June 2009

Hello! I'm a bit previous this month as it's actually still May but given that I will be spending all of June whipping my ginormous, oversized, 500 page Ralph’s Party sequel into shape, I thought I should get going on this while things are still relatively calm. I finally delivered the monster book on May 15th and promptly hit a Primrose Hill eatery with Jascha and my sister and her husband to drink champagne and eat perfectly executed French food. Delivery is a weird thing, half joyous relief, half cold, slow dread, with a soupcon of anti-climax, so it's always a good idea to fill the days immediately afterwards with lots of nice things to take your mind off it – and possibly lots of alcohol too. Towards the end of the book I was writing into the night, up to six thousand words a day. It's a crazy, slightly surreal time and thank God it only happens once a year! Anyway, my editor has now got back to me and suggested that I give it a thoroughly good trimming (which I knew she would, it is stupidly long) and that I needed to do a lot of work on making one of the characters more sympathetic (which I hadn't expected, but I can totally see her point) so a lot of work to do, but for today the sun is shining and I am in denial, catching up with myself and dreaming about an afternoon in the garden with my girls!

So, publication went well, didn't it?! I could not be happier (well, obviously, I could: people queuing through the night outside bookshops, an instant number one bestseller across the world, a huge movie deal etc.) but in the context of reality, wow! Melody Browne spent a couple of weeks at number three in the original fiction charts, just behind Lee Child and Wilbur Smith and is still hovering just outside the top ten, ten weeks later! But quite aside from the fabulous sales figures, the reviews have been amazing! I honestly thought that I hadn't done a very good job with the book. I said to my friend that I thought it was a great book but that someone else (Maggie O’Farrell, for example) should have written it. I felt like my failings as a writer had really dragged the book down. But I'm over that now! It has without a doubt been the best-received of my books to date and the response has been so warm and enthusiastic even I have been caught up in it. So THANK YOU to everyone who sent me lovely messages on facebook or posted glowing reviews on Amazon or left amazing comments in the guestbook here. I am feeling absolutely delighted about everything.

Well, I cannot offer you celebrity-studded awards ceremonies or exclusive preview viewings of Hollywood blockbusters this quarter, I'm afraid. But I can offer you a superb Easter weekend in Westgate on Sea! We were there this time last year as well, you may remember, staying with my friends with the massive eight bedroom Victorian villa that they bought for the same price as their three bed cottage in Hanwell. Again we enjoyed perfect hospitality and incredibly good weather and spent a large chunk of our time there eating and inebriated – yay! The girls and their friend Anna had an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday and then we headed into Margate for some bouncing and a Sunday roast, before heading back to London, fat, tired and happy.

Westgate on Sea April 2009	Westgate on Sea April 2009
My cool girls Westgate on Sea April 2009	Evie on Easter morning, discovering her egg hunt bag Westgate on Sea April 2009
Amelie on Easter morning discovering her Lindt bunny egg. Mmmm, Lindt bunnies ... Westgate on Sea April 2009	Evie having a good old bounce Margate April 2009
Still bouncing Margate April 2009	Amelie doing the Margate bounce Margate April 2009

In April I was asked to join a panel of women’s fiction authors at Waterstones in Notting Hill. Myself, Isabel Wolff and Carole Matthews were the writers in question and it was a superb evening with a great turn out. Waterstones in Notting Hill is a fantastic place for authors, mainly because of Mark Farley who invests a lot of time and energy into organising events like this. I think people who don't work in publishing imagine that authors spend half their lives doing readings and signings but they're actually very rare, mainly because they're a hassle to organise and most booksellers don’t have the time or the energy, but Mark is different. And not only is he great at organising events, he also loves (good quality) chick lit – so double the reasons to give him a huge round of applause – yay for Mark! I met a lot of proper actual fans that night, too, which has never happened to me before, I felt very touched and extremely fortunate, so to everyone reading this who came along to support me that night, I thank you very very much. It was a pleasure to meet you all.

The nearest I've got to glamour this quarter was an invitation to the private viewing of my friend Grace O’Connor’s art exhibition in Bloomsbury. I met Grace when our eldest children were both toddlers, at Gymboree of all places! Now, those without kids will not have the first clue what Gymboree is. Those with kids will know exactly what it is and probably have just made the sign of the cross upon reading these words. Anyway, I won't go into too much detail here, here’s a link if you're curious. Grace was not a typical Hampstead Gymboree mum and was always very complimentary about Amelie's clothes which endeared her to me deeply, so when I overheard her saying that she would not be signing up for another set of lessons (which also endeared her to me deeply!) I did something I've never done before and pressed my e-mail address and mobile number upon her. I'm so glad I did as three years later she has become a great pal. Not only that but I also discovered that she is an incredibly talented artist. I missed her last exhibition so was thrilled to make this one and had such a fabulous night drinking champagne and meeting her family. And I bought one of her paintings! One of my New Year resolutions was to buy a ‘Grace O’Connor’ and when I walked into the gallery I knew immediately which one I wanted. She does not know I've bought it as she once told me very firmly that I was NOT ALLOWED to do so (I think she feels that it is somehow equivalent to me slipping a few notes into her purse when she's not looking), but by the time this goes up on my website, it’ll be too late and the painting will be hanging on my living room wall! It is a thing of great great beauty and I cannot wait until it is in my possession. She is a very brilliant woman.

The next major event was Evie's birthday. She turned two on the 16th May, the day after I delivered my manuscript. And I made her a cake. The cake was nearly a disaster. It had a big hole in it and then collapsed when I tried to layer it together. Luckily I had a tub of Betty Crocker buttercream icing in the fridge which I used to glue the whole thing together. I then slathered it in a slightly institutional-pink cream cheese icing and chucked a load of gubbins on top and actually, apart from the fact that I didn't have enough pink wafers to completely cover the circumference, it looked pretty fab. And more surprisingly than that, it actually tasted quite nice too! So, yes, me and cakes, we're getting there, very slowly. My sisters and their kids and Jascha's parents all came over for said cake, a spot of karaoke and then a huge takeaway curry and the day was a lot of fun. But two years old! How can it be?! Where did my baby go?!

Evie making her grand entrance after her nap, in her Very Beautiful Dress May 2009	The Cake (plus some help from a supporting cast of cupcakes from Waitrose)! May 2009
Evie taking the time to read her cards, such good manners! May 2009	My beautiful birthday girl May 2009
Birthday fairy, coming in to land! May 2009	Evie and revered oldest cousin Oliver May 2009
Revered oldest cousin Oliver looking very cool in a tree May 2009	Evie and Papa May 2009

The last thing of any note I have done this quarter was yet ANOTHER shoot for Red magazine (they love me – I love them – it is all very mutual!). This was a shoot for a spread they are running in their August issue about a few of their favourite writers. It took place at the most amazing studio complex I have ever encountered. I have been to a lot of photographic studios in my time both in my capacity as fashion PR type many moons ago and as a published author and I have never been to one as opulent and glamorous as this. It was like being transported to some parallel world; from a dusty side street in Kentish Town to a temple of understated cool. The other authors being shot were Diana Evans, Mo Hayder, Freya North, Sam Baker and David Nicholls. Marian Keyes and Kate Mosse were photographed separately to be photo-shopped in retrospectively which was a shame as I'd love to have met Kate and Marian is the most gorgeous person and I haven't seen her since I was a bright young thing of thirty. But the best thing about the day, apart from meeting so many lovely writers, was being shown to a huge rail of designer clothes and being told to pick out ANYHTHING I FANCIED! I chose a Nicole Farhi dress and a pair of (frankly, ridiculous) Dolce and Gabanna heels. It was such a treat, and a lovely way to spend half a day in the strange post-delivery zone.

So that brings me to now, and as I say, I am sitting here in the calm before the storm (editing always seems really easy in theory until you open the document, read it and realise you have a nightmare on your hands).

My girls are both brilliant. Amelie has started swimming lessons (God, I feel for her, I used to HATE swimming lessons) and is also doing ballet once a week and a dance club after school. She is treading a lovely line right now between tomboyishness and girlishness, flitting between passions for Ben 10 and Stardoll, going from colouring in to climbing trees in a matter of moments. I’m really hoping that she’ll stay this balanced and not wake up one morning demanding to wear pink and shunning boys from her social circle. She has never shown any interest in clothes, beyond the comfort factor (anything that rubs or itches is OUT – she will not wear her amazing and VERY EXPENSIVE Lelli Kelly shoes because there’s a ‘rough bit’ inside them! A ‘real’ girly girl would put up with the discomfort for the glamour!) and although she has gorgeous long blonde hair she would be perfectly happy to have the lot lopped off (she has said that she wants hair like daddy. I direct you to the photos on this page of ‘daddy’s hair’ to illustrate exactly how little she cares about her hair!)

It is too early to tell whether or not Evie is going to be a pink girl or a tomboy but right now she is pretty much just a gigantic walking personality. She can talk conversationally has a very sophisticated sense of humour and is larger than life. She's not as universally friendly as she once was as I think she has worked out that everyone loves her already so she doesn't have to try so hard. She can be downright rude too, blowing raspberries to signal her disapproval and throwing things across the room in disgust if she doesn't get her own way. But unlike Amelie who was impossible to discipline, she responds very well to time out and is always happy to come back with an apology and a hug. I would say that her default setting is HAPPY and she is a joy to have around, raspberries or not!

So, one more thing before I go: Victoria Connelly is a) an extremely lovely person, has b) long been a champion of my work and is c) publishing her very first paperback in the UK on June 12th. I promised her I would mention it here. It is a really sweet, romantic novel about a girl who wins a million and has to try to give it away undetected and I would thoroughly recommend it as a gentle companion to the gory crime novel you were planning to take on holiday with you!

Coming up over the summer I have a nasty three week bout of editing to do, a new book to start (help!), my brother in law and his wife Mabel will be having their first baby on or around July 16th, I am off to see Blur at Hyde Park on 3rd July, my sister turns 40 (40! My little sister! That’s almost worse than turning 40 yourself!), Amelie will turn six and hopefully me and mine will manage a couple of (as yet unbooked) holidays somewhere warm and sunny.

In the meantime, I thank you all a thousand times from the bottom of my heart for going out and buying my book and being so bloody nice about it. I could not love you all any more if I tried :) xxxxxx

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Previous updates:

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