At sixty-two, Gary Simmonds has reached the point where the life he knows no longer feels like the life he wants.

Leaving behind his Camden flat, familiar routines and decades of accumulated history, he heads for Castillonnès, a small town in south-west France, hoping for little more than peace, space and the chance to start again.

What he finds is something far less predictable.

A café where people begin to know his name. A community that slowly draws him in. New friendships, unexpected responsibilities and Claire, a woman whose presence begins to challenge his carefully guarded independence.

As Gary becomes part of the town, he starts to understand that changing your surroundings is the easy part. The harder task is deciding what to leave behind, what to hold on to and who you still want to become.

Warm, funny and deeply human, From Camden to Castillonnès is a story about second chances, friendship, love and finding a sense of purpose when you thought that part of life might already be behind you.

Because sometimes home isn’t the place you’ve spent most of your life.

It’s the place where you finally feel you belong.