Lisa Jewell: Diary March 2005

Diary

March 2005

Hello! And a most belated Happy New Year! Well, it's been a nasty old winter (what's with all this snow – is this the Yorkshire Dales? I don't think so) but it's nearly over now thank God and I've just done a bulk order of summer dresses for Amelie from my mail order catalogue which has made me even more impatient for the summer to come. She's finally walking and will be able to enjoy the communal garden this summer, playing with all the other children instead of sitting on a blanket looking grumpy like last year.

Jascha turned forty last week. Blimey. I took him to Claridges for the night as a surprise. But the biggest surprise was on me when we were upgraded, for no particular reason, from a standard double to a deluxe suite (see pics below). We had dinner downstairs at Gordon Ramsay and the following morning I slept until 11am. This was our first night away from Amelie and my first lie-in since July 2003!

It was on his 30 th birthday that Jascha first declared his feelings for me over pancakes on Battersea Park Road, so his 40 th really brought the last ten years of my life into focus. In ten years I have got divorced, met the love of my life, written five books, been to sixteen countries, got married again, bought a house and had a baby. It made me wonder where I'd be now if Jascha hadn't bitten the bullet that day and told me how he felt. We'd probably have carried on being friends then one of us would have left the company and we'd have lost touch. Who would I have ended up with instead and would I have ever written Ralph's Party? It's a weird thought. And it's sort of the inspiration behind Vince and Joy. Does your destiny chase you around like a demented dog if it misses you first time, or does it just slink away into the shadows? Maybe I'd have bumped into Jascha again and we'd have started our journey then, or maybe we'd never have seen each other again. It's scary to imagine the myriad possible outcomes in life.

Well, I seem to have got out of bed on the philosophical side this morning, and I know you came here looking for news. So what is there to report? Well, the embryonic chapters of book number six have done their usual round of my friend Sarah and my agent Judith. It never really feels like I'm writing a book until they've seen the early bits and tell me what it is I'm trying to write! They were both very positive about it so I'm cracking on with it now. It doesn't have a title yet (well, it does, but it's crap, so I'm not going to share it with you) but in a nutshell, it's like Ralph's Party, only with weirdoes.

Talking of Ralph's Party, Rebecca left a message in my guestbook last month asking about the ‘missing' Cheri chapters. I actually thought I'd lost them but found them in an old file on my PC, so have posted them up here. They're a bit depressing and rambling, but interesting, I suppose, if you ever wondered what made Cheri tick. Or just if you're really, really bored and have nothing better to do.

The saga of the new jacket goes on, but I think we've finally nailed it. There's a cover posted on Amazon now which is nearly but not quite the finished thing. But Vince and Joy is still definitely being published on August 5 th (did you notice the banner on the home page, especially for those people who never read my diary?!) and is still going to be accompanied by massive marketing. It's so hard to imagine when I'm sequestered away in my office being a writer all morning and pushing a pram around London being a mum all afternoon, that there will come a time when I'll be in TV studios and radio stations and being photographed for magazines. It seems so far-removed from my normal existence that I can't believe it'll actually happen. It makes me feel excited and vommity, all at the same time.

I'll write back soon, when the sun's out and the summer's here, but until then, here's my regular baby bore corner:


Amelie looking very French in the local playground. Yes, she is the best dressed child in north London. Which is saying something.	Amelie on Christmas Day having a fag break with Uncle Dan and Uncle Lee.

Amelie looking to the manner born in a fluffy tiara on New Years Day. She was most definitely royalty in a former life. Possibly a Belgian Queen.	Amelie inspects the mini bar in her deluxe suite at Claridges. I took her there for tea in the afternoon, to get my money's worth. She was mildly impressed.

Our bedroom at Claridges. Wow.	Eating out on Mother's Day – just to prove that she does actually smile occasionally.

Kisses and Love,

Lisa xxxx

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