Sunshine at the Comfort Food Cafe: The most heartwarming and feel good novel of 2018!. Debbie Johnson

year ago to Frank. He’s known as Farmer Frank, because he owns a huge farm, but in a cunning twist he’s actually also called Frank Farmer. Cherie didn’t take his name – and who can blame her, when hers is so pretty? Frank is eighty-one, and we have a big party for his birthday at the end of every summer season, the last weekend in August. He has silver hair and sparkly blue eyes and is as fit as his younger self ever was. His son and grandchildren live in Australia, and his first wife died a few years ago. His comfort food is burned bacon butties and strong tea, which Cherie provided for him every single day after he lost Bessy. From such humble beginnings grew a mighty romance. Frank has a wicked sense of humour, so prepare to take everything he says with a sackful of salt. Both Frank and Cherie are semi-retired, which gives them more time to sit in the café watching the world go by, and making fun of us all. Cherie used to live in her bachelorette pad above the café, but now lives on Frank’s farm with him. The flat is still there, used intermittently by various strays in need of refuge.

       The House of Hunter-Walker

      Laura Walker’s one of those strays, even though she never stayed in the flat above the café. Her husband David died in an accident, and she was a bit lost, struggling to cope even a few years later. So she got a job at the café for the summer, and came with her children Nate and Lizzie and their dog Jimbo (RIP). She was only supposed to stay until September, but stayed forever. She’s really pretty and a bit plump, which annoys her so much she has to eat a piece of chocolate cake to cheer herself up. She has mad curly brown hair, is the owner of Midgebo, and lives in a cottage at the Rockery. Laura is sensitive, kind and a great believer in happy endings – she engineered all kinds of family reunions her first summer here, including getting Cherie back together with a sister she hadn’t seen for decades. If Laura thinks you’re less happy than you should be, she’ll try and fix you. She manages the café, and is the world’s best comfort food cook. She will experiment on you, so prepare to eat a lot of cake.

      She lives in Hyacinth House with Lizzie, who is sixteen. She’s blonde, wears a lot of black eyeliner, likes heavy metal music and is super cool. She goes out with Josh, of the House Jones. Nate is fourteen, also blonde, and is a typical boy – he plays a lot of football, guitar and video games, and thinks farting is a performance sport.

      Matt Hunter also lives in the Rockery, in a big cottage called Black Rose. He is the local vet, and looks a bit like Han Solo – Empire Strikes Back era. He can be really quiet, and won’t ever get in your face because he’s quite a private person too. He is the master of comfortable silences, and prefers dogs to people. Apart from Laura – who is the love of his life, I reckon. The two of them have been together for a while now and I think it will stick. We’re all hoping theirs will be the next big wedding.

       The House of Brennan-Fletcher

      Becca Fletcher is Laura’s sister. She’s in her thirties somewhere, and moved here from Manchester after a holiday romance with Sam. Becca is super-smart, acid-tongued, and totally deadpan. Possibly the most sarcastic person on the planet. She apparently used to be a bit of a wild child and got into a few bad situations, but these days she’s all clean-living, apart from the fact that she’s usually covered in baby vomit from Little Edie.

      Little Edie was the outcome of Becca’s romance with Sam Brennan, who is known as Surfer Sam, for reasons which become obvious when you see him. Sam is from Dublin, and grew up with about six thousand sisters. He’s a coastal ranger and spends all his time outdoors. His comfort food is chicken and mushroom Pot Noodle, which reminds him of his childhood. He’s funny and charming and before Becca, saw himself as something of a ladies’ man. These days the main ladies in his life are Becca and Little Edie, who is six months old, and was actually born in the café. Seeing Little Edie born was both the most magical and most yuck experience of my life so far. They all live together in Sam’s little terraced house in the centre of the village.

       The House of Morgan-Harris-Hayes

      This is a complicated one – a House of Many Names. I’ll start with Zoe – Zoe Morgan. Zoe is very, very short, and very, very ginger. She’s from Bristol, and is a bit like Becca in that she’s spiky and sarky – but completely lovely underneath it. I don’t think she had the easiest of childhoods, and things got worse when her best friend Kate Harris died of cancer. Kate had a sixteen-year-old daughter, Martha, and Zoe ended up becoming her guardian. It sounds like it was all going a bit pear-shaped, with Martha getting wilder and more self-destructive, so Zoe moved them down here to get away from all the bad influences. Zoe now runs the bookshop in the café.

      Martha is seventeen now, and is the Queen of the Goths. She didn’t settle in at first, but now she’s best friends with Lizzie, and seems happy enough – although it’s hard to tell with teenaged Goths. She has this weird, combative relationship with Zoe but you can tell they really love each other. Martha’s comfort food is squashed up fish-finger sandwiches.

      Cal Hayes is Martha’s dad. She’d never even met him before she moved here – he had a fling with her mum in Thailand, and is from Australia. He runs Frank’s farm for him, and looks a bit like Thor in the Avenger films. He’s confident and capable and often wears a cowboy hat, but we won’t hold that against him. He came here to see if he could help Martha stay on track, and him and Zoe ended up getting together. All three of them live in the village in the house where Ivy Wellkettle, our old pharmacist, used to live. Ivy moved up to Durham to be near her daughter while she does her medical training. The downside of this is that we don’t have a pharmacy any more, but on the upside a nice home became available for the House of Morgan-Harris-Hayes.

       The House of Jones

      This one at least only has one surname – and one initial. They’re known as the Scrumpy J Jones collective, and there are three of them: Joe, Joanne and Josh.

      Joe runs the local Cider Cave, where he makes and sells artisan ciders – or at least he calls them ‘artisan’ now, since Lizzie, his son’s girlfriend and teenage marketing guru, told him it sounds cool. The cave is popular with locals and tourists, and Joe is often to be heard clinking around the village with bags full of bottles. He’s quiet, a bit grumpy, and considered a bit stingy – but when it counts, you can rely on Joe. His comfort food is home-made biscotti, which reminds him of visiting his gran in Italy as a kid. Joe has a really strong ‘my luvver’ Dorset accent – Frank sometimes speaks like that, as does Cherie, but Joe’s is the thickest. Even I don’t understand him sometimes.

      His wife Joanne is a bit scary. She looks like something out of Dallas or Dynasty, with huge hair and perfect make-up. She runs a website called Rural Romance which hooks countryside types up for love and laughter – you should check it out!

      Their son Josh is eighteen now. He’s tall and lanky, always wears a beanie hat, and is a sweet kid who tries not to appear sweet.