Best selling author from Bucks announces commemorative event in memory of late son

A best-selling author from Buckinghamshire is returning to the village she grew up in for a special event about grief.

Clare Mackintosh is returning to Haddenham in memory of her late son Alex who passed away in 2006.

Since swapping the police force for the creative arts the novelist has penned six Sunday Times best selling books.

But the event planned for next Wednesday (18 October) is about death and grief.

After Clare’s little boy died a neighbour brought her a bunch of daffodils and promised it would not always hurt as it did then. then. She didn’t believe her, but as the years passed, those words began to bear fruit. It did not get better, but it did get easier. Now Clare grows daffodils – a sign of hope after a long winter – as a way of remembering her son.

Clare has raised awareness of the event across her social media channels and asked her followers if they would like her to plant a daffodil for them, to remember loved ones and bring people together in grief.

Alex was laid to rest at the church in Haddenham and Clare will be planting daffodils outside Haddenham Library, where she first explored her love books.

In December 2020, she tweeted about the experience of discovering grief no longer controlled her life, making some promises to others who might be going through the early days of their own grief.

As she could not reply to everyone who replied to her extended Twitter thread, which can be found on X here. It ended up forming the basis for her next book, I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This.

In 2020, Clare wrote: “My son died fourteen years ago today. If you’re struggling with the loss of a loved one, I have some promises for you.

"I promise this will not always be the first thing you think about in the morning.

"I promise you won’t always lie awake at night, sobbing until you can’t breathe.

"I promise you will not always feel that hard lump in your throat, like grief is a rock that cannot be moved. It can.”