The main character in Christmas at Clardiges , Clem, is my favourite to date: she's funky, feisty, and seemingly living the ultimate girl-about-town lifestyle. I set the initial action of the book in Portobello - so there's lots of references to the market, the royal parks, heritage sites like the Electric cinema - but then we relocate to Portofino where Clem's brought face-to-face with her past and things become a lot darker. Why Portofino? Partly because I loved the linguistic echoes between both settings: Portobello and Portofino sound so similar but they're vastly different from one another in terms of culture, vibe, scale etc, and the book hinges around why and how Clem can belong to both.
Christmas at Claridges
This is your third book set at Christmas time so how important is Christmas to you and your family?
Christmas is entirely about family for me and I spend the day nesting madly and trying to create perfect memories for us all. I am hugely aware of the blessings that have been heaped upon me - my husband is my best friend, I can't believe I found him, and as for my children…well, eleven years in, they just floor me. I'm not sure I will ever be able to look at them and not feel euphoric that they're actually mine. Christmas just feels like the day that really epitomizes all those feelings of belonging to, and cherishing, each other.
What made you want to transport this book the The Claridges Hotel?
It's always been my favourite hotel so hanging out there in the name of 'research' was far from a hardship, but the readers will see when they read the book, exactly why it had to be Claridges and no other. If I explained it here, it'd give away the ending but there's one thing that Claridges does at Christmas which was central to my plot.
Why is this book the perfect Christmas read?
Well, Christmas at Claridges is set over a year so very strictly speaking, this isn't a Christmas book in that it isn't based around a couple of days over Christmas. Having said that, it begins at New Year's Eve and ends at Christmas, so you open and close on a high festive note. There was some criticism of Christmas at Tiffanys that it wasn't a 'true' Christmas book because, it too, spanned a year but it was still a Sunday Times Top Ten best-seller because it did what every book should do, regardless of publication date - it took the readers on a journey out of their own lives and into the characters'. It showed me that readers don't mind in the least to be reading about the Italian Riviera summer or Paris in Spring on Boxing Day, so long as they are fully transported into the action. I care much more about telling a really emotionally-developed, authentic story that has my readers gripped than giving them snow-scenes just to fit a marketing campaign, and I really believe I've done that with Christmas at Claridges. Accessorize it with a fire / bath/ warm bed, drink and cashmere socks and you'll be good to go. That's what a good Christmas read is to me. Cosiness and escape.
What is Christmas like in your house?
Chaotic and noisy. It usually starts at dawn, involves the children eating their gingerbread houses for breakfast and the dogs almost setting their tails alight in the fire as stockings are opened. I always cook the turkey overnight in the Aga so we come down to heavenly smells and I insist on having cheesy 50s crooners singing songs like 'Snow Snow Snow' on max (much to my husband and the dogs' despair.).
Who do you most like to read at this time of year?
I have a strict rule of never reading other writers' books when I'm writing my own as I just absorb tone like a sponge, but I always finish writing a few weeks before Christmas and then fall upon the books beside my bed with voracious appetite. I do love Robert Harris, Ian McEwan and William Boyd, so I tend to stockpile their newest offerings for then.
What was the appeal of setting the book in London for you?
I'm a Londoner, born and bred, and Portobello captured my heart as a teenager. Even when I was doing 'research' (ahem) in the market, I felt exactly the same as I had as a sixteen-year old rifling through the rails and listening to the street music. I always strive to bring a strong sense of place to my books, so it's important that I know and understand the places I write about, and London is my spiritual home. I live in the countryside now, because we wanted a certain lifestyle for our children, but every time I come back in, my heart beats a little faster and I feel ridiculously optimistic. It's the best city in the world, in my opinion. Who wouldn't want an opportunity to have a glamorous and sexy adventure there?
What is your writing process?
Many, many cups of tea and trying to squeeze my word count in between school runs. I really don't have the luxury of writers block; I have tight deadlines and just stare, grim-faced, at the screen until something comes - invariably it does, although there have been cases where it's taken up to eight hours. I do a lot of thinking when I'm walking my dogs on the forest first thing in the morning, and also in the car. You drive a lot in the country so I find I sort out a lot of plot niggles in third gear.
If you could have dinner with any author who would it be?
John Irving, because apparently he writes his books backwards, starting with the last line first. My own process is so much more foggy: I know vaguely what the story is but I've found from experience I have to actually go on the journey with the character and much of what happens is a complete surprise to me, so the idea that you could map a book so fully in advance that you can write it backwards is just mind-boggling to me.
What is next for you?
Hopefully more of the same. I love what I do and would do it for free (ssh, don't tell my publisher!) but I suppose my ultimate goal is to have one of my books adapted to film. I can't begin to tell you the number of emails I've had from readers asking if Christmas at Tiffanys is going to be on the big screen. It can be a poisoned chalice of course; In the wrong hands, your story could be destroyed, but I think my children would think it was exceptionally cool. Or, as they'd say, 'beast.'