Anne Youngson Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Anne Youngson
Author Anne Youngson had a successful and long career in the motor industry after she finished an English degree from Birmingham. She worked as Chief Engineer, Defender replacement and lastly, MD of the Special Vehicle Operations for Land Rover.

Since she took early retirement, she worked as an Enterprise Advisor to schools, before joining a tiny consultancy team, where she worked on major skills development programs for a wide range of clients.

Anne has also supported several charities in governance roles, which includes Chair of the Writers in Prison Network, which provided writers with residences while in prisons.

“Meet Me At the Museum” was nominated for a Costa Book Awards Best First Novel in 2018.

Anne lives in Oxfordshire and is married with two kids and three grandkids.

She has always seen herself as a writer, even when working as an engineer. She loved the challenges that came with the job and the day-to-day business of working with the other people, however she was always thinking about stories, and how she’d described what was going on all around her, as if she was actually writing it down.

Whenever she found the time and a story she believed she could use, she would write it down, but never thought this was something she was able to do and make a living at. It wasn’t until Anne began taking classes and met some other writers and lastly, after retiring from her full time job, that she realized that a novel was exactly something she could aspire to write.

When Anne was writing “Meet Me At the Museum”, she enjoyed living with her characters the entire time she was writing them, and then missed them once she had finished. But her hope is that she left them in a much better place than they were in at the start.

She had spent many holidays on canal boats, like the one she described in “The Narrowboat Summer”. The first of these holidays was when she was a schoolgirl, and has been again, many times since, with family and friends, and every single time it has been magical, no matter what the weather.

However the main source of inspiration and information was her sister, who set off to live on one for many years after she and her husband and retired. They cruised around the entire canal network and just went back to living on land when their health wasn’t good enough to continue on their boat. It was tough, sometimes, however, overall it was a peaceful and gentle way to live. Her sister was Anne’s consultant for the book.

“The Narrowboat Summer” came about because Anne had wanted to write about a journey. She’s always writing about moments of change, and how choices are made about what path you take in the future. Anne imagined a meeting taking place on a towpath, and that seemed to her to be a good place to start for the journey her characters were going to take.

The idea for the book had been with her for a number of years, and she had even written some scenes sometime before starting to work on it in earnest. From then on, however, it took her about eighteen months. There was a ton of reading about canal history, however the toughest part of her research was actually mapping out this journey. Working out how long it was going to take to travel between these two points, which depends on the number of locks and the number of miles, as well as the route they’d take. Anne’s got a shelf filled with guides and maps which she hopes she’ll use for future canal trips.

“Meet Me At the Museum” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2018. When a curator of a Danish museum responds to a letter about ancient exhibits, he never expects a reply. But when Tina Hopgood first wrote it out, neither did she.

Professor Anders Larsen, who is an urbane man of facts, lost his wife, along with any dreams and hopes for the future. He doesn’t know that a letter from somebody called Mrs. Tina Hopgood about the world famous antiquity in his museum is going to alter the course of his life.

Separated by oceans, their unexpected correspondence begins to flourish while discovering some shared passions. For nature and history, useless objects that their loved ones leave behind, for the modern and ancient world, what gets lost to time, and what is gained and what’s stayed the same.

Through some intimate stories of discovery, joy, and anguish, each one bares their soul to the other. However when Tina’s letters stop all of a sudden, Anders becomes thrown into despair. Could this unlikely friendship ever survive?

Readers found themselves savoring the novel and the story and did their best not to rush through because it is such a wonderful and poignant tale. Anne’s writing is lyrical and thoughtful, and her reflections on life and the passage of time are quite compelling.

“Three Women and a Boat” is the second stand alone novel and was released in the year 2020. A charming novel about one dog, second chances, three women, and the narrowboat which brings them all together.

Sally, who waved goodbye to an indifferent husband and two grown kids. Eve, who left a thirty year career so she could be a free spirit. And Anastasia, who is a defiantly independent narrowboat dweller who suddenly becomes landlocked and vulnerable.

Before any of them know quite what they have done, Eve and Sally agree to drive the narrowboat on a journey through the canals of England, while she awaits a life saving operation. While gliding gently, and not so very gently, through the countryside, and the challenges and eccentricities of narrowboat life pull them all inexorably together in an unforgettable and tender story that follows. By the end of summer, all three of the women have to decide whether to return to the lives that they left behind or forge a new path forward.

This is a novel about second chances, that celebrates the power of new experience and friendship to change somebody’s life, at any age.

One Response to “Anne Youngson”

1. Mireille Gateau-Jansson: 9 months ago

   just picked the book, Meet me at the museum, off a shelf at the library – new writer for me – a really good read and I wonder what will happen at the end. I noted that at first it was Dear professor, then dear MR, then dear Anders then MY dear Anders! I am looking forward to the next letters!
   I will read more of AY´s books

   Reply