TARNISHED launch

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Last week it was the launch party for TARNISHED, held at Brighton Waterstones. Despite the strange, heavy April snowstorm that kicked off at about the same time as the launch, it was a great night. Loads of people turned up and enjoyed wine generously supplied by my publishers Headline, and amazing mozzarella, parmesan, parma ham and various salume provided, as ever, by my sis-in-law’s company the Ham & Cheese Co.

A book launch is a marvellous thing for the author.… read more

If the writing goes tits up…

I’ve just had the most enormous fun making a trailer for Every Vow You Break. For me, writing is like running a movie in my head. So, it seems, is making a movie.

Last week, on a bitingly cold but brightly sunny day, I wrapped up so warm that I could barely move and set off into the wilds of Stanmer Park with YoungSon’s fancy schmancy camera. After half an hour of fiddling, I worked out how to switch it on, and I set off into the woods.… read more

New Author Pics

So, I decided I’d like a new author pic, set outside on the beach, with a bit of wind in me hair.

I went down there on Tuesday with photographer and friend Matthew Andrews. It was only then that I realised that this would entail me standing on the beach looking like a right old poseur, with reflectors pushing sunlight up into the crevices of my face and a bloke pointing a camera at me.… read more

The Back Burner

So just a couple more name-drops here. I went to the exceedingly fragrant Charleston Festival with my friend Ruthie and we heard Esther Freud and Edward St Aubyn talk about drawing from their lives for their work. Then, after lunch by the marquee, we went for a big old walk up Firle Beacon. After that it was Joanna Trollope being interviewed by (and at times making mincemeat of) William Nicholson.

I love Joanna Trollope’s writing – it is so clean and clear and well-structured – a bit like her, in fact.… read more

Cuckoo is a TV Star

They're smiling, so I think they like it...

Cuckoo was reviewed on Channel 10’s May Book Club on Australian TV. It got some hearty reviews from readers, but an overall thumbs up – although, frustratingly, I can’t see the video because I’m outside Australia.

I have had a week of domestic and administrative tasks while my editor reads novel #2. Nothing takes the mind off work like a bit of shelf-erecting. Oh, and I branched out into my other job over the weekend to twiddle the lighting knobs for OldMan’s show my arm, which he performed in Schaffhausen in Switzerland.… read more

I Love Kemp Town Bookshop

So this is what you see when you walk in the door at the wonderful Kemp Town Bookshop in Brighton.

I went in the other day while Big and Little Sons were having their hair cut over the road at Barber Black Sheep (proud holder of the title of  best named shop in Britain), and introduced myself as a local author. They ordered the Cuckoos, and when I went in to sign them this morning, look where they had put them!… read more

Parmesan? in a bookshop?

Photo by Peter Chrisp

So it was my book launch on Friday. And what a night!

Alison with some of the best Parmesan cheese in the world

Brighton Waterstone’s hosted the event, Headline very generously provided the wine and my sister in law, Alison Crouch, provided the food, which was a highlight of the night. She imports Parma ham, Mozzarella, Parmesan and Salume from Italy and France and sells them in Borough Market and online. … read more