Book review: Welcome to my World by Miranda Dickinson

Miranda Dickinson’s deliciously entertaining novel is brimming with the ‘feet up and enjoy’ factor as the season of goodwill rapidly approaches.

Welcome to my World is pure escapism, a journey into the cosy community of Stone Yardley where a young woman is desperate to dump her routine life and make her dreams come true.

It might sound like the plot of a regulation romance but Dickinson embroiders her story with an endearing collection of quirky characters who beckon you into their lives and lend an air of seductive homeliness to the drama.

Throw in some sparkling dialogue and a sprinkling of humour and the scene is set.

At the centre of the action is a devastated Harriet (Harri) Langton whom we first meet in the ladies’ loo at Stone Yardley Village Hall where life as she knew it is Officially Over.

It ended at 11.37pm precisely and over the course of the book, we are slowly but surely going to discover the details of a catastrophic event that ended in ‘Armageddon’.

Travel agent Harri’s problems started when good friend and surrogate mother Viv Brannan persuaded her to help find the perfect girlfriend for her only son Alex.

Alex is a good-looking and likeable guy, he’s travelled the world for 10 years and is Harri’s ‘best male friend.’ His weak spot is women or, more precisely, he needs to find the right sort of woman, one who has a few brain cells.

Against her better judgment, Harri agrees to send off Alex’s name to a magazine which is looking to ‘recycle’ men.

Alex will be introduced to a whole new audience of women who will be whittled down to a shortlist and then contacted to arrange a date.

Harri, meanwhile, is very happy with long-term boyfriend Rob - well, sort of.

She longs to travel the world but Rob doesn’t like flying, she wants to get married but Rob never proposes, she yearns to spend more time with Rob but he’s always away working.

Most of all, Harri would love to travel to the romantic city of Venice where she would alight from a water taxi into the buzzing quayside throng, dine in elegant piazzas, visit the famous maskmakers’ shops, tour the historic churches.

Only trouble is, Venice is somewhere you should be taken to, preferably by someone who really, really loves you.

Dickinson’s intimate and chatty style of writing draws you into her magical story like a friend who can’t wait to tell you her news.

So whatever you do, don’t miss out on the fun this Christmas!

(Avon, paperback, £6.99)