This page is for Sophie’s news, which she’ll try and keep up to date as much as possible!
2025
December
Happening in Uralla on December 7!
November
November 29
Joyous celebration of the Fishmonger and the Pastry Chef at Gleebooks, Sydney!
November 20: lovely double celebration in Reader’s Companion bookshop, Armidale for In The Paris Fashion and The Fishmonger and the Pastry Chef!
And following up on Saturday November 29 will be the official Sydney launch of The Fishmonger and the Pastry Chef, and both Cheryl and I will be there to sign books!
More signings, this time in Armidale. Thank you to the lovely booksellers for supporting my books!
October
On October 28, In The Paris Fashion came out and I had the loveliest time in Sydney, signing copies in some fabulous bookshops! Here are a few pics.
September
Absolutely amazing and wonderful news! In a ceremony at the State Library in Sydney on September 6, Bold Ben Hall was announced as the WINNER of the Young People’s History Prize in the 2025 NSW History Awards! I was so astonished and so thrilled and so happy–still very much on Cloud Nine! It topped off a lovely week of book events, including a fabulous launch at Better Read than Dead of my latest picture book with Lorena Carrington, The Giant. You can see more about that here.
August
I am absolutely thrilled that my historical novel for middle-grade readers, Bold Ben Hall (Walker Books), has been shortlisted for the 2025 NSW History Awards, in the Young People’s Category. The news was announced on August 14. Such exciting news and such lovely and delightfully unexpected recognition for this novel which I so much enjoyed writing and researching!
July
Advance notice: There’s going to be a celebration/launch in Sydney on September 4 for The Giant, my new picture book with the wonderful Lorena Carrington. It will be at Better Read than Dead bookshop in Newtown, my lovely friend and fantastic author Ursula Dubosarsky will be launching the book, and Lorena and I will be there to sign copies! Book here: https://www.betterreadevents.com/events/the-giant-launch-sophie-masson-and-lorena-carrington-with-ursula-dubosarsky
I’ve posted a cover reveal on my blog for The Fishmonger and the Pastry Chef, my upcoming picture book with the fantastic illustrator, Cheryl Orsini. It’s an absolutely gorgeous cover! Check it out on my blog here. The book will be published by Hardie Grant Kids (in their Little Hare imprint) in November.
I’ve just come back (July 22) from ten wonderful days in North Queensland with family–we visited some extraordinary places, including the amazing Quinkan painted caves near Laura; the magical Barrier Reef, twice (once to the outer reef, once to Green Island, which is in the inner reef; the Atherton Tableland near Mareeba and Kuranda, the Mossman Gorge, and much more! We even fitted in a visit to the Cairns Show where I had the pleasure of unexpectedly meeting a lovely fellow author, Samantha Nyudbi Martin, and bought her fantastic book, the Bush Tukka Guide, which she also signed for me!
There’s a great new interview with me on fellow writer Brenton Cullen’s lovely blog. It’s about Bold Ben Hall, book research, writing about the past, and much more. You can read it here.
June
Away much of June (till the 22nd) overseas, especially France (Paris, Biarritz and the Pays Basque, Toulouse), but also Vienna and the Spanish Basque country as well (Getaria, Lekeitio, Gernika). It was a wonderful trip and as I collected lots of ideas for future books, did research on the spot, and gathered photos to illustrate certain aspects of forthcoming books, especially In The Paris Fashion. You can see some of those specific pics on my blog here.
When I came back I also found I had advance copies of The Giant, my forthcoming picture book with wonderful illustrator Lorena Carrington (MidnightSun Publishing, August) as well as author copies of the Italian edition of A Secret Garden in Paris, which came out this month in Italy with Adriano Salani Editore.
May
On May 12, Ultimo Press announced my forthcoming adult novel, In The Paris Fashion (written under the name of Sophie Beaumont). The third of my Paris books, it’s a very special novel whose inspiration is very close to my heart (and my family history). It’s out in November. So looking forward to its release!
April
Getting ready for a big research trip to Europe in May and June–to Paris, of course, and also to Vienna, which I’ve never been to before. Looking forward to seeing marvellous things! Also visiting family in France…it’s a packed schedule!
March
There were a lot of events in March for me!
March 1: Paperback edition of Satin is released by MidnightSun Publishing.
March 5: Publication day of Bold Ben Hall (Walker Books)
March 12: Talk at the State Library of NSW for The Society of Women Writers NSW–my talk, which is part of festivities around the 100th anniversary of the Society, will be around my French and Australian inspirations.
March 13: Two events at Goulburn Library: a morning Storytime event for kids, focussed around Satin and Cockadoodledoo; and an evening talk and Q and A for adults, centred on A Secret Garden in Paris.
March 29: Signing morning for Bold Ben Hall at Collins Booksellers, Armidale.
March 30: Author appearance at signing at Seasons of New England Expo, Uralla.
January/February 2025
The start of the year’s been a busy time, that’s for sure! Lots of lovely festive family occasions, a francophone author dinner, Les nuits de la lecture in Sydney, a start on a new idea for a middle-grade novel, and lots of work on the structural edit of my 3rd Sophie Beaumont novel (title TBA). It’s a big bookish year for me coming up, with Bold Ben Hall out in March; The Giant, a picture book with wonderful illustrator Lorena Carrington out in August; and my third Sophie Beaumont in November!
December
A lovely review and interview with me re A Secret Garden in Paris is here.
Announced the forthcoming publication, in March 2025, of Bold Ben Hall, my middle-grade historical novel for kids featuring the famous bushranger, to be published by Walker Books Australia. Below is the gorgeous cover.
November
Below are pics of the two launches for A Secret Garden in Paris–November 9 in Armidale, and November 21 in Sydney, as well as a mini-tour of Sydney bookshops!
October 2029
A Secret Garden in Paris was officially released on October 29, and I had a lovely time celebrating that and signing books in our local bookshops! The book has already garnered some fabulous reviews (see in Reviews page).
I was interviewed this month about my children’s books, my career, the publishing business and more by the lovely writer and blogger Brenton Cullen–we talked for ages and it was super enjoyable, one of the best literary conversations I’ve had!
Here are links to the interview (it’s in two parts):
Part 1
Part 2:
September 2024
Had a lovely time at the Northern Beaches Readers’ Festival in beautiful Avalon, Sydney, talking about food and fiction with fellow writers Maya Linnell and Vanessa McCausland, with fantastic moderator Cheryl Akle of Better Reading.
August 2024
The Ukrainian edition of The Paris Cooking School is coming out in August, published by Knigolove. Isn’t it a simply enticingly sweet cover! Looking forward to getting my author copies.
The North American edition of The Paris Cooking School has just come out in the US and Canada, published by Alcove Press. Above are photos of that gorgeous North American edition, which I recently got copies of! It’s a beautiful hardback, with a great dustjacket sporting a new blurb, colour version of my author pic and a couple of nice quotes on the back, as well as gilt writing on the internal spine. Such a lovely thing to hold in your hands!
Looking forward to appearing at the Bendigo Writers Festival in mid-August! I’m on a panel session for schools on Friday 16, with fellow writer Shivaun Plozza and moderator Jenny Mitchell; and on another panel session on Saturday 17, with fellow creators Kate Forsyth and Lorena Carrington and moderator Sarah Mayor Cox. It’s going to be a lot of fun!
July 2024
I’ve been a bit remiss lately in posting news on this page–it’s been pretty hectic! Lots of lovely news actually, which I’ll list here now:
My new Sophie Beaumont novel, A Secret Garden in Paris, was announced in February and the beautiful cover revealed in May–it will be published in November this year. Can’t wait! Hope readers will take it to their hearts, as they did with The Paris Cooking School.
Meanwhile, The Paris Cooking School came out in Portugal (in Portuguese of course!) in May as well. Was very exciting to get my author copies, which are just gorgeous!
Also in May, I had a lovely month back in France, including nearly a week in Paris, where I researched possible new projects as well as visiting lots of wonderful places and eating absolutely delicious food!
The North American (US and Canada) editions of The Paris Cooking School will be coming out in the US and Canada in early August, in both print and audio–very exciting!
The Ukrainian edition of The Paris Cooking School is also planned to come out in August–so fabulous!
And the German edition of The Paris Cooking School will be coming out next year, in May 2025. Fantastic!
In other news, my chapter book, Sabina and the Cats of Rome, a fun little story set in Ancient Rome and illustrated by Laura Wood, will be coming out in Australia with Christmas Press in October. It’s looking gorgeous!
January 2024
A new year has dawned and there’s so much to look forward to–including, I am excited to say, a trip back to Paris in May. Can’t wait!
December 2023
My contribution to The Australian’s ‘My Last Meal’ theme in their Summer Cookbook feature was published on December 27. Very exciting! You can read it here. Also, you can see pics of the print copy on my blog, here.
Two great new interviews with me have been published: one a bilingual one on the franco-australian blog Matilda Marseillaise, the other on writer Cindy L.Spear’s blog.
November 1, 2023–and in fact, all of November 🙂
And the book’s out! Seeing it everywhere, in bookshops around the country, including prominently in airports. And great reviews too! The book’s been chosen as the Australian Women’s Weekly Great Read for their December issue: a singular honour! It’s also appeared in Who and New Idea magazines, as well as Good Reading, Better Reading, the Dymocks and Collins Christmas catalogues and in lots of readers’ posts on social media. You can see a selection of reviews on this page on my website. It’s been an absolutely wonderful experience, seeing how readers are responding so warmly to the book!
In November, I went around bookshops in Sydney and Melbourne to sign books, did a lovely event(in French) at the Alliance Francaise in Sydney, and a gorgeous local launch in my hometown of Armidale. It’s been a busy month–and so wonderful, celebrating the book with friends, family and just interested readers!
The book also came out in a fabulous audio edition, narrated by Anthea Greco and produced by Wavesound, in mid-November.
Plus I published two special pages of recipes and food notes from The Paris Cooking School on my blog, Feathers of the Firebird, here and here.
October 1,2023
Counting down to the release of The Paris Cooking School, on November 1–it’s going to be so wonderful to see the book out in the world!
June 1, 2023
And Secrets of the Good Fairy House, my latest book with the wonderful Lorena Carrington, is out in the world! Like all our Pardalote Press productions, it’s a small, surprising thing–this time inviting you to come with us into the charm, secrets and mysteries of the ‘good fairy houses’ from our childhoods, and to think about your own. You can check out a review of the book here.
May 1, 2023
Publication date of The Key to Rome! And it’s already been getting great reviews, check them out on the Reviews page.
April 26, 2023
Today Ultimo Press revealed the gorgeous cover of my forthcoming adult novel, The Paris Cooking School (written under my pen name of Sophie Beaumont). So thrilling to see it out there! The book will be publishing in November but can be pre-ordered now from your favourite local bookshop, online, or direct from the Ultimo Press website here.
March 1, 2023
Today is the publication day of Satin, my picture book with Lorena Carrington (MidnightSun Publishing). It’s a very special book whose creation was one of those magical things that can make a writer’s life so incredibly blessed! I wrote about how it came about here, and Lorena wrote about her creation of the visual world here. The book has also already garnered several lovely reviews (see reviews page)–it seems like people are really responding warmly to it!
We’ve got the official launch in Sydney on March 14, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop in Newtown. All welcome!
February 9, 2023
I’ve had to sit on this super exciting news for ages, but now it’s been announced by the publisher, so I can announce it in my turn!
In November 2023, my new novel for adults, The Paris Cooking School, will be published under my new pen-name of Sophie Beaumont, by wonderful Ultimo Press. It was acquired by them via my lovely agent Margaret Connolly, who has encouraged, supported and helped to inspire me every step of the way as I’ve been creating the novel. And it’s been an absolutely wonderful experience working with publisher Alex Craig and the Ultimo Press team, and I’m looking forward so much to the rest of the process!
This is a book that I have so loved writing, which has taken me in a new and exciting direction in terms of my writing, a delicious novel about love, hope, second chances–and food! And it’s also a love letter to the most beautiful city in the world.
Here is the link to the publisher’s lovely official announcement! And for more news, pics, bits and pieces, please do follow/like my new Facebook page for The Paris Cooking School, and/or its Instagram page, https://www.instagram.com/thepariscookingschool/
December 16, 2022: Launch of this site! Really good to have a new author website, with a fresh new look and quite a bit of new material too, including quite a few more pictures. It’s been designed to be appealing to look at, simple to navigate and to find info. Hope you enjoy browsing!
My old website, www.sophiemasson.org, will stay online till New Year but then disappear, so do bookmark this site, Sophie Masson, Author as this will be my official website from now on!
Sophie Masson, Author 