Book launch for Mother Murphy's Debra

Debra Murphy and her husband Jim made the difficult decision last summer to close the business – which had been Debra’s dream – due to the challenges posed by the pandemic.

Following the closure, Debra set up Mother Murphy’s as an online business delivering cakes and biscuits to people’s doors and she also spent time writing her first book – The Magical Tearoom on the Hill: Recipes, tales and adventures.

It’s a recipe book with a storyline to it, telling the story of how Mother Murphy’s came to be, from her growing up in Yorkshire to opening the tearoom in Ladysmill, Falkirk.

After taking a couple of months off and stepping back from all that she’d been doing, Debra is now raring to go again as she will finally give her book an official in-person launch tomorrow (Friday).

The meet the author event will be at The Port Gallery, Auchinstarry Marina, near Kilsyth.

She said: “It’s been a tough time and I found I needed to take a couple of months out of doing what I was doing.

"Now I’m ready and things have started happening again – there’s the official book launch and Waterstones are stocking the book.

"I was taking a break from the cakes as well, but I’m going to be starting them up again from October.

"I just can’t wait for the event.

"The book was published in November and I had a launch at the time, but it was online on Zoom.

"It did mean that people from France, Australia and Finland were able to join in as well as those from around the country.

“So until now I’ve not been able to get out to book shops, so this will be the first time really sitting down talking to people about the book in person and letting them see the book.

“I'm looking forward to it.”

The book is available locally with Waterstones in Falkirk High Street stocking it, and the story of Mother Murphy’s is also being heard further afield.

Debra said: “A small independent book store in Grasmere in the heart of the Lake District has also started to stock it.

"We have a story and recipe in the book for Grasmere Gingerbread.”

And the writing continues for Debra who is in the middle of writing a second book.

This one’s written from the perspective of Beatrix the Border Collie, who has been a big part of the tearoom and the pair have had lots of adventures together.

To find out more about the author event click here or to buy a copy of Debra’s book visit https://mothermurphys.co.uk