Welcome to the latest in a series of behind-the-scenes blogs from me, Martha, founder and chief stationery maker! This is my journal, a chance to tell you what I’ve been up to, and today is all about how we came to work with one of my favourite authors, Emily Henry!

Martha’s Journal: Our journey with Emily Henry

Today we made the extremely exciting announcement that we’ve teamed up with Penguin Books and the bestselling author Emily Henry to do a collaboration that you can find in every Sainsbury’s and Tesco in the UK until 25th September! But before I tell you all about that, I have to give you a bit of context to our love affair with Emily and how we came to work with her! Strap yourself in for the loveliest small business story…

2022: I fell back in love with reading

I was that child with their nose always in a book. Until I turned eight, we moved around the world because of my dad’s work and I lived with the regular awkwardness of arriving in new schools mid-way through a term. So, I found my solace by escaping into stories. But, somewhere in the transition to adulthood, I stopped calling myself a reader.

Sure, I still read on holiday, but I was much ‘too busy’ to read regularly. I mean, who on earth has the time?! The pile of books on my bedside table sat gathering dust. They were all bought with the best of intentions, but there never seemed to be the right moment to pick one up.

Then at the start of 2022 everything changed. I became a reader again. In 2022 I am proud to say I read 50 books and I rediscovered a marvellous part of me that somehow I lost along the way!

My love of reading culminated in the creation of our now bestselling Book Journal and I wrote one of our most-loved blogs ‘How I fell back in love with reading’ and published this photo on Instagram of me with some of my favourute reads from that year:

2022: Penguin Books got in touch!

Little did I know that my decision to hold the book ‘Book Lovers’ by Emily Henry in that photo would lead placed I could never have imagined!

Penguin Books who publish all of bestselling author Emily Henry’s books here in the UK saw it on Instagram and got in touch with us.

They were working on the launch of Emily Henry’s next book ‘Happy Place’ and would we like to work together?!

I tell you the squeal that we let out in our team when that email landed in our inbox was one that hasn’t been beaten since!

2023: Our Emily Henry year

We decided to do not just one thing with Emily Henry’s team but several!

We collaborated to give away her entire back catalogue, then we got access to early proof copies of Happy Place before its general release and did a giveaway of those too, AND best of all, I got to interview Emily Henry live!

She was a total dream and everything you would imagine she was! You can watch the live back here.

2024 – 2025: We started our ‘Behind the Books’ series

Inspired by how much our community adored the Emily Henry collaboration, we continued to work with Penguin and other publishers and many more brilliant authors including Roald Dahl, Mikki Brammer, Josie Silver, Stacey Halls, Natalie Sue, Clare Leslie Hall and Harriet Evans. You can discover some of our favourite interviews and book features here.

2025: Which brings us to now!

When Penguin got back in touch earlier this year and asked if we’d like to work with Emily Henry again, the answer was an obvious yes!

With summer being the perfect time to dive into an Emily Henry book, we knew we wanted to collaborate in the summer months when everyone will be looking for their next read to take on holiday! 

Beach Read is such a team favourite, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity when our lovely friends at Penguin told us that they were looking for a company to feature on the paperback edition going into EVERY big Tesco and Sainsbury’s store up and down the country.

The collaboration gives anyone who buys a copy of Beach Read in Tesco and Sainsbury’s store the opportunity to enter to win over £200 worth of Martha Brook stationery, to see them through the summer and beyond. 

We are so excited to see Martha Brook officially on the shelves UK-wide until 25th September! Hurrah! Give us a tag if you spot one of the books, and good luck to everyone who finds one! 

Huge thanks to Penguin Books and Emily Henry for making this happen. Come let us know below what’s your favourite book-related thing we’ve done so far and what author you’d like us to collaborate with next!