Meet the Author – Jessica Dettmann

When Margot receives an email from her best friend it comes as a shock ... seeing as Tess died twenty years ago.

Margot is catapulted back to 2000, meeting the confident English backpacker visiting Sydney, where their intense friendship led to plans to travel back to Europe together. But then Margot fell in love with Johnny, and she never made it to London. Margot still feels guilty for letting Tess down. Now Tess is providing Margot with the means to fly to London and have the trip they never got to do together. But there are stipulations to Tess's beyond-the-grave generosity—Margot must scatter her ashes and carry out 'tasks' in the company of Leo, Tess's stepbrother.

Margot can't help but compare the dreams and aspirations of the girl who partied with Tess to the bored, exhausted woman she has become. How could Tess have predicted that Margot would need a second chance to get on that plane?

Jessica Dettmann is the author of four novels and before becoming a writer, she was a book editor. She lives in Sydney, Australia, with her family and her two cats.

She will be in-conversation with Anna Downes. Anna is an actor-turned-internationally best-selling author. Her novel recent novel Red River Road was shortlisted for the 2025 ABIA for General Fiction Book of the Year.