My love affair with Cornwall
Cornwall’s always been one of my favourite places, even before Poldark took his top off and picked up a scythe. I fell in love with the wild and wonderful county during family holidays and it was the perfect setting for my Salt Bay series of books – especially as that gave me a brilliant excuse for a research trip to the lovely Penzance area.
Liz Eeles
Me and the Professor
Science is fascinating and I’ll watch anything with Professor Brian Cox in it – who wouldn’t! One of my favourite jobs was working as a press officer for Cancer Research UK where I got to talk science with hugely clever researchers.
Meditation is magic!
I aim to meditate for at least ten minutes every day, often before I start writing because it clears my head. I have the anxiety disorder OCD – no, my house isn’t incredibly tidy because there are lots of different types – and meditation helps me to keep it in check so I can get on with my life. The Headspace meditation app is very good.
I travelled non-stop from Athens to London on a bus
This was a cheap way to get home in my early twenties after a few months working on a kibbutz in Israel. Pre-euro and without currency for the countries we passed through, I lived on biscuits for days.
My alcohol-free life
My grown-up children and I have severe allergies so my bag is always full of EpiPens. As well as having to avoid some foods (including chocolate!), I react to alcohol so publication day is celebrated with fizzy water rather than champagne. I’m a very cheap date!
I’ve performed at the Royal Albert Hall
Not on my own, because no one would want that. I sang Mozart’s Requiem there as part of a mass choir which was an unforgettable experience. Singing in choirs is something I’ve done since my school days – and that inspired me to include a village choir in my new book, Annie’s Christmas By The Sea, and my first book, Annie’s Holiday By The Sea.
I’m a terrible cook
I love watching The Great British Bake Off but I hate cooking and am really bad at it. I regularly burn saucepans because I wander off to do something less boring, and my children used to know their tea was ready when the smoke alarm went off.
I’ve hobnobbed with the Queen at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party
Well, I saw the Queen from a distance and a few other Royals too. I had to wear a hat (which I hated) but I got to have a good old nose around the back of Buck House (which I loved). It’s rather grand.
Writing second drafts is the best
Writing the first draft is daunting, with so many blank pages to fill, and invariably prompts a confidence crisis half-way through - there are how many words left to go; who in their right mind would want to read this anyway? But writing the second draft is brilliant. Words are already there to be moved around and polished and, before long, the 95,000 words you scribbled down are transformed into a proper book.
I’m brilliant at sleeping
I can fall asleep almost immediately. It doesn’t matter how much the novel I’m working on is whizzing around my head or what else is going on in my life. Head hits pillow and ….zzzzzzz.
