When Molly Gartland enrolled in a creative writing course at Richmond Adult Community College, she had no idea it would lead to writing a novel.

"I had left my job teaching English as a foreign language and I wasn't sure what I was going to do next. I was at a bit of a loose end so I took the class purely for fun and a distraction," Molly, from Teddington, recalled.

She became friendly with her classmates and the cohort built a rapport with the teacher, Donald Smith. Several students re-enrolled over many terms. While on the course, an idea for a novel came to her.

She began writing but quickly realised the scale of the task. Through a quick internet search she found the First Novel MA program at St. Mary's University, Twickenham.

"The MA was exactly what I was looking for. And I could not believe the ideal course was just a short walk from my house. It felt like it was meant to be."

After five years of researching, writing, editing and enduring many rejections from publishers and agents, her debut novel, The Girl from the Hermitage has been published.

It is currently available on all e-book platforms and the paperback will be launched in September.

"Even after I had signed a contract with Lightning Books, I didn't believe it would actually happen. But now after all this hard work it is wonderful to see the book making its way into the world."

The Girl from the Hermitage opens in December 1941, and eight-year-old Galina and her friend Vera are caught in the siege of Leningrad, eating soup made of wallpaper, with the occasional luxury of a dead rat.

Galina's artist father Mikhail has been kept away from the front to help save the treasures of the Hermitage.

Nearly forty years later, Galina herself is a teacher at the Leningrad Art Institute. What ought to be a celebratory weekend at her forest dacha turns sour when she makes an unwelcome discovery.

The painting she embarks upon that day will hold a grim significance for the rest of her life, as the old Soviet Union makes way for the new Russia and her familiar world changes out of all recognition.

Warm, wise and enthralling, Molly Gartland's debut novel guides us from the old Communist world, with its obvious terrors and more surprising comforts, into the glitz of 21st-century St Petersburg.

Galina's story is an insightful meditation on ageing and nostalgia as well as a compelling page-turner.

Originally from Michigan, MOLLY GARTLAND worked in Moscow from 1994 to 2000 and has been fascinated by Russian culture ever since. She has an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary's University,

Twickenham and now lives in Teddington, London. The manuscript for her debut novel The Girl from the Hermitage was shortlisted for the Impress Prize and longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition, the Bath Novel Award and Grindstone Novel Award

For more about Molly's novel click here

Molly's BLOG

I never thought my first blog post would be like this. But here I am, holed up in my house with my family, tapping out my first blog. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. Camelia, tulips and primrose are thriving in my garden.

There is an unusual tranquillity in my under-the-Heathrow-flight-path town. Yet despite this beauty and comforting calm, somewhere in our metropolis, teams of NHS staff are working flat out to get Covid patients through darkest hours.

The contrast is stark.

We all know about the booming business of toilet paper and pasta. There has also been an uptick in book sales in the past weeks.

This is a glimmer of good news for publishing in an uncertain time. But the coronavirus has brought much disappointment to authors whose books are launching during these months of social distancing.

Book launch parties, literary festivals, and media events have all been cancelled in quick secession, stealing moments in the spotlight from authors who are bringing their books into the world. This is particularly painful for debut authors.

The path to publishing a book is long and hilly, filled with dashed hopes, disappointments, and an occasional ecstatic high.

Thousands of books are written every year and never find a publisher so when a writer finally finds a publisher who agrees to take their book to market, THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL.

Countless hours are spent polishing a manuscript alongside an editor and copy editor and most of us will probably not make much money out of the venture. Of course there is a rare debut star, but the vast majority of authors are driven by something else other than financial reward.

This brings me to the purpose of this blog. When considering your quarantine reading list, please have a look at books published by debut authors.

You can find a list of some of the 2020 debuts from the first half of the year at the end of this post.

Many are published by large traditional publishers others are from small independents (like my Lightning Books) who are paddling like mad to stay afloat in the best of times.

You can also follow @viraldebuts on twitter for updates. Google some of the debut titles.

If one of them piques your interest, please purchase (preferably directly from a little independent publisher or from a local bookshop).

If you enjoy the book, leave a positive review on Amazon or Goodreads. Good reviews are like gold dust and when you post one you make an author very, very happy. Couldn't we all do with a bit more happiness these days?

Hope this blog finds you safely at home.

Keep calm and read a debut.

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