Festival Event: Ellie Barker - What Really Happened to Me

Grace Leven has the job, the title, and the polished public image to match. But behind the magazine covers and boardroom doors, her world is quietly falling apart. Her marriage is over. Her best friend has vanished. And one damning piece of footage could unravel the career shes spent decades building.So, she runs - no plan, no suitcase, just instinct - and finds herself somewhere no one knows her name. She tells herself its temporary. Just time to breathe. But the stillness leaves room for everything shes tried to outrun: the panic, the guilt, and the ache of a life that just doesnt fit.And then theres Harveythe quiet, steady presence who sees through it all and offers her something she didnt expect: a whole new way to live her life, and a reason to stay. Will facing the truth cost her everything, or finally set her free?Ellie Barker is an award-winning television journalist who has worked in the industry for thirty years. A well-known face on ITV West Country, where she has been reporting and presenting for twenty years. Finding, and telling, stories about the extraordinary in the ordinary is one of Ellies passions, and it is this that inspired her to start writing novels. Themes of mid-life love, hope, rejection, second chances and the power of
community appear throughout her books and she is a big believer in following your instinct with anything possible, as long as you have loving people by your side. Ellie is also the host of the Next Chapter podcast which featuresstories of inspiration from people who have taken the leap and changed their lives for the better.