#Interview with author Jenny Colgan of 500 Miles from You

Lexi: We’re all about finding comfort around here. And what brings more comfort than curling up on the couch to watch a romcom? Well that’s easy….curling up on the couch to read a romcom! So it’s perfect that we welcome, Jenny Colgan!!

Hello! It’s lovely to “be here” ☺☺☺


Lexi: We know 500 MILES FROM YOU was written well before the pandemic, but it’s quite serendipitous that it’s release is right now, when we all so desperately need an escape. And an escape is what your main character, Lissie, needs. She suffers from PTSD resulting from experiences at her nursing job and as a reprieve, she’s sent to a quaint, Scottish Highlands town to fill in for their paramedic who’s being sent to London. What are you doing to ‘escape’ from reality right now/what far-off locations would you like to escape to?

Well I am very lucky as we live in the country with a huge garden and a wood next door so I feel like it’s a big of an escape. (if you want a sticky beak at where we live, I always post lots on Instagram at @jennycolganbooks)

Also for Scotland the spring has been unbelievably sunny, the weather’s just been amazing so we’ve been outside a lot. I’m obviously looking forward to seeing friends and family but honestly I can’t complain. To escape I’m playing a lot of piano, reading a lot, usual stuff. The children talk to their friends on Skype but the rest of the time they’ve been amazing, doing their school work and pottering about.

We’ve found ourselves really concentrating on the dogs, it’s odd. I suppose because their world has changed so much for the better- we’re home all the time! There’s always someone to play with in the garden! They never need to wear their leads and go into the city!

We had to up their feed, they were getting too skinny with the perpetual exercise.


Lexi: The blurb for 500 MILES FROM YOU reads right from a Hollywood movie. And *dreamy sigh* half of it takes place in the Scottish Highlands. This is my favorite romcom trope: city meets small-town! Were you inspired by any particular romcoms when you dreamt up 500 MILES?

Well I loved Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, I just can’t not watch them all the way to the end if they’re on tv, so it was a bit of that kind of energy. Especially these days when everyone is on social media all the time. Well loads of people aren’t- my husband doesn’t have a social media account, so I thought that was fun too. Really meeting someone without knowing what they look like.

Ha, and although it’s not a bit like  500 Miles, I got just as obsessed with Love is Blind as everyone else!!!


Lexi: After reading this blurb, and knowing I have to wait until June 9th to pick up a copy, I’m inspired to watch You’ve Got Mail. I’m a sucker for a couple writing to each other, not really knowing who the other person is, but getting to know one another’s true fears and loves without all the other stuff getting in the way; which is exactly how Lissie and Cormack communicate…from 500 miles away. Can you tell us Lissie’s favorite part about writing to Cormack?

Well, they’re health care professionals who swap jobs so they have to discuss their patients on a confidential email …and then it gradually becomes not just professional chit chat.

My favourite part  in the notes they exchanges is that I’m a failed cartoonist, I love to draw but I’m not very good. So I gave that to Cormac, and he draws in the book. He’s not meant to be any good either but if you’re a friend of mine you’ll get scribbles from me all the time. It’s a real kick to see them in print!


Lexi: We’d love to have a penpal like Cormack, he’s honestly kind and melts our heart! Thank you so much for stopping by today to give us a little escape and Cheers to your release of 500 MILES FROM YOU!! We’re incredibly excited for this book!

Thank you!

500 Miles from You
(Scottish Bookshop #3)
by Jenny Colgan
Paperback, 432 pages
Published June 9th 2020 by William Morrow Paperbacks
ISBN0062911244

New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan returns to the beloved Scottish Highland town of Kirrinfief, which readers first met in The Bookshop on the Shore, and adds a dash of London’s bustling urban landscape. 

Lissie, is a nurse in a gritty, hectic London neighborhood. Always terribly competent and good at keeping it all together, she’s been suffering quietly with PTSD after helping to save the victim of a shocking crime. Her supervisor quietly arranges for Lissie to spend a few months doing a much less demanding job in the little town of Kirrinfeif in Scottish Highlands, hoping that the change of scenery will help her heal. Lissie will be swapping places with Cormack, an Army veteran who’s Kirrinfeif’s easygoing nurse/paramedic/all-purpose medical man. Lissie’s never experienced small-town life, and Cormack’s never spent more than a day in a big city, but it seems like a swap that would do them both some good.

In London, the gentle Cormack is a fish out of the water; in Kirrinfief, the dynamic Lissie finds it hard to adjust to the quiet. But these two strangers are now in constant contact, taking over each other’s patients, endlessly emailing about anything and everything. Lissie and Cormack discover a new depth of feeling…for their profession and for each other.

But what will happen when Lissie and Cormack finally meet…?

AMAZON | B&N 

Scottish Bookshop Series

About the Author:

Jenny Colgan is the author of numerous bestselling novels, including 'The Little Shop of Happy Ever After' and 'Summer at the Little Beach Street Bakery', which are also published by Sphere.' Meet Me at the Cupcake Café' won the 2012 Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance and was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, as was 'Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams', which won the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2013.

For more about Jenny, visit her website and her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter.

Jenny Colgan has also been published under the name Jenny T. Colgan.  http://www.jennycolgan.com