In Conversation with Fran Hill

Join us at Alcester Library with local author Fran Hill, who will be talking about her books Cuckoo In the Nest and Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean? as well as her latest book, Home Bird (published March 2025). This event is part of Alcester Library's regular Coffee Mornings (find out more about them here). This is a drop in event, there is no need to book a ticket.

Home Bird

1979. Jackie Chadwick is 17 and living in a supported bedsit. She's still close to her foster parents and friends with (aka unofficial minder for) Amanda, their irresponsible daughter, but she's enjoying her independence - until a fire leaves her temporarily homeless. Jackie's dad, widower and recovering alcoholic Dave, has just been released from prison and sees this as his chance to make amends. He offers her his spare room - but can their relationship survive him going back on the booze and the arrival of his gin-loving lady friend and her errant son? As things go from bad to worse, Jackie has to decide how many chances you give someone who keeps letting you down.

Bittersweet and funny, Home Bird draws on Fran Hill's own experiences as a teenager in foster care.

Cuckoo In the Nest

It’s the heatwave summer of 1976 and 14-year-old would-be poet Jackie Chadwick is newly fostered by the Walls. She desperately needs stability, but their insecure, jealous teenage daughter isn't happy about the cuckoo in the nest and sets about ousting her.

When her attempts to do so lead to near-tragedy – and the Walls’ veneer of middle-class respectability begins to crumble – everyone in the household is forced to reassess what really matters.

Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean?

A funny, life-affirming memoir, in diary form. Set in the manic world of a busy teacher, and based on real experiences, Fran Hill's account of one typical year shows it's not just the pupils who misbehave. English teacher 'Miss' starts the Autumn term beleaguered by self-doubts. She's mid-menopause, insomniac, and Mirror and Bathroom Scales are blisteringly unsympathetic. Her pupils make her laugh, weep, fume and despair, often in the same lesson. Her unremitting workload blights family time and she feels guilty for missing church events to catch up on marking. After all, God-lady is watching. Meanwhile, the new Head of Department seems unreachable, an Ofsted inspection looms, her sixth formers (against school policy) insist on sitting in rows, and there's a school magazine to produce ... When childhood secrets demand attention Miss doesn't want to give them, life gets complicated.

About the author

Fran Hill is a Leamington-based author and retired English teacher. Her funny teacher-memoir 'Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean?' was published by SPCK in 2020. Her first novel, 'Cuckoo in the Nest' is inspired by her own experiences in foster care in the 1970s. It came out with Legend Press in April 2023 and Fran was runner-up for the prestigious Paul Torday Memorial Prize 2024. A follow-up to 'Cuckoo' will be released in early 2025.

Refreshments provided. There will be copies of Fran Hill's books for sale at the event.

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