Solo
You’ve heard of “girl meets boy”? This isn’t that. It’s “girl meets horn”.
Cate was a top musician with a leading orchestra – until a disastrous solo humiliated her on the world stage. Traumatised, she abandons her instrument, retrains as a language teacher, reinvents herself online, and travels the world.
Ten years later, after her mother’s death, Cate returns to her bleak Midlands hometown where she is drawn in to mentoring Sarah, a talented teenage horn player with no professional training. Sarah dreams of making music her career, but her family can’t afford a decent instrument, or lessons. She learns by ear, her talent undeniable but her future uncertain.
Cate is the only one who can help.
When the local amateur orchestra announces a concert featuring the piece that once destroyed Cate’s career, Sarah’s big break is at stake. For Cate, helping her protégé succeed could mean redemption – if she can finally face her own past.
Solo was shortlisted for the Jericho Friday Night Live prize and was published by The Book Guild on 28th September 2025.
“A fascinating, sensitive exposé of the inside world of classical orchestras and their players. Most professional and amateur musicians will recognise themselves somewhere in this heart-warming story, and the fact that it is a work of fiction does not diminish its communicative power. A delightfully ‘un-putdownable’ novel!”
– Tony Halstead, conductor, harpsichordist and former horn player