Having really enjoyed other novels by Graham Norton, I was looking forward to reading his latest, Forever Home. It follows teacher Carol who, after getting divorced, moves in with a much older man, Declan. This sets the locals gossiping until Declan becomes too ill to live at home, and is moved into a care home. Declan's children from his first marriage force Carol to leave the family home... Although I feel like this novel is quite a different kind of story from Graham Norton's other novels (not sure why exactly - perhaps just because we're focusing on a woman as the main character this time?), it still heavily focuses on family and community. The characters are also just as brilliant as they have been in his other novels, and feel very convincing. I can imagine knowing these people. They're written with such charm (though some of them are definitely NOT charming!) and honesty, and I would have happily read a l A winning mix of family drama and comedy crime caper ... you may well find yourself reading it in one sitting.' HEAT From there, we look at the relationships between women - the mothers, daughters, friends, and step-children in the stories, leading towards a surprising conclusion.

Forever Home: GRAHAM NORTON: The KING of dark comedy

A second chance at love brings her unexpected connection and belonging. But her relationship with Declan sparks local speculation: What does a woman like her see in a man like him? What happened to his wife who abandoned them all those years ago? But the gossip only serves to bring the couple closer.

Coronet said: “In his tense and darkly comic new novel Norton casts a light on the relationship between mothers and daughters, and truth and self-preservation with unnerving effect.” NORTON: ...Is taken from my mother, where - you know, silence in the car to me is you're driving along silently. For my mother, it is a constant monologue... An unexpected twist, about halfway, kept me glued to the story and attempting to figure out who it was and how everyone involved was going to fix the mess they found themselves in. It was quite the dilemma and definitely kept me guessing.

Forever Home by Graham Norton: the intricacies of family life Forever Home by Graham Norton: the intricacies of family life

SHAPIRO: Your life is much more cosmopolitan than your fiction. Your novels tend to focus on small-town experiences. And so as you fly from London to New York to Los Angeles, do you ever long for the kind of parochial life that you write about - minus the murder? NORTON: Well, I began the story with Carol, who is the central character. And she's a woman in her middle age, and she's in her kind of second relationship. And when people are older and in relationships, you always imagine they're very stable and, you know, people are settled. But, of course, that's not the world we live in now. People are often in a second, third, fourth relationship. And, you know, if it's a new relationship, you have no claim on property, on homes. There's none of that. And that's what happens to Carol with her older, I suppose, boyfriend - you'd call him partner. And she was the way in. And it was a very kind of dark, bleak story. And then Carol's mother entered the scene, Moira, and... I really enjoy the writing of Graham Norton whether is be his biographies or perhaps more surprising his novels. The stories are well written, full of interesting characters and plenty of emotions. ‘Forever Home’ is another excellent read and I found it so difficult not to read from start to finish in one sitting. NORTON: Well, now, I don't know about you - I'm in awe of young people who write novels because - I don't know - when I was in my kind of late teens, early 20s, 30s, I was out. You know, I didn't have time to sit... But Moira comes up with a brilliant idea! She and Dave will secretly put a bid on the house and buy it! Carol is horrified but can't stop the train which Moira seems to be on from going off the rails!SHAPIRO: It's not disclosures about the inner life. It is just a sort of, like, filling the air with sounds. Forever Home is a story of a family. A dysfunctional normal family. One that each one of us can relate to. It begins in classic Graham Norton style with beautiful writing around complex emotions.