Graham Norton, Jill Mansell, Holly Bourne and Beth Good tell us which of their characters deserve a special Christmas gift!
Christmas is just around the corner now, and we couldn’t be more excited for mulled wine, pigs in blankets, and lots of presents under the tree!
When Elizabeth was a little girl, I wish her mother Patricia had bought her a puppy, so that she would have felt less alone.
Definitely Zillah, everyone’s favourite character from This Could Change Everything (and named after my own glamorous grandmother.) She’s eighty three, incredibly stylish and glamorous, and I’d love to buy her something wonderful. I’d get her a stunning violet hat with a wide brim and a swooping green and purple peacock feather at the side. And a Chanel lipstick in fuschia pink with velvet gloves to match.
I’d get Dee one of those dummies which makes your baby look like it has a moustache. I’ve been waiting my whole life to see a baby have one of those moustache dummies. If I ever have a baby myself, that will be one of the major reasons I choose to have one.
Lizzie from Winter Without You, one of my heroine’s besties, who’s a complete darling. She loves to dance about, but hardly has a penny to her name,so I would get her an iPod and load it with great pop songs!
I’d buy Halley, from A Winter Beneath the Stars, a new suitcase, one that looks different from everybody else’s! But then, if she had that, she may never have gone on the journey of a lifetime! So maybe just a new travel journal, to write down all her new adventures!
Hmm, I would probably by some paints for Abby as painting is her true passion and maybe the creative process would help her come to terms with all she’s been through.
As those who’ve read The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village will know, Peggy desperately needs a new swimming costume. I’d dearly love to buy her one for Christmas, but after her debacle with the “Miraclesuit”, I’m apprehensive. We all know that choosing swimwear is tricky at the best of times and after her marathon shopping trip with Angie, I’m not sure I’d get Peggy anywhere near a changing room. I think I’ll play it safe and treat her to a day out at Cadbury World instead.
Camembert, parsnips and sherry – we ask, what is your go-to Christmas dish?
Can you believe that it is December already? Here at Bookends HQ, we are MORE than ready for all the joys that the Christmas season brings – including the food! Next up in our Bookends Christmas author series, we’ve asked, what is your go-to Christmas dish?
Coconut Lindt Lindors, amazing roast potatoes and a glass of sherry. Maybe not all at the same time. Then again, now that I’ve written it down it’s starting to sound rather delicious.
Roast parsnips, for sure. I love them crispy brown on the outside and soft in the middle, and I don’t know why but they taste better at Christmas than any other day of the year.
My friends and I always have a girls’ night in on Christmas Eve, where we eat one baked Camembert each. Then we feel so ill afterwards that we can’t sleep when we get home, and spend actual Christmas day sleep-deprived, sweaty, groaning and messaging one another: “We’ve got to stop doing this each year. One cheese between three is enough.” But it’s sort of an unbreakable ritual now.
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Who’s the hardest person to buy for on your Christmas list?
Guys there’s no denying it, we’re feeling festive. We’re ready to wallow in tinsel and mull everything in sight, so we’ve asked some of our fabulous authors to give us a sneak peek into how they spend their Christmas. First up we’ve got Jill Mansell, Karen Cole, Daniela Sacerdoti and Beth Good telling us all about those hard-to-buy-for relatives on their Christmas list!
Jill Mansell, author of This Could Change Everything.
Oh, my other half of course. Nightmare! After 32 years together, I’m forbidden from buying him any more bright stripy shirts. Because apparently 748 of them is enough. He’s so unhelpful too – he just tells me not to worry about what to get him because there’s nothing he needs. Anyone who says that needs to be slung into a police cell until they can come up with a more constructive answer.
Nobody really! I love buying gifts and I don’t usually run short of ideas. If I’m stuck I enjoy making up themed boxes, like a Night In box with things like pjs, nail polish, a book and some chocolate, or a Traveller’s box with a journal and a passport holder, a Winter Holidays box with gloves, a mug and hand cream…and more chocolate! I like being inventive and I like spoiling my friends and family.
Probably my elderly father, who’s not in the best of health. He shouldn’t have the presents he used to love best – brazil nuts in dark chocolate and a bottle of cognac, for instance! – but is rarely impressed by anything cosy and practical, like a scarf or slippers.