Gallery

Posted on 15 March 2011 by Freya North

At work…

  • How I love this cover! It`s the first time we`ve used embossed gold foil on one of my jackets - and I think it really works!
  • This is the cover of my 10th novel, Secrets. The brief was colour colour colour. I was inspired by the Apple iPod Nano advertising!
  • My career high - winning the Romantic Novel of the Year award for this book
  • This novel reunited Cat, Fen and Pip - and of course their eccentric uncle, Django!
  • This novel really had my readers in a tizzy as to whether they liked the ending or not!
  • This was the re-jigged cover for the main paperback edition. The pink was incredible - they should do nail varnish that colour. I didn`t like the pillow emblem...too corny...
  • The blue used was as close as we could find to the blue of tanzanite, the precious gem featured in the story...
  • I wasn`t sure about this cover, either. I loved the font - but found the imagery a bit wooden. The characters are so distinct in my mind`s eye...
  • This is the first edition - and I didn`t like the artwork!
  • The paperback edition of Love Rules. On the back cover, was the figure used on the front of the first edition (which I preferred!)
  • This was a new cover design for my 7th novel. And I loved it. The lettering is hand-cut and the imagery was perfect - not cartoony, but still fresh, feisty - but friendly.
  • I was feeling slightly hysterical by this stage - three hours into the shoot and by now freezing cold!
  • This door opened out onto a tiny ledge...and then there was a 12` drop. I wasn`t leaning casually...I was clinging on for dear life!
  • Sing yay for the M&S push-up bra...
  • And this is the one that my genius webmaster JBC has used for the site!
  • my skirt is by Twenty8Twelve - I bought it in the sale the day before the awards...and I haven`t had the opportunity to wear it since!
  • Helen`s an amazing ventriloquist - she was telling me to keep calm, grin, turn this way, smile, turn that way, laugh...Cheers Helen!
  • This was taken at my publishers` warehouse outside Glasgow - it`s always a great crack doing a mass signing as loads of staff help out, passing me the books and feeding me chocolate and chips. I once signed 4,000 in around 5 hours....and had to have physio for months after...
  • This was the author photo we used from 2007-2009 - it was taken at my son`s birthday party at Bekonscot Model Village, Bucks, in April 2007
  • I was exhausted, elated...and prompty burst into tears after this was taken...
  • I can`t tell you how difficult it is to `keep it natural` when actually, you`re in a public park and loads of passers-by are gawping at you...
  • there was a lot of pigeon crap all around in this gazebo in Paddington Street Gardens, Marylebone.
  • This was taken by a pal of mine, Phil O`Connor. He`s a wonderful photographer. We met when I was researching my Tour de France novel, Cat - he`d be hanging off the back of a motorbike, photographing the racers as they zoomed down mountains...
  • This was taken by esteemed photographer Jason Bell - an old pal of mine. The location was his uber-cool apartment right in the throng of Soho. I loved this shot - it really summed up how energetic and delighted with life I felt at the time...
  • This is me, on the gondola of the bridge, as it came into dock...
  • One of the perks of researching on the Tour de France for my 1999 novel, Cat, was meeting some of my sporting heroes. Here`s Miguel Indurain!
  • Again, a highlight of researching Cat (1999) was meeting my Tour de France heroes. Here`s me with legend Bernard Hinault!
  • That poor model was made to cartwheel all afternoon. The tube advertising had a series of her doing just that!
  • I loved the blue of this cover - and the model was a young Sienna Miller!
  • We chose yellow to mimic the Yellow Jersey of the Tour de France - around which, this novel was set. I loved the `foxy, feelgood flair` quote - a favourite of mine, along with `Kinky, very kinky` (Evening Standard)
  • Bizarrely, though I don`t much like this set of covers, I did prefer this `Polly` (the model/pose) to the one we used on the original version...
  • Set partly in the USA, hence the rather in-yer-face red, white and blue, stars, stripes...you name it! We tried to make her shadow resemble a map of the US...
  • I loved the colours - but much prefer the original jacket design for this, my second novel.
  • The original Sally cover (1996/97) is still my all time favourite. It was so fresh, so feisty. When we came to re-cover the books in 2003, we simply had to use the original image which we all still love.
  • I came up with the "Mothers, daughters..." line. I loved the trippy swirls too.
  • Hopefully a nice dose of colour for the commuters rushing passed the posters as they catch their train to and from work...
  • This was fab - the design was laminated onto the table tops in "Coffee Republic" cafes, where we also printed sample chapters for those ordering their coffee to go!
  • This quiz was such a hoot to compile. It ran in all the major glossies...

At play…

  • You can keep your Golden Gate, your Sydney Harbour Bridge, your Pont Neuf, your Brooklyn Bridge, you can even keep your Milau Viaduct. For me, the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge reigns supreme. This was Boxing Day, 08. And freezing!
  • Georgia and I at my brother`s wedding
  • My beautiful cubs, Felix and Georgia, walking in the national park outside Marbella
  • Felix trudging home up our lane.
  • having a strop at Stansted when our flight was delayed. And delayed again.
  • ...indoors (those are my parents` bookshelves...some of them... you can see where I get it!)
  • ...outdoors. At the Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire. A magnificent, 1000 year old oak. It`s like a cave crowned with branches. Go visit!
  • Felix at his happiest...
  • you can guess who`s Georgia`s favourite Beatle...!
  • this is his `puppy eyes` face... when he wants something!
  • Hot chocolate and a pink cowgirl hat... what more could an eight year old want?!
  • ...too cool for school... Good job it was the summer holidays!
  • looks like an angel. Sounds like...
  • not a bad view, hey!
  • some authors blow their advance on Jimmy Choos and luxury holidays... I bought a wood! It`s an old hornbeam coppice and in late spring it`s carpeted with bluebells..
  • ...there`s a stream at the bottom of the woods. We spend hours and hours there. Perfect place both for brain-rest as well as for inspiraton!
  • when we arrived, we planted an 18 tree organic orchard. Damsons, plums, green and golden gages, a quince, apples. The rootstock we chose means that the trees won`t grow above 6 foot - perfect height for picking fruit!
  • The sun was setting, the heavens were about to open and the old oak was jaw-droppingly stunning.
  • Twig, at 5 months old, knee deep in our bluebells...

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