How I love research - it’s a true perk of my career. I spent delightful periods of time in the North East, in the jewellery quarter of Hatton Garden - and in a cage just off Regent Street. The cage was a security area within the offices of the Tanzanite Foundation (which oversees ethical mining of the gem) and I’d sit there handling carat after carat of this magical stone. Just a tiny nugget of a story hidden in a newspaper can fire my imagination - and reading about a 15 year old girl who woke along the arm of a crane in her nightie having sleep-walked there, became the springboard for full research into this fascinating, dreadful affliction.
The scenarios when Petra was doing her pottery classes were based on fact - that really was me. And yes, there was a sixth-former who’d gently serenade me with his guitar from a chaste distance….wonder where he is now! As with Chloe, some of these characters are not based on people at all. Arlo’s naughty schoolboys are in fact horses I know - my own included.
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When I was trying to figure out whether or not I wanted to do a PhD, I went traveling in the USA one summer. I fell in love with Vermont - its landscape, its people, their way of life. I finished writing Chloe in summer 1996, Sally was due to be published that November - which gave me ample time to return to New England and to the love people I’d met 6 years previously. But I wasn’t returning as a tourist - I had my writer’s cap on this time. With the American links in this novel, it was fitting to have the launch party at Joe Allen in London. Burgers and fries all round. But by then, with the third book done, dusted and riding high in the charts, my thoughts turned from America to Europe - specifically France, the setting for my fourth novel, Cat.
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I started this, my second novel, before I even had an agent, never mind a contract, for my first novel, Sally. It was half-written when I finally landed my first deal. The money coming in meant I could continue the book by embarking on my first research trip. I flew to Northern Ireland in early February 1996 - ironically, on the day of the IRA bus bombing in Aldwych. I stayed in County Antrim and tootled about by myself, truly feeling I was following in my character’s footsteps. Soon after that, I continued my research with a trip down to north Cornwall. I remember it was snowing - and snow replaced sand on the beach, right up to the water’s edge. Chloe was the first of my novels to make it into the Sunday Times Top 10. My editor had the chart framed - and it has pride of place on my study wall to this day. Jasper and Peregrine in this book were actually based on two aged geldings I knew!
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[1991] - Freya gave up a PhD scholarship to write her first novel, Sally. For 4 years she turned deaf ears to parents and pals who pleaded with her to “get a proper job”. She went on the dole and did a succession of freelance and temping jobs to support “writing days” every now and then. During this time, she was rejected by many publishers and agents whose comments ranged from “you can’t start a book like that” (referring to Sally’s rather raunchy opening scene) to “I like your idea but can’t stand your style”. Undeterred, she started Chloë as soon as she finished Sally. In 1996 she approached one of the UK’s top literary agents, Jonathan Lloyd at Curtis Brown Ltd. Throwing caution to the wind, Freya sent him 3 chapters and a page of completely fabricated reviews, which she wrote on behalf of the Sunday Times, Jilly Cooper and Germaine Greer. Lloyd took her on and put her work up for auction.
[1996] - 5 publishers enter a bidding war for Freya’s books. A three-book deal for a six figure sum is the result. Sally is published to great acclaim and Freya is heralded a fresh voice in fiction.
[1997] - Chloë doubles Sally’s release figures and is a Sunday Times bestseller.
[1998] - Polly spends 14 weeks in the original Fiction Top 10. The film rights are sold and the paperback goes straight onto the Sunday Times Top 10 at no.5.
[1999] - Freya’s 4th novel Cat is published in November. Set around the Tour de France, Freya’s research took her deep down to the secrets behind the Lycra.
Freya’s books are translated into five languages. In Holland, she is called the Literary Spice Girl and her books are hailed “better than viagra”. Her fan base is wide, ranging from teenage girls to elderly gentlemen worldwide.
[2000] - in June, Cat is released in mass market paperback. Fen is being written. Pip is being researched. Freya is involved with the Daphne Du Maurier Festival and the Edinburgh International Literary Festival as well as many other book festivals from Bodmin to Bracknell.
[2001] - Freya’s 5th novel, Fen, is published in October. Her son, Felix, was born on Easter Sunday, 15th April 2001.
[2002] - Freya spends the summer writing Pip. Fen is published in paperback in late September and goes straight into the charts, peaking at no.4. Freya is now safely into her second pregnancy with the baby due in early February. Pip is completed late November and Freya and her family move house a couple of weeks later.
[2003] - Georgia Jeannette born on 4th February 2003 at 10.45 pm, weighing 7 lbs 14 0z. Pip is published in August. Freya starts her 7th novel, Love Rules, featuring the adventures of two best friends - new characters, plus the reappearance of Sally.
[2004] - Pip is published to great success in paperback. Freya completes Love Rules and follows her editor to HarperCollins. Freya is now hard at work on no8 – which reunites Cat, Fen and Pip McCabe.
[2005] - Love Rules is published around Valentine’s Day and then in paperback later in the year. The novel is a Top10 bestseller, breaking all Freya’s previous sales records. Home Truths, Freya’s 8th novel is written and the author’s thoughts turn to her 9th…
[2006] - Home Truths is published in March and stays in the Original Fiction Top10 for over 3 months. The book becomes a paperback bestseller in the autumn, making the national Top 10 and riding high over the Christmas period. Pillow Talk, Freya’s 9th novel is written and the author’s thoughts turn to her 10th…
[2007] - Pillow Talk is published in August to great acclaim, going straight into the Original Fiction Top Ten. The tenth novel is underway - and waiting for a title.
[2008] - on 4th February, Pillow Talk is published in paperback and wins the Romantic Novel of the Year Award. Georgia turns 5 years old on the same day. It’s a career highlight for Freya, with lots of TV and press to do but soon enough she’s back in the library, completing the 10th novel, Secrets.
[2009] - Secrets will be published as an exclusive airport edition in February, and in paperback in May. Freya thought she needed a rest…but now she’s planning her 11th novel - and a couple of top secret projects too… watch this space!
It’s blowing a gale outside – a tree was uprooted right outside our house this lunchtime so Georgia and I went to ogle the twelve lovely firemen from three fire engines which hared down our street in two seconds flat. The tree had fallen right across the road, smashing a couple of cars in its wake. No one hurt. There’s something so sad about a fallen tree – all those decades, perhaps centuries, of standing so lofty and proud, ending with such an undignified disposal via chainsaw and council wood-chipper. Freya says: Go hug a tree!
(more…)
Chloe Cadwaller is in a quandary. Her beloved godmother has just died and left Chloe a letter instructing her to give up her job (lousy) and her boyfriend (never good enough for you) to travel the four countries of the United Kingdom during the four seasons of the year. Heavens. How can Chloe deny a godmother’s last wish?
Off she goes, with a tremor of doubt and a letter marked Wales, with her friends Mr and Mrs Andrews and an uncertain future, to a farm deep in the Brecons where she finds a selection of animals in deteriorating states of health and the best-looking man she’s ever laid eyes on.
As subsequent seasons unfold, so too does Jocelyn’s mission to teach her goddaughter to stand on her own two feet, celebrate the beauty of Britain and discover love, lust, life (and a man for each season).
Join Chloe on the adventure of a lifetime - involving sex, sculpture, ice-cream, Edinburgh, egg sandwiches and a potter named William - in the warm and witty novel of one girl’s quest for a place to call home
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