Julia Ibbotson’s new novel Drumbeats will be published by NGP and available this summer, and is the first in a trilogy following Jess through her life. Drumbeats, set in the 1960s, kicks off the trilogy and sees Jess as an 18 year old student fleeing her stifling home background to go to West Africa as a volunteer teacher and nurse. She faces the dangers of civil war and unexpected romance, joys and tragedies, in a turbulent war-torn country which is ruled by a controversial dictatorship.

She has also completing a book for children called S.C.A.R.S, which is a time-shift fantasy novel moving between the parallel universes of the current day and medieval England, and which will be out in the USA later this summer/autumn.

Julia has published in the UK, USA and Australia both as an academic and a novelist. Her most recent works are a memoir (The Old Rectory: Escape to a Country Kitchen) which interweaves the story of the renovation of a Victorian rectory in the English countryside with recipes to feed the soul, and a research text (Talking the Walk) which is about gendered talk in the workplace.

You can catch Julia in a live on US radio on Saturday 28th June at 1.00 UK time. The show is called Cultural Cocktails with Janice Ross, where she will be talking to Janice about her new novel Drumbeats which is coming out this summer. The link to the live show (and it will remain available online afterwards too) is : www.blogtalkradio.com/culturalcocktails

Julia is also taking Drumbeats on a global blog book tour with Fiction Addiction in September. View more about the authors work on here website http://www.juliaibbotsonauthor.com/, Twitter  and Facebook page Author.