That Time Everything Was On Fire by Kerry Downes

A warm, funny, painfully relatable debut novel about friendship, coming of age in your thirties and finding your purpose. For fans of Anna Hope, Nina Stibbe and Holly Bourne.

Sam and Daisy have been best friends since university. Back then Daisy was a wild, Fleetwood Mac-obsessed girl descended from the Yorkshire Moors, while Sam’s youth was misspent traipsing around Liverpool on shopping trips and nights out.

But as they lean against each other on a wooden bench in the tired garden of their beloved local pub, gazing out at Sam’s wedding, they have no idea that their paths are about to truly diverge for the first time.

As Sam’s desire to become a mother consumes her, and Daisy’s inability to resist temptation haunts her, these best of friends will lose sight of themselves – and each other. With each misstep and unintentional betrayal the gulf widens. But can they build a bridge, or will they let it burn?

22 May 2025 | HB | 9780008665746 | £16.99


If you’re an independent bookseller in the UK or Ireland and you’d like an advance reading copy of That Time Everything Was On Fire please send your request, along with your name and bookshop address, to the IndieThinking team on independentthinking@harpercollins.co.uk

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