Philippa East Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Philippa East
Philippa East grew up in Scotland before moving to Oxford and later to London. She works a therapist and a Clinical Psychologist after studying philosophy and psychology at university. She lives with her cat and her husband and in Lincolnshire.

Her prize-winning short fiction has been published in different literary journals like The Lampeter Review, Brittle Star, For Books’ Sake, and Fictive Dream. She has had some successes in competitions like Retreat West and The Fiction Desk.

Philippa did not originally set out to be a writer. Sure, as a kid, she wrote stories and enjoyed English class at school. However, after school, she went to university, and then trained as a clinical psychologist, before going to work full time in the NHS. After twelve years in the NHS, she established her own psychology practice. It is this background in psychology and philosophy that serves as inspiration for quite a few of her stories.

When she was thirty, she began dabbling in writing fiction once more, mostly short stories.

She finds that when it comes to writing novels, just having a single idea isn’t enough to write a whole entire book off of. Whatever she starts with, there is still a ton of things to work out.

“Little White Lies” started when Philippa caught a piece on the news about a family whose daughter returned after having been missing for a few weeks. There were many question marks over what happened during this time and even if she had been abducted at all. She wondered to herself what those people were feeling at that time and if they trusted each other at all.

All of a sudden her mind was filled with one idea for a book. She knew from the start that she wanted to pen a novel about a missing kid, and that there was a solid precedent of popular novels exploring this topic. She was more fascinated about what could happen after a child went back home.

She was stumped though how to actually write it. What helped her was the realization that while she hadn’t been involved in a case like Abigail’s, she might have some experience that could help her out. In her old job in the NHS, she specialized in adult survivors of childhood trauma. The more she explored Abigail and her family’s story, the more she found the themes showing up in this family’s narratives echoed so many of those she encountered in the cases she worked with.

The other inspiration came to her as a visual of a parent getting separated from their kid on a Tube train, while the doors shut accidentally between them. Philippa had seen something similar on a bus in London and the image stuck with her and rather vividly. These ideas both had themes (trust, family, and trauma) that resonated deeply inside of Philippa, including in her work as a clinical psychologist.

The two ideas mooched separately in her head for a good long while. She poked regularly at them both. However, it was only when the two bumped into one another that the novel was finally conceived.

For two years, she wrote draft after draft of her novel. Around the twelfth draft, she started to submit. The agent she was hoping for offered a phone call in order to discuss ideas for revising and resubmitting. One idea was for a huge twist, while the other was to switch the book around to a dual POV (which would be a massive undertaking). Philippa knew that she was right and agreed.

While visiting family in Scotland, after getting nowhere trying to come up with the big idea she was looking for, she had a revelation about an idea inherent in the book from all those multiple drafts. She told her agent, who loved the idea, and quickly offered up representation.

After writing the novel, she wonders if she would have had the confidence to write this novel if she did not have a background in psychology. She feels it is probably for the best that she didn’t set out to be a writer. Because the novel owes a lot to the time she worked as a psychologist and therapist. It is quite possible that the novel would never have been written had she not set out to be a psychologist first.

She finds that being a writer and a psychologist have a lot in common. Both are about narratives and words; which are truly the tools of their trade. In the therapy process and writing fiction, there is the sharing and absorption of stories to make sense of the world, and attempt to comprehend our own complicated human natures. The characters in stories and the clients in her practice will go on profound journeys of change in their own ways.

Now, Philippa divides her time between writing and clinical work, and shares her love of writing with the members of the Lincolnshire-based writers’ group called The Lindum Scribes.

Philippa also enjoys taking long country walks and reading. She also performs in The Miracle Cure, a folk duo.

Philippa’s debut novel, called “Little White Lies”, was released in the year 2020 and published by HQ, an imprint of HarperCollins. The novel is from the mystery and thriller genres.

“Little White Lies” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2020. She just looked away for one second.

One second is all it took for Anne White to lose sight of her young daughter. Seven years later and Abigail is found. While Anne struggles to connect with her now teenaged daughter, she starts to wonder just how much Abigail, now fifteen years old, remembers about the day she disappeared.

Readers were hooked right from the start, with the author grabbing their attention early on and getting pulled into the story. This is an emotionally charged novel with enough tension to get you biting your nails during some sections. Fans wanted to know so badly what would happen next, they stayed up into the wee hours, glued to each page. This is a magnificent debut with believable characters and a terrifying storyline. Readers cannot wait to check out what Philippa writes next.