What is the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy?
The Elizabeth Goudge Trophy is the award I won at this year’s Romantic Novelists’ Association conference last weekend. It’s a writing competition that commemorates one of the RNA’s founders. This year, entrants were asked to submit up to 2,000 words of a romantic novel opening in any sub-genre, with the words ‘what took you so long?’ in the dialogue and the promise of a romance developing when the story continues.
The judges were asked to look for a compelling opening with a hook that draws the reader in and leaves them longing for more. Suzanne Snow, winner of the RoNA for Contemporary Romance 2026, and Kathleen McGurl, winner of the RoNA for the Saga Romance 2026, made up this year’s judging panel. They were given anonymous entries, so they had no idea whose work they were reading.
How did I win it?
I wrote the first chapter of a new rom com featuring Genevieve Fletcher, a 52-year-old writer, who’s been commissioned to ghostwrite the autobiography of a tech billionaire. Here’s what the judges had to say about it:
Beautifully written, with a setting and characters that felt real and relatable from the start. The premise between the two main characters was brilliant, and the ending left me desperate to read on and follow their story to its conclusion. Suzanne Snow
A worthy winner in which the reader is taken straight into both the character and setting. This story has a fabulous hook and the author has a lovely writing style that’s very enjoyable to read. I loved the main character right from the very first paragraph. Kathleen McGurl
Massive thanks to Suzanne and Kathleen for choosing my chapter, and for the generous words about my work too. Winning an award like this, and the RoNAs I won in 2024 and 2025, helps me to keep writing and ignore the demon of self-doubt that often whispers in my ear, so I truly am grateful.
Am I going to write the rest of the book?
Absolutely! Having spent hours writing and rewriting chapter 1, it would be wasteful not to, and I want to know how Gen’s story works out as well, so I’ve made a start already. Thirty Years Later will be the first rom com in a new series set in the fictional village of Larkthwaite on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales.
And if you read my latest Dashford novel, Be More Capybara, when it comes out next week, it will give you a clue to some of the residents who live there.
You can pre-order the ebook of Thirty Years Later now so you don’t miss it when it’s published next April.
Is the first chapter available to read before the book comes out?
Yes! I’ve set up a website page for the book, and the first chapter is the excerpt at the bottom of the page. You can go straight to the Thirty Years Later book page by clicking this link.