How to Fall in Love
Page 29
‘Thank you, Aidan. I’ll be there.’
Before he hung up he added, ‘Oh, and bring that man from the bridge too, if you want. If, you know, he’s in a good place at the moment.’
Yes, in this moment he was. Life is a series of moments and moments are always changing, just like thoughts, negative and positive. And though it may be human nature to dwell, like many natural things it’s senseless, senseless to allow a single thought to inhabit a mind because thoughts are like guests or fair-weather friends. As soon as they arrive, they can leave, and even the ones that take a long time to emerge fully can disappear in an instant. Moments are precious; sometimes they linger and other times they’re fleeting, and yet so much could be done in them; you could change a mind, you could save a life and you could even fall in love.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my editor Lynne Drew. How to Fall in Love is our tenth novel together: I can’t quite believe it and I owe so much of my books’ successes to you. Thank you for your understanding, patience, support, guidance and genuine excitement about what we’re doing and what’s to come. I appreciate the freedom given to me to create, and the brainstorming huddle when I need it too. Here’s to another ten books! Thank you Thalia Suzuma for such calm and clever insight and for helping me shape the stories. I know, I know, I rush to the ending, always have and always will …
Thank you Louise Swannell, Martha Ashby, Elizabeth Dawson, Lucy Upton and Moira Reilly who I have almost daily dealings with, who are nothing less than amazing and make the not-writing-part-of-the-job so much easier and enjoyable.
I’d also like to say a special thank you to Victoria Barnsley, a woman with vision, who will be greatly missed at HarperCollins. Thank you for your wisdom, for your love of books, for your energy in keeping things different and fresh and for your support and belief in me. I wish you the best in the future.
Thank you family and friends for your support and for pretending to be interested when I excitedly announce that I have just thought of a new idea, and for listening to the new ideas, and for never asking what happened to the ideas that aren’t realised in books, television or in films, but instead in my head and in notebooks which is equally as enjoyable for me. Thank you for knowing that all that stuff is important to me and for quickly forgetting it and then moving on to talk about proper life things. Thank you all for understanding me. Or pretending to.
Enormous thanks to Marianne Gunn O’Connor who bears the brunt of my constant ideas, emails, phone calls, stories, my ‘what ifs’ and my ‘imagine ifs’ and who helps turns my ideas into reality. Some people want things to happen, some people wish for things to happen, some people make things happen. You are one of those people who make it happen. Here’s to ten more …
Thank you Vicki Satlow for the creative support, for always pushing the boundaries and helping me reach out to more readers across the world. Thanks to Pat Lynch, Mary Lavan and Anita Kissane. Thanks to Liam Murphy for holding parts of my brain together which don’t usually go together.
With the subject matter being what it is, even more pressure was on to get it right and so I thank Allison Keating, at bWell Clinic, for your time and feedback on Christine and Adam’s story which ultimately forced me to remould it to become a better story. Thanks to Maureen Black and Co. Solicitors for your help on the legal stuff of which I clearly don’t have the brain for. To Fr. Michael McCullagh for the Rite of Commital. I took the information given from everybody who was so kind to advise me and then made it my own so if there are any mistakes in this novel, then they are entirely mine. I drew from How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me: One Person’s Guide to Suicide Prevention by Susan Rose Blauner in order to understand my characters’ journeys.
Thank you David, Robin and Sonny, my crazy little family who are my escapes from my escape world …
About the Author
Cecelia Ahern is an international bestseller. She was catapulted into the spotlight with her hit debut novel, P.S. I Love You, which was adapted into a major movie.
Her subsequent novels have captured the hearts of readers in 46 countries – her themes strike a chord with people in every continent, with over 15 million copies of her books sold.
As well as writing novels, Cecelia has also created several TV series including the hit comedy, Samantha Who?, in the USA. The movie of her second novel, Love, Rosie (published as Where Rainbows End) is due to be released worldwide in 2014, staring Lily Collins and Sam Claflin.
For more information on Cecelia, her writing, books and events, follow her on Twitter @Cecelia_Ahern, join her on Facebook.com/CeceliaAhernofficial and visit her website www.cecelia-ahern.com.
Also by the Author
P.S. I Love You
Where Rainbows End
If You Could See Me Now
A Place Called Here
Thanks for the Memories
The Gift
The Book of Tomorrow
The Time of My Life
One Hundred Names
Short Stories
The Girl in the Mirror
Kitty Logan has lost her way …
As a journalist, she’s spent the past few years chasing the big scoops – no matter the consequences. When she makes a terrible mistake, she finds herself mired in scandal, her career implodes and even her personal relationships are tested to the limits.
At a loss, Kitty finds distraction in a list of one hundred names her late mentor and boss has left her. Kitty’s been given one final chance, the most important assignment of her life – to write the story behind the one hundred names as a tribute piece to Constance. As she tracks down the people on the list and tries to work out what connects them, Kitty meets some extraordinary people.
Can these strangers’ stories help her finally understand her own?
Click here to buy now 9780007510917
If you adored HOW TO FALL IN LOVE, why not try two of Cecelia’s most romantic novels in a special ebook collection, P.S. I LOVE YOU and WHERE RAINBOWS END
Click here to buy now 9780007518470
If you adored the film, P.S. I Love You, starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler, look out for the new adaptation of Where Rainbows End, released as Love, Rosie.
Starring Lily Collins (The Mortal Instruments, Mirror Mirror, The Blind Side) and Sam Claflin (Pirates of the Caribbean, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), Love, Rosie is a story of true love, friendship and luck – and where fate can lead you.
Released in 2014.
Copyright
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2013
Copyright © Cecelia Ahern 2013
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2013
Cecelia Ahern asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007350490
Ebook Edition © November 2013 ISBN: 9780007483907
Version: 2013-10-09
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