Lisa Jewell: Diary September 2004

Diary

September 2004

So, last time I wrote it was June and it was freezing. This time round it's September and it's roasting. What a weird country we live in …

It's been a strange old summer. I've spent most of it in hospitals, first of all while my mum was having chemo and then, just as she finished her course, my sister's new baby was taken ill and they both spent three weeks in hospital, so back I went. When I think back on the summer of 2004, I will think of hospitals.

All of this has meant that my sterling talk of cracking on with book number six immediately has come to nothing and that book number six is currently one and a half pages long! Ah, well. There is a long dark winter ahead of me and I'm sure I'll be able to catch up with myself.

The most exciting thing to happen to me this summer was seeing the new artwork for book number five. I can't post it up just yet, but trust me, it is beautiful. Completely different to anything I've had before. The book's called Vince and Joy and it's out in paperback (hooray for paperbacks!) on 24 th February. Here's the official back cover blurb:

Remember having sex for the very first time?

Remember thinking, this is The One?

Remember life getting in the way?

Remember wondering, what happened to the person I once was?

And what happened to the person I first fell in love with?

For Vince and Joy, finding you destiny is easy … Following it, isn't …

From teenage love in an eighties holiday park to flatshares, relationships, career crises and children, Vince and Joy is the unforgettable story of two lives lived separately but forever entwined and asks the question: How do you know when something is really meant to be?

Penguin are really pushing the boat out for me with this one. They've got an amazing marketing campaign lined up for it and in return, they're going to make me do all sorts of scary things to promote it – like live TV and Radio. Gulp. I hate live TV and Radio. I'm always so terrified I'm going to say something stupid and irretractable. My approach in the past has been not to think about it until I'm in the interview chair and then just say the first thing that comes into my head. I've always followed my mum's advice to ‘be yourself'. Which was fine when I was a fresh-faced debut novelist, but now that I'm a bit more seasoned I'm going to have to take a more professional approach. I'll have to think hard about what I want to say and plan how I'm going to say it. I'll have to be more … serious . No more winging it for me. What a terrifying prospect.

Call that a cake? Amelie clearly isn't a cup cake kind of a girl

The other high spot of my summer was Amelie's first birthday. I have to say, it was about a hundred times more exciting than my 36 th the previous week. I went out in the morning and spent a fortune on big pink helium balloons and sparkly candles. Her grandparents and aunties arrived in the afternoon and we all drank champagne and ate chocolate cake in the garden. It was glorious and Amelie loved every minute. I couldn't believe that a whole year had passed since she first arrived in our world and I felt quite emotional thinking how far we'd all come. She truly is a fantastic little girl and I'm very very proud of her.

We're off on holiday again in a fortnight – ten days in Lagos in Portugal. It's Jascha's annual golf holiday. We go every year (except last year when Amelie was busy being a newborn) but this is our first time with a child. Usually in Lagos, Katy and I spend our days lying around on sun loungers reading entire books and drinking beer at lunchtime while the boys are on the golf course. It's going to be very different indeed this time round now that we've both got kids – harder work than being at home, where at least I get part time child care and Jascha's around at the weekends. Oh well, I'm sure it will still be a laugh – and there's no reason whatsoever not to drink beer at lunchtime with a baby, is there? So - if you're in Lagos between 24 th September and 3 rd October look out for a tipsy blonde woman in dangly earrings pushing a corpulent blonde baby around in a pram – it might be me!

Love, as ever, to all of you. Here, for the clucky, are some more pics of my birthday girl.

Lisa xxxx


Amelie and I enjoying the good old British seaside in Westgate-on-Sea.	Amelie waits for one of her minions to bring her another beer

Eating al fresco. As long as there is an inexhaustible supply of French bread, Amelie is happy to dine out anywhere.	Amelie looks just like her dad, but as this picture illustrates, she is most definitely her mother’s child.

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