Catherine Alliott Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Catherine Alliott was born and raised in Hertfordshire, England. She graduated from Warwick University and later on moved to London where she worked as a copywriter with an advertising agency. She admits that her writing was not something she had planned and only occurred by chance. She was bored of writing blurb for soap powder and she began writing a novel under her desk to relieve the boredom. She did not have plans for publication at the time, or major plans for her writing. This did not last long and she was given the sack by her boss who thought she was not fully committed to her work. Catherine became even more galvanized and determined to finish her novel. She started working as a freelancer while at the time she was pregnant. When her son was born, she realized that she had so much time while the baby was asleep and she decided to revisit her work. At this time, she was using a computer that she was given by her brother to put the draft together. The Old Girl Network, was Catherine’s first novel and has a huge amount of success and became an instant best seller in the country. It was chosen by WHSmith in 1994 for fresh talent promotion. Catherine Alliot is a best-selling author of fourteen novels which include ‘A Crowded Marriage’, ‘The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton’, ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘Rosie Meadows Regrets’.
Catherine now lives with her husband and their three children. She continues to write and feel thrilled when she sees her books still in shops. As a best-selling author, Catherine writes her books from the comfort of her garden or sofa at her home in a rural spot on the Herts/Bucks border. She shares her home with her family and a total of eighty seven beating hearts a menagerie comprising of dogs, chicken, sheep and horses.

Her first novel, The Old Girl Network is about Poly McLaren who is young, scatty and impossibly romantic girl. She works with an arrogant and demanding boss at work, while her boyfriend does not seem to care much about her. Her boyfriend is gorgeous but does not give her true love nor is he there when she needs him. Left looking for true love, she meets this handsome stranger who is also looking for his missing fiancée. His name is Adam and is American. Adam notices Polly by recognizing her old school scarf. Polly is equally enthralled by Adam and she gives in to his request to help her find her missing fiancée. Over dinner at the Savoy, she agrees and they decide to move on. Her old girl network of St Gertrude’s promise to look after one another but soon everything is a tangle and hopeless. Polly does not have the support of the Old girl network and she is left on her own to deal with things. In her course to look for true love with Adam, everything does not run smooth and she is ruining her life in the process even when she knows, it isn’t truly her deserved love in the first place.

Going Too Far was Catherine’s second novel and was published in 1993 by World Penguin. It is about Polly Penhalligan who is newly married to her husband Nick. They live in a rural manor farmhouse in Cornwall. Since getting married to Nick, Polly Penhalligan is accused of letting herself go. She does nothing much about what she used to do before she was married to Nick. She watches a lot of television while gorging on biscuits until she is fat. She is outraged by suggestions that she has gone all fat and become complacent because she’s got a man. She does not get dressed until lunch time and only waits for pregnancy to strike to start leading an active and fulfilling life.

She decides to do something rash. Realizing all about her idyllic lifestyle and rural life, she invites a TV crew and allows them to use her home as a location for a TV advert. But she made a mistake by not consulting Nick first. Before the cameras and everything else is set and rolling, a complete chaos descends on the farm and her marriage is on the brink. Her marriage turns upside down, and indeed she has gone too far and her complacency is to blame.

Catherine Alliot’s The Real Thing is a 1995 novel published by World Penguin. It happens to almost every girl. They have that one boy they are fond of from their early childhood or teenage experience whom they fell out of love but not quite. The Real Thing is about Tessa Hamilton who is thirty. She is married, has a nice home, a lovely husband and two adorable kids. They’ve been married for seven years of perfect matrimony without any itch. Everything is fine and cool except for her husband’s ogling with the nanny which is nothing of attention. Or keeping up with the Joneses which appears to be his full-time occupation. She is happy and settled now for seven years.

But something is creating a stir at the back of her mind. She can’t help but remember and long to meet him all the time. It is Patrick Cameron, a gorgeous, moody and rebellious boy that she met when she was in her teens. To be precise at seventeen. Patrick has been away for twelve years and now he’s back. She wants to meet him. Her memories together are so real and she remembers well when her vicar father told her that she could not see him. Since then, Patrick left to go to Italy to paint. Tessa starts to question her every choice and decision she’s made since Patrick left. She does not seem to realize her family is at stake here and she might create a big risk. Tessa is more than determined to find out whether she made the right decision during the first round. She is willing to forego what she has become and her family just to find out.

With the above excellent novels, Catherine Alliott has become one of the best female fictional writers of the time. She continues to write more and more novels which she has done now for more than twenty years.