Blackthorn Winter is a novel by Sarah Challis. The story follows Claudia Knight, who changes back to her maiden name and moves to the countryside, after her estranged husband is sentenced to prison. Claudia Barron, married to Roger Barron, had been living the high-life in London before he is indicted for ripping people off, and before he leaves Claudia for his mistress, Carla. To escape the notoriety of the trial and its aftermath, Claudia finds a cottage in the country to hide away and start a new life.

Claudia decides it is best to hide her true identity from the villagers. She feels if they know who she is, they will shun her. As Roger prepares for an appeal, the news reporters are starting to smell a story once again. This causes them to start looking for Claudia and even reaching out to her two grown children, Jerome and Leila. The reporters get a lead on the family's location when Jerome is injured in a bus crash in India that sends him home to Claudia with a broken leg.

For the first time in her life, Claudia is learning how to depend on herself, rather than her husband, to take care of the house, pay the bills and live life. Claudia starts working and she starts to interact with and get to know her neighbors. As the novel and the story unfold Claudia falls in love again, her daughter Leila becomes engaged, she befriends her elderly neighbor, and she learns that even when people find out who they are, they like you for you rather than who you married.

In addition, Leila and Jerome learn for the first time the pain that their father has put their mother through. Instead of blaming her for not supporting him while he's in prison, they realize that she has chosen a life that she needs to live for herself.