Anton Du Beke "narrates" his books to a writer rather than typing them up himself.
Anton Du Beke
The 'Strictly Come Dancing' star - who was paired with Jacqui Smith for two weeks before she got axed from the current series - has opened up on his writing process after penning his third novel 'A Christmas To Remember', revealing he tells the story out loud and someone else gets it down on the page.
Appearing on ITV's 'Loose Women' on Wednesday (25.11.20), he said: "No, it's not [easy]. Everybody has their own process.
"My process - as you can tell - is to talk, is to narrate. I narrate it.
"I've got the story in my head. Somebody said it's a bit of the same way that Barbara Cartland used to do it. She used to narrate it."
The 54-year-old writer - who has three novels in his series, which focuses on dancers Raymond and Nancy at the Buckingham Hotel - compared his creative process to working out a dance, as he opened up to his former 'Strictly' partner Ruth Langsford on the panel.
He added: "This is not my skill, the tapping, we'd be all old and grey before I got through that. So I have to tell the story.
"The way I do it, I do it as though I'm choreographing something. If Ruthie and I were dancing, I would choreograph this thing for them. I do the same thing when I'm telling the story.
"I just see it in my mind, and I narrate the story. I know how I wanna begin, I know how I'm gonna end, and I sort of work my way through the whole story.
"That's my process. My skill comes from being able to tell a story."
Ruth's co-star Janet Street-Porter joked that Anton - who recently made his debut as a stand-in judge on 'Strictly' - could have a money-maker on his hands if he followed in the footsteps of Alan Titchmarsh by writing "saucier" novels.
He quipped: "Oh is there? '25 Shades of Beige', I don't mind if I do...
"The problem is, being a man and writing it, it'd probably be over in four and a half pages.
"I'd have to write it from the female's perspective and perhaps fill a couple of chapters."
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