“Kept me enthralled until the end”
“A must read”
“A great read about Route 66”
“Wonderful story of Route 66 and life and love”
“Gripping story”
“Wonderful book”
About Lesley Anne Brown
Lesley Anne Brown was born in Luton and, following a brief spell in Australia as one of the ‘Ten Pound Poms’, she has spent most of her life in the Bedford area.
She attended the Dame Alice Harpur School in Bedford and worked at an international bank in London before joining her husband, Dave, in business. They owned and ran a number of successful convenience stores for more than twenty years before ‘retiring’ to a less frenetic way of life. Lesley spent four years working part-time for the Bedford Library Link service, which she likens to a chocoholic working in a sweet shop. Her already eclectic taste in books exploded, and she was lucky to come across many amazing authors previously unknown to her. However, her almost life-long addiction to all things Agatha Christie remains unabated.
Between 2007 and 2014, Lesley and Dave travelled extensively in the USA, covering 22 states and 32,000 miles in their 1931, hot-rodded, Ford Model ‘A’ Phaeton. The car has a passing resemblance to Bonnie and Clyde’s car – without the guns. Their incredible experiences and meeting so many special people in such a beautiful country provided much inspiration, and together with Lesley’s imagination, the result is this, her first novel.
Author Lesley Anne Brown
Ford Model ‘A” Phaeton
About the novel
Carla has been happily married to Tom for more than 30 years – or so she thought. When he vanishes without a trace, her idyllic world shatters, revealing hidden fractures beneath the surface.
A cryptic letter from a woman called Jane further unravels Carla’s reality, leaving her adrift. She looks to her family and old friend Sally for support, only to find they are too wrapped up in their own lives to deal with her crisis.
With nowhere to turn, Carla takes a leap of faith, booking a flight to Chicago to embark on the dream holiday she’d planned with Tom along America’s legendary Route 66.
As she travels the Mother Road from Illinois to California, Carla forms new friendships, faces old wounds and reconnects with the spirited woman she used to be.
During her exhilarating – occasionally perilous – odyssey, Carla learns that while not everything is as it seems, or is forever lost, it’s never too late to start living life on your own terms.
The inspiration behind Finding Carla
If the old cliché, ‘Everyone has a book inside them’ is actually true, it took decades of procrastination and excuses before mine escaped. In 2018, I even put ‘write a novel’ on my 60 list of tasks I’d set myself for my impending 60th birthday, more in hope than expectation. Finally, I put pen to paper in late 2021 and began creating Finding Carla.
They say write about what you know. Well, I’ve had a varied and interesting life and my sources of inspiration were mind boggling. But top of my list are the numerous incredible adventures I’ve shared with my husband, Dave, whilst travelling around the USA in our eye-catching hot rod, which we purchased in Denver, Colorado, in 2007. Before we brought the car home in 2015, we travelled 32,000 miles through 22 states, where we experienced many memorable road trips and made lots of friends along the way.
I drew on these memories to write a fictional tale about Carla, a prematurely retired 50-something mum and grandmother who jets off to America for the trip of a lifetime along the legendary Route 66, after her husband ups and leaves her out of the blue. All bar one of the characters are fictional, but many of the events happened in real life, with the more outlandish stories actually being true! The book chronicles the background and landscapes of historic Route 66, which runs from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, bringing it to life through Carla’s eyes on a fascinating road trip driving a stunning, classic red Corvette (my dream car!).
More than two years later, I completed this long and rewarding project and proudly held a copy of my first novel in my hand: admiring its distinctive cover, which looked exactly how I had imagined it. I pinch myself daily when I remember I can finally call myself an author!
Buy now!
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Finding Carla Book
BBC Sounds
This is the video version of my audio feature which was recently broadcast on local BBC radio stations – Three Counties, Essex, Northampton, Norfolk and Suffolk as well as BBC Sounds. Many thanks to presenter and BBC Upload frontman Rob Jelly for giving me the opportunity to showcase 'Finding Carla'.
Good Housekeeping
I was ecstatic to see Finding Carla featured in the 2024 issue of Good Housekeeping 100 Best Books for Summer Reading. I’m sharing a page with Book Royalty - Jojo Moyes, Jodi Picoult, Sophie Kinsella and Anita Shreve!
