Book Club Meets: First loves and sliding doors, with Clare Leslie Hall

Happy Place

Fearne Cotton

Society & Culture, Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Relationships, Personal Journals

4.6 • 15.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you had a second chance at your first big love, would you take it? What about if you were already married to a very different kind of person? This is the dilemma Beth is faced with in Broken Country, the Happy Place Book Club novel for March.

In this chat Fearne and author Clare Leslie Hall talk about why first love can be so intoxicating, and why it’s only human to feel the pull between very different lifestyles, knowing there are multiple ways you could be happy...

Clare explains that Broken Country used to be a very different book, and she almost abandoned it entirely, so what can we learn about being patient with our creative blocks?

Plus, if you ever fancy going to Dorset – where the book is set - Fearne and Clare go off on a tangent about all the best places to visit...

Thank you to John Murray Press for the use of Broken Country audiobook, narrated by Hattie Morahan.

If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like:

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Gabriel Wolf is back living in Meadowlands.
0:04.0	Frank says,
0:05.0	Welcome to the Happy Place Book Club with me, Fern Cotton.
0:08.8	Divorce now?
0:10.2	Just him and his boy rattling around in that huge place.
0:13.2	Today, Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall.
0:16.7	He gets up from his side of the table and walks round to mine,
0:20.2	takes my face in his hands,
0:22.2	kisses me.
0:23.4	We won't let that pillow cause us any grief.
0:26.1	We'll have nothing to do with him.
0:28.4	Who told you?
0:29.9	It was the talk of the pub last night.
0:32.3	Took two huge great lorries to bring all their stuff from London, apparently.
0:37.2	Gabriel hated it here.
0:39.1	Why would he come back?
0:41.2	His name feels strange on my tongue, the first time I've spoken it aloud in years.
0:47.6	There's no one else to look after the place.
0:50.1	His father long gone.
0:51.6	His mother at the other side of the world.
0:53.9	Up to her neck and dingo shit
0:55.5	with any luck. Frank always manages to make me laugh.
	...

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