- How did you celebrate when you received the first call that you
would be published?
I
chartered a jet, flew to Paris and
blew my entire advance at Chanel! No, actually I was at work when my agent
called and so I just went to the bathroom and screamed. Screaming in there was
quite normal; I worked on a glossy magazine and the ladies’ room was always
full of hysterical girls crying and comparing eating disorders. You could never
use the basins; they were always crammed with bouquets people had been sent.
- Was it just as exciting to see your newest book, Beautiful People published?
Of
course – perhaps more so, as it’s my ninth book and given how competitive
publishing is I’m thrilled to still be writing at all. Let alone having notched
up nine consecutive top ten UK
bestsellers and now being published in the US,
an inspirational country with a fantastic spirit and great sense of humour. So
I’m praying my funny book will go down well there!
- Without giving anything away - what is Beautiful People?
It’s
the story of two actresses. Darcy is one of those upper-class English Roses,
all porcelain skin and cut-glass accent. She’s from British acting royalty and
takes herself a bit seriously; she’s doing naked Shakespeare in the boondocks
when the call comes from a hot Hollywood director and
she’s not at all sure she wants to hear it. Let alone starve and exercise
herself down to the required double zero – Darcy hates running as much as she
adores food. Belle, on the other hand,
would starve herself to quadruple zero if necessary. She’s a total fame slut, a
former A-list actress whose career is on the skids. She’ll do anything to get
back on top, including theatre acting in London
(for credibility) and adopting an African baby (for Angelina points). But her
star’s on the wane as Darcy’s is on the rise – and boy does the fur fly when
they meet!
- Where did the idea for Beautiful
People come from?
I was on holiday in Italy
– where a great deal of Beautiful People
is set – and eating my umpteenth huge and delicious dinner in one of those
heavenly restaurants set under the ancient arches of some beautiful old village
square. For some reason I started imagining a comedy about an actress who adored
food being told she had to eat nothing but egg whites and work out for hours
every day with a personal ‘thinstructor’. It kind of grew from there!
- Do you think Beautiful
People appeals to readers of a certain genre (or genres) or do you
think anyone can pretty much pick it up and enjoy it?
I hope anyone can enjoy it. Its central comic subjects
are fame, films and food which pretty much everyone knows and has an opinion
about.
- Do you plan your books out or do you just write and see where it
takes you?
I have a central idea and I plan to some extent, but I am
always surprised at the way you get ideas as you go along. That part of the
process is really exciting, as is the amazing way your subconscious works out
problems for you.
- Do you get time to read? What are your favorite types of books to
read?
I read all the time. I love comic fiction; something British
women do especially well. English female authors like Richmal Crompton (Just William), Nancy Mitford (The Pursuit of Love) and Sue Townsend (Adrian Mole) write wittily, wisely and
with a wonderful spare elegance. They are an inspiration as well as a pleasure.
- What is your favorite room in your house?
I
like all the rooms in my house, but I especially adore my bedroom because it
has a simply huge bed with a duck-feather mattress-topper and sinking into it
is like sinking into a cloud. I love to wake early in the mornings and lie
there listening to the birds in the garden.
- What is your favorite spot to read in?
There
are two; on the big swing in the garden where I can gently rock and look out
over the beautiful valley (see it on my website
www.wendyholden.net).
Otherwise, there’s a little sitting room in my house with bookcases, CDs and
two big red armchairs with footrests. It was designed as a room to read and
listen to music in and the children aren’t allowed to come in it (but they do,
all the time!)
Crystal: I know all about the children part - I don't have a special room, but I often ask to be left alone for a little while and they are always there and the mommy in me just gives in. :)
- What is your favorite snack food?
Cheese and onion crisps, preferably Seabrook’s. Though I can
always make room for bagel chips as well. And I love biscuits. And sometimes,
when you want that little tang of something salty halfway through the morning,
there’s nothing quite like a forkful of Parma
ham. Oh, and fries are irresistible too, and a handful of pistachios,
especially with raisins, is delicious . And I’ve just made some small cakes
with my daughter with pink buttercream icing and silver dragees, which fill in
that space between lunch and supper…excuse me, I just had to go up to the house
and get one.
Crystal: You are making me hungry and I'm not sure I know what half of the foods you talked about were :)
- What is your favorite season?
Spring,
which is where we are at the moment. It’s such a huge relief after what seemed
an endless winter, with Arctic snowfall. I couldn’t get the car out and the
children had to go to school by sledge. But now all the narcissi are coming
out, the pink camellia are emerging and the woodland paths are dry, as Yeats
says. Perhaps, like me, he got fed up of trudging round in the mud all the
time.
- Do you have a schedule for writing each day or do you just do it
when you can?
Before
I wrote full-time I worked as a journalist as well and had to write in the
mornings before work and also throughout the holidays. It was a pretty
miserable experience, especially for my husband, and now it’s such a privilege
to be able to write all day every day and have proper holidays
- Where do you do the majority of your writing?
When we bought this house there was a small wooden summer
house in the garden, crammed with junk. I cleared it out, built on an extra room
(not personally, I’m not the DIY type) and now it’s my writing hut. It’s quite
glamorous, with fairy lights, rugs, a bust of Shakespeare, a pink telephone, a
chaise longue, lots of pictures, a phrenologist’s head and a turntable with a
collection of Nat King Cole LPs. Oh, and shelf
upon shelf of books; all my foreign editions mostly. It’s thrilling to look up
and see my titles in Russian and Japanese! But I have to say that apart from
the computer the heater is the most essential piece of kit; in winter I come in
to find the water in my bottle frozen!
- You have had a variety of
writing/editing jobs, what is one of the funniest stories you can share
from working in that world of publishing?
Well once I worked for a very grand glossy magazine editor
who asked me if I knew the difference between aristocratic legs and legs that
belonged to ordinary people. She then went on to describe the former; long,
thin and with the knee equidistant between the hipbone and the ankle bone. She
then explained that ordinary people, by contrast, have a long thighbone and a
short calf and their legs tend to be chunkier. Looking round the office, it
seemed to me that most of the girls there had the ordinary sort of leg, even
though they all saw themselves as practically royal.
- Did you find writing Beautiful
People to be difficult or did the book just take off with no problems?
It was quite straightforward, which is always a good
sign. It’s when you find yourself hovering over certain sections, and returning
to them over and over again like an anxious wasp, that you know something is
wrong, that a book is not working. But I enjoyed writing Beautiful People enormously, and I hope that shows.
- Any book signings/conferences/public/blog appearances in the near
future?
I’ve
been lucky enough to be asked to do lots of blogs, including
Chick
Lit Is Not Dead, the
Sourcebooks
Casablanca Authors Group Blog, and a bunch more in the coming weeks! The
American literary blog culture is impressively highly developed, much more so
than in the
UK.
I’ve loved doing them – is there anything more fun than answering endless
questions about yourself? It’s the conversation from heaven!
- Do you have a new book in the works?
I certainly have. I’ve just finished Gallery Girl, which is a comedy about
contemporary art. My heroine works in an ‘edgy’ gallery full of hairy pebbles
and wheelchairs sprayed gold. There are some great characters including a rock
n roll bad boy artist and a wealthy art buyer who expects a lot more than just
paintings from the artists she patronizes!
Crystal: Now that sounds interesting. I'll have to check that out when it comes out.
- Anything else you would like to say?
Thank
you for having me. It’s been a treat, and talking of treats I think I’ll just
nip up to the house and have another cake…
ABOUT THE BOOK
A witty, utterly addictive novel
from bestselling author Wendy Holden, Beautiful People is a tale wicked
in its observations yet buoyant at its heart: an irresistible confection you’ll
want to devour immediately.
Darcy—a struggling English rose
actress when The Call comes from L.A. An Oscar-tastic director. A movie to make her famous. The hunkiest
costar in Hollywood. So why doesn’t she want to go?
Belle—a size-zero film star but
she’s in big, fat trouble. Hotter than the earth’s core a year ago, she’s now
Tinseltown toast after her last film bombed. Can she get back to the big time?
Emma—a down-to-earth,
down-on-her-luck nanny trying to weather London’s cutthroat childcare scene and celebrity mom whirlwinds.
What will it take for her to get back in control of her own life?
Jet to London, Hollywood, and Italy; toss in a passionate star chef, a kindhearted paparazzo,
and a reluctant male supermodel; and find Wendy Holden at her best—a smash
international hit.
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