British writer Rachel Joyce (center) speaks at the book launch of the Chinese version of her latest novel The Music Shop during the Beijing International Book Fair. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"Both Harold and Frank are weak inside despite looking strong from the outside. They have painful experiences. And once you have lived long enough with these pains, it is not easy to let them go," she says.

"With my work, I want to show how one can achieve inner growth with concrete acts. They must walk out of familiar environments to strange lands. For Harold, it's walking out of his home bravely, and for Frank, it is to embrace a new romantic relationship."

When she decided to write her first novel Unlikely Pilgrimage she says she wanted to turn her sadness into a story because her father had only one month to live.

In the novel, Harold Fry, a 60-year-old retired man, receives a letter from an old friend Queenie Hennesy, whom he had not seen for 20 years.

Hennesy writes to say goodbye because she gets cancer.

Fry has lived an uneventful life till then. And he and his wife are increasingly distant toward each other.

So Harold decides to go and visit Hennesy on foot.

Over 87 days, he travels 1,000 km, holding onto the faith that if he keeps walking Hennesy will live.