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Julie Houston
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Julie Houston is a British novelist and teacher, best known for her humorous and heart-warming contemporary fiction set in the fictional West Yorkshire villages of Westenbury and Midhope. She has written thirteen bestselling novels, including Goodness, Grace and Me (2013), The One Saving Grace (2015), A Village Affair (2018), and her latest work, An Off-Piste Christmas (2025). Her books are known for their blend of family drama, comedy, and small-village life, often compared to the tone of Helen Fielding and Jill Mansell.
Julie Houston was born and raised in Yorkshire and continues to live in Huddersfield, the landscape that inspires all her stories. After studying Education and English Literature at university, she began her career as a junior school teacher. During her early years as a teacher, she spent several summers working on kibbutzim in Israel and later taught in Auckland, New Zealand, before returning to England. She now teaches part-time and has served as a magistrate for nearly two decades.
Her first novel, Goodness, Grace and Me, appeared in 2013 and quickly reached the Amazon Humour #1 position in both the United Kingdom and Australia. It was followed by The One Saving Grace (2015) and Looking for Lucy (2016), which achieved the same success, with Looking for Lucy becoming the overall #1 Kindle bestseller in Australia. These early novels established her as a writer of witty, character-driven stories centred on women balancing love, family, and friendship in rural communities.
Subsequent works such as A Village Affair (2018), Little Acorns (2018), and Holly Close Farm (2019) continued to develop her distinctive world of interconnected lives, often returning to familiar locations and recurring characters. Houston’s fiction combines a warm observational tone with an underlying honesty about human imperfection.
She has said that her teaching experience helps her to capture dialogue and everyday humour, describing her writing days as “a natural extension of the classroom stories that never quite fit into lesson plans.”
Her most recent novel, An Off-Piste Christmas (2025), follows a group of friends and families from Westenbury as they swap the Yorkshire moors for an alpine resort at Christmas. Between romantic mishaps, family secrets, and unexpected reunions, the novel explores the meaning of escape and belonging during the festive season. It continues Houston’s tradition of writing about strong women who navigate chaos with humour and resilience.
Julie Houston lives in Huddersfield with her husband, two grown children, and a lively cocker spaniel named Lincoln. She still teaches two days a week and writes daily.
Photo credit: juliehoustonauthor.com
Julie Houston was born and raised in Yorkshire and continues to live in Huddersfield, the landscape that inspires all her stories. After studying Education and English Literature at university, she began her career as a junior school teacher. During her early years as a teacher, she spent several summers working on kibbutzim in Israel and later taught in Auckland, New Zealand, before returning to England. She now teaches part-time and has served as a magistrate for nearly two decades.
Her first novel, Goodness, Grace and Me, appeared in 2013 and quickly reached the Amazon Humour #1 position in both the United Kingdom and Australia. It was followed by The One Saving Grace (2015) and Looking for Lucy (2016), which achieved the same success, with Looking for Lucy becoming the overall #1 Kindle bestseller in Australia. These early novels established her as a writer of witty, character-driven stories centred on women balancing love, family, and friendship in rural communities.
Subsequent works such as A Village Affair (2018), Little Acorns (2018), and Holly Close Farm (2019) continued to develop her distinctive world of interconnected lives, often returning to familiar locations and recurring characters. Houston’s fiction combines a warm observational tone with an underlying honesty about human imperfection.
She has said that her teaching experience helps her to capture dialogue and everyday humour, describing her writing days as “a natural extension of the classroom stories that never quite fit into lesson plans.”
Her most recent novel, An Off-Piste Christmas (2025), follows a group of friends and families from Westenbury as they swap the Yorkshire moors for an alpine resort at Christmas. Between romantic mishaps, family secrets, and unexpected reunions, the novel explores the meaning of escape and belonging during the festive season. It continues Houston’s tradition of writing about strong women who navigate chaos with humour and resilience.
Julie Houston lives in Huddersfield with her husband, two grown children, and a lively cocker spaniel named Lincoln. She still teaches two days a week and writes daily.
Photo credit: juliehoustonauthor.com
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