Tributes to the novelist Penny Vincenzi have poured in following her death this week at the age of 78. Her agent, Clare Alexander, described her as “an irreplaceable friend”, while author Sophie Kinsella said: “She was like one of her novels. Once you were in her company you didn’t want to say goodbye.” They’re fitting words. I was a huge fan of Penny Vincenzi’s novels and was lucky enough to ...keep reading
Four years have flown by since I sat in a huge marquee in Oxford and listened to David Nicholls talking about the success of One Day. His bestselling story of university friends Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew had taken the world by storm and had just been turned into a film (adapted by Nicholls himself and starring Anne Hathaway as the awkward, insecure Emma). Fans like me have been looking ...keep reading
How can a whole year have flown by since the 2011 Henley Literary Festival? And how can this year’s autumn weather be so different ? Twelve months ago I listened to Bella Pollen and Kay Burley talk about their books in sweltering sunshine. This year the audience at Jeremy Vine’s event were all in winter coats, scarves and (in my case) fingerless gloves. But who cared about the chilly temperature ...keep reading
After snapping up tickets for loads of literary festivals in quick succession, I’d resolved not to blog about them for a while. But then I went to a talk by Penny Vincenzi at the Henley Literary Festival and she came up with such good advice for would-be novelists that I’m reneging on my promise. Vincenzi is a big hitter in the novel-writing stakes. A former journalist who cut her writing ...keep reading
I bet the organisers of the Henley Literary Festival could scarcely believe their luck. Of all the weeks to host their five-day event, they’d chosen the glorious last days of summer, when the sun shone, temperatures soared and we all bared our legs again. Sitting on the terrace at Bix Manor, a pretty country hotel two miles up the road from Henley (above), everything seemed right with the world. I ...keep reading