I like people to come in and be relaxed and feel looked after.” “Entertaining a huge number of people is my favourite thing to do. Most of the time, I like to cook and garden,” says Hall. “It’s a nice, big, calm space: perfect to come home to after a long day and to shut the door on the chaos of London. Her home is a semi-detached Victorian house in Islington that she shares with her partner Andrew Thornton, miniature poodle Max, cat Albie and tortoise – yes, a tortoise – Winston. In her studio above the shop, the 35-year-old continues to produce Bridie Hall at Home designs, including obelisks and decorative geometric shapes. Nowadays, the shop is named Pentreath & Hall and Hall oversees the day-to-day running of stock, staff and exhibitions.

In 2008, Hall formalised her homewares bent by joining architect and urban designer (and altogether dapper-sounding) Ben Penreath in his store, Ben Pentreath Ltd., in Bloomsbury’s Rugby Street. After a couple of years, she went out on her own and focused on homewares, handmaking découpage plates and intaglio boxes at her kitchen table.

Once there, she found an apprenticeship with a mural painter and started painting. After completing a Bachelor of Design at Unitec in Auckland in 2000, she was whisked off to London by a friend who thought her horizons needed broadening in the Big City. Her adult romance novellas, Romancing the Princess, and Hearts Must Be Broken, were published by Inkspell Publishing.Ĭheck out her books and visit her blog for news.Bridie Hall’s life seems just so, well, romantic. Gemma couldn’t handle another broken heart, and Jake isn’t looking for a relationship.īridie Hall is the author of young adult novels Letting go and My Summer Roommate, and the novella On the Slopes. There is no point giving in when Jake will have to leave for France at the end of his vacation. Trying to reform him, he takes him on a two-week working vacation to an old vineyard.Īs Jake helps Gemma get the work done, they struggle to ignore the attraction they feel for each other. When an injury forces him to rest, he becomes a mentor to a troubled teen, Tommy. Jake’s life revolves around his sports career.

It doesn’t help that the usual team of seasonal workers has quit on her and she has no one to help her pick the grapes. But this fall, there’s something in the air that makes her moody and restless. Gemma has managed the family winemaking business ever since her husband had died and left her alone with their daughter. My newest romance is coming out on January 7th! I can’t wait for you to read it as it was my favorite to write.Ĭan the attraction between Gemma and Jake outlast the grape picking season in Gemma’s vineyard?

Letting Go by Bridie Hall