Spotlight & Giveaway: The Lost Ticket by Freya Sampson

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Freya Sampson to HJ!

Hi Freya and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Lost Ticket!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

The Lost Ticket tells the story of Libby, a young woman recently moved to London, who meets elderly Frank on the 88 bus. Frank tells Libby how in his youth he met a red-headed artist on the same bus who he fell in love with, but then he lost the ticket with her phone number written on it. Frank has spent the past sixty years riding the 88 bus trying to find this woman. Libby is inspired to help with his search, and in doing so both of their lives are changed forever.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

‘Hope. That’s what’s been driving him, why he hasn’t been able to give up. His search has given him hope.’

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The Lost Ticket was inspired by a true story I heard about an elderly woman who was trying to track down a book which she remembered her father reading to her as a child. She mentioned her search to a librarian who was spurred to action. Not only did the librarian source the original book, but then members of library staff took turns to record themselves reading it so the woman could listen to the story one last time. It was this anecdote that sparked the idea for THE LOST TICKET – a story about a life-long search, but also how a simple act of kindness from a stranger can have a powerful impact on the lives of everyone involved.
• Many of my favorite places in London feature in the book, including Hampstead Heath, the National Gallery art museum and Hamleys toy store.
• One of the characters, Dylan, is a punk and so I had a playlist of punk music I used to listen to when I wrote his scenes. After 18 months of working on the book, I can tell you I’m still not a fan of the Sex Pistols!

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

When Libby first encounters Dylan on the bus, she sees an angry-looking man with a Mohawk haircut and immediately takes a dislike to him when he shouts at her. But when the two of them are thrown together in the search for Frank’s long-lost woman, Libby starts to see a very different person behind Dylan’s prickly exterior.

Readers should read this book….

because it’s a heart-warming story about long-lost love, second chances and found family, and because it will make you want to come and visit London!

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m at the early stages of something new, but it’s too soon to share any details I’m afraid!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: (1) One giveaway print copy to a winner with a valid US shipping address.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: The Lost Ticket is about how a chance encounter with a stranger changes the course of somebody’s life. Have you ever had a chance encounter that has changed your life?

 
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Book Info:

trangers on a London bus unite to help an elderly man find his missed love connection in the heartwarming new novel from the acclaimed author of The Last Chance Library.

When Libby Nicholls arrives in London, brokenhearted and with her life in tatters, the first person she meets on the bus is elderly Frank. He tells her about the time in 1962 that he met a girl on the number 88 bus with beautiful red hair just like hers. They made plans for a date at the National Gallery art museum, but Frank lost the bus ticket with her number on it. For the past sixty years, he’s ridden the same bus trying to find her, but with no luck.

Libby is inspired to action and, with the help of an unlikely companion, she papers the bus route with posters advertising their search. Libby begins to open her guarded heart to new friendships and a budding romance, as her tightly controlled world expands. But with Frank’s dementia progressing quickly, their chance of finding the girl on the 88 bus is slipping away.

More than anything, Libby wants Frank to see his lost love one more time. But their quest also shows Libby just how important it is to embrace her own chances for happiness—before it’s too late—in a beautifully uplifting novel about how a shared common experience among strangers can transform lives in the most marvelous ways.
 
 

Meet the Author:

Freya Sampson works in TV and was the executive producer of Channel 4’s Four in a Bed and Gogglesprogs. She studied History at Cambridge University and in 2018 was shortlisted for the Exeter Novel Prize. She lives in London with her husband, two young children and an antisocial cat.