What can readers expect from your new book The Sunshine and Biscotti Club?
Jenny Oliver
It's a story about a group of friends, once really close, reuniting to help their struggling pal, Libby, renovate a faded-glory hotel that sits on the edge of a Tuscan lake. Opening day deadline looms for not only the hotel but also the newly created Sunshine and Biscotti Baking Club - which needs some (in the case of Libby's friends, reluctant) guinea pigs for its trial run!
When I wrote it, I was most interested in looking at the grey areas of relationships. The subtle shifts that make a person wonder why they ever got married, or the lifestyle changes that make a friendship flounder - and, fingers crossed, this is the underlying essence of the story: exploring the past and re-evaluating the present in order to look forward to the future.
Set to the backdrop of this beautiful old hotel with The Sunshine and Biscotti Baking Club in the back garden, a stunning lake lapping nearby and the scent of the next-door lemon grove drifting in the air, it's a book to make you feel like summer!
What attracted you to Tuscany as the setting for this book?
I was on holiday there with my family and as we drove through the amazing landscape, walked winding paths through hillside vineyards, sipped ice cold Limoncello, sat in the orange and lemon grove garden of our little B&B, I started plotting the book that became The Sunshine and Biscotti Club. It was all too evocative not to write about - which was lucky because I had a deadline on the horizon!
You wrote your first book when you were on holiday at the age of ten- so can you tell us a little bit about it?
I wrote it when I was on a family holiday to Corfu in a notebook from the local supermarket. It was a story about four girls who all fancied the same boy. The plot is shaky to say the least. I illustrated it with pictures from my sister's Vogue and the main concern was whether there were enough pictures of the characters to keep it going. Luckily, unbeknownst to ten-year-old me, I'd picked mostly supermodels. I still have it, it's one of my treasured possessions!
How much has your English degree and your job in publishing helped you to write your books?
The job in publishing was invaluable because editing taught me about character and conflict. I knew I wanted to write but my ideas and stories meandered without focus. My first job was at Mills & Boon where stories have to pack a punch in a very short word count. It was one of the best training grounds I think you could have and I learnt from some of the most incredible editors about how to craft a good story.
You have written novels and novellas so do you have a preference between the two?
I'd never written novellas before I wrote the Cherry Pie Island series which consists of five books all set on a leafy, Thames-side island and follows the characters of this community. It was really fun but a sharp learning curve! What I hadn't really realised before starting was that a novella needs the same depth of idea just expressed in a lower word count - so they're very intense to write! I loved doing them but it made a nice change to go back to writing a bigger book with more time to explore all the different threads in detail.
Why is this the perfect summer read?
It comes with the guarantee of whisking you away to warm sunshine, tranquil blue water and the hum of cicadas in the air! The weather is so temperamental, in the UK especially, it's nice to know you have that promise of escape! Most importantly, I hope, it's a story that will make you want to pick up and keep reading when you have those precious moments of spare time, and characters that will hook you till the very last page - that's the key to a great summer read.
This story is about friendship, so how important is friendship in your life?
It's up there in one of the top spots! My friends just make my life better in every way. While they're really funny and interesting people to hang out with, they have also been invaluable in the tougher times. Most recently, in the first few months of having my baby, many of them were subjected to endless walks around the block while I fretted about the minutiae of sleep and feeding! I also think it's really important to have friendship within a relationship, my mum always used to say that my dad was her best friend and that definitely stuck with me, and I would say it now about my husband.
Who are your reading right now and which authors have inspired you over the years?
At the moment I am reading Eligible, the brilliant reimagining of Pride and Prejudice, by Curtis Sittenfeld whose books I love. And then next on my to-read pile is So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson which I know will be really interesting.
I think every author I read influences me in some way. My all-time favourites are Jilly Cooper, Rosamond Lehmann, Curtis Sittenfeld and Rainbow Rowell.
What is your favourite thing to bake?
The secret family lemon cake recipe.
What is next for you?
My next book will be out May 2017. It's a kernel of an idea at the moment - at that stage where it's too precious, and too flimsy, to say it out loud because it could just pop into nothing. Like a dandelion clock.