Writing
All her life, Caroline has been writing stories, but it was only when she returned to serious music-making that she found a subject about which she was truly passionate.
She successfully completed the selective Faber Academy course, also the Jericho Self-Editing course, and subsequently worked with mentors Shelley Weiner and Emma Darwin to write two music-themed novels.
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. Available from Amazon. Solo: Amazon.co.uk: Caroline Swinburne: 9781835742877: Books
“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
Khrushchev’s Piano
1960. British pianist Evie Mason became an international sensation when she won a piano competition in Cold War Moscow and was awarded a valuable Steinway by the Soviet Premier. Soon afterwards, her stellar career was tragically cut short when an accident left her unable to play.
Decades later, Evie is frail and living in a failing care home, still struggling to come to terms with her past. When her son dies suddenly, her granddaughter Anna is forced to step in and care for her fragile family.
A former child-prodigy pianist herself, Anna abandoned her musical ambitions for a safe, predictable career in law. But now, as she grapples with grief and responsibility, she finds herself being drawn back into the world she once loved.
As time runs out, Evie is determined that Anna will not make the same mistakes.
Khrushchev’s Piano is inspired by the real-life inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition of 1958, reimagining the moment when music and politics collided on the global stage.Khrushchev’s Piano has been longlisted for the Watson, Little prize and shortlisted for the Jericho FOW Pitch Perfect competition.
Pre-order Khrushchev’s PIano : Khrushchev’s Piano : Swinburne, Caroline: Amazon.co.uk: Books
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