39 Plus One

For fans of Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding, No, We Can’t Be Friends by Sophie Kinsella and Sorry Not Sorry, by Sophie Ranald

This is the story of Rachel Collins, who, on her 39th birthday, decides to embark on a quest to find her soulmate before she turns 40.

‘Next year I enter the fourth decade of my life. It’s a dirty word for me; known as the ‘F’ word amongst my close friends.’

A study of over 2,000 adults reveals that the average woman will kiss 15 men, enjoy two long-term relationships and have her heartbroken twice before she meets the one. Ragh Bir’s debut novel sees her protagonist embark on just such an adventure. Desperate for romance, Rachel Collins, 39, is forced to put aside her pernickety, critical traits, as she navigates the weird and wonderful world of modern-day dating. Her quest catapults her into situations she never imagined she’d find herself in. Before long, she has no shortage of hilarious anecdotes for dinner parties. But what starts as a quest for love, turns into a journey of self-discovery. Her funny and, at times, desperate encounters, reach a climax on her 40th birthday, when she uncovers the truth about her perfect, imperfect, soulmate.

About the author
Ragh Bir’s family arrived in the UK in the early 1960s. Born in the Summer of Love, in Slough, Berkshire, she found growing up in a family with a strict Indian father challenging to her free-spirited nature. Her Indian upbringing was neither traditional, nor, contemporary, and she found herself caught up in the middle of two very different cultures. She embraced the opportunity and left Slough in 1990 to attend the University of Portsmouth, where she completed a Post Graduate in management studies. After graduating, and fully enjoying the freedom that came with living away from home, she decided to travel to France with her Irish boyfriend. Her dreams of living in the South of France, came crashing down when their car broke down on the roundabout at Champs-Élysées. Her adventure was plagued with disasters, and when money soon ran out by the time they reached Bordeaux, it was time to say good bye to France. A move to the Republic of Ireland, saw her experience the Irish way of life, and a year later she returned to the UK, and her career as airline cabin crew began. Living in Bagshot, Surrey, she enjoyed her life of travel, and was fortunate to experience the many different cultures of the countries that she visited. Her debut novel, 39 Plus One, was born in 2007, and writing the first three chapters came easily. Life took an unexpected turn, and her desire for writing vanished. She moved back to Slough just before lockdown, and it was when she came across her black writing folder, that she found that she couldn’t put her pen down, writing at lightning speed, the words flying onto the page; that within a year the story of Rachel’s quest was complete.