The Museum of Broken Promises

Elizabeth Buchan led a double life for a while as a publisher and author, managing to successfully pursue both careers simultaneously, until in 1994 she became a full-time writer and hasn’t looked back since. Her first novel for adults Daughters of the Storm, was set during the French Revolution. Her second, Light of the Moon, took as its subject a female undercover agent operating in occupied France during the Second World War. Her third novel, Consider the Lily, became an international bestseller and sold over 300,000 copies in the UK alone. Her subsequent novel Perfect Love, was described as ‘a powerful story: wise, observant, deeply-felt, with elements that all women will recognise with a smile – or a shudder’. Against Her Nature was then published in June 1998, critically acclaimed as ‘a modern-day Vanity Fair...brilliantly done’. The Independent on Sunday praised the most recent novel Secrets of the Heart, which ‘recalls E M Forster’s Howard’s End...and celebrates human resilience and flexibility’.

Joan has 30 years of experience as an actress, enjoying all aspects of work including audiobooks, commercials, radio drama, TV, theatre and film. Recent theatre work includes a world tour of Mamma Mia! playing the man-eating Tanya; Lady Fancyfull, the ditzy schemer in The Provok'd Wife at Greenwich Theatre; and Ingrid in The Tide at the Soho Theatre. Favourite roles for BBC Radio Drama include Dorothy Parker in Regret is No Part of My Plan for Radio 4, Madame Beck in Villette for Radio 4 and the Voice of God in The Piper Alpha Disaster for Radio 3.