is brewing and loyalties are being tested. Their young kids are all there too, and they might end up stumbling upon secrets that were being kept from them... August’s Happy Place Book Club read is Family Friends. In this chat with Fearne, author Chloe Ashby explains why she wanted to explore relationship dynamics around the age of 40. Each character has brought a bit of extra baggage to this year’s holiday, so through them Chloe wonders at what point doing one bad thing makes you a bad person. Plus, why was it controversial to include a teenage holiday romance? Thank you to Penguin for the use of the Family Friends audiobook, narrated by Sally Scott. If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like: Book Club Meets: Candice Carty-Williams Book Club Meets: Caro Claire Burke Book Club Meets: Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Fearne Cotton

Guest: Chloe Ashby

Topics covered

• holiday romance
• friendship
• relationship dynamics
• parenting
• secrets

Keywords

• holiday
• romance
• friendship
• 40s
• relationship dynamics
• secrets
• Family Friends

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Penguin

Books & works: Family Friends

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