On the writing of
BEATRICE AND THE LONDON BUS
One day, while sitting in a café near a bus stop in Belsize Park, I found myself watching a red London bus — number 168 via Waterloo — parked outside. At the time, I was going through a difficult period and felt disconnected from the city I had once loved.
As I watched the bus, I imagined asking it to take me somewhere else — somewhere safer, kinder, and lighter. In my imagination, the bus replied, grumpy but reassuring: “Get on board, young lady. Let’s go.”
That moment marked the beginning of a new way of seeing. By allowing myself to trust imagination — in the way children instinctively do — I began to reconnect with the world around me. London slowly transformed from a hostile place into a city that could speak, listen and care.
From that encounter, Beatrice was born. Together with the London Bus, she embarks on a journey through a living city, where iconic buildings and hidden corners have their own voices, dreams and worries. Through writing their adventures, I rediscovered London as a place of possibility, empathy and quiet magic.
Beatrice and the London Bus grew out of this process — a story about imagination not as escape, but as a way of understanding the world, finding strength, and learning how to care for ourselves and others.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Francesca Lombardo is a print and television journalist, PR consultant, children’s book author and novelist based in London. She holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the London College of Communications and has written for leading UK, Irish and Italian publications including The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Herald, Irish Times, La Repubblica, Il Sole 24 Ore and Vogue.
She worked as a film and entertainment journalist for SKY Cinema until 2018, interviewing actors and filmmakers and covering the international film industry. Alongside her journalistic work, Francesca has held senior roles in PR, marketing and communications across publishing, film, cultural organisations and creative industries, and continues to work as a PR and marketing consultant.
With Beatrice and the London Bus series she explores imagination as a tool for understanding the world, building resilience and giving voice to inner experience.
She is also the author of a forthcoming memoir, The Secrets of the Mahogany Chest, to be published by Foreshore Books in Spring 2026. Francesca is currently working on further books across fiction and non-fiction while continuing her consultancy work in PR and communications.
