Tag Archive | "McCabes"
I really struggled with this book - not with what to write (thankfully, that came easily) but with having to write it. Not just because its structure was so much more involved - here I juggled three main characters all who had to have level pegging. But because once again, life was imitating art - my father-in-law and my dearest friend were both fighting cancer at the time. They both died within 6 months of each other. Sometimes, reviewers can be infuriating. You wonder how they dare review a book they obviously haven’t bothered to read. One journalist simply passed off my novel, saying “mothers don’t leave their children - they just don’t”. Well, actually, they DO. And many readers wrote to me with their own experiences. I was really ready to see the back of the McCabes when I finished this novel. But readers still ask me to write another one. And it’s only now, two books on, that I do quite fancy revisiting this family - perhaps writing a prequel, set in the early 1970s, when Django first takes charge of those three little girls.
Read a brief synopsis of Home Truths
Browse inside Home Truths
Ah, Pip the clown. I had to persuade a lot of people that she wouldn’t be a scary clown - I couldn’t believe how many people actually have an aversion to traditional clowns! The Clown Doctors were fascinating to research and shadow - very humbling too, not least because I was pregnant (with my second child) whilst writing this book. The Clown’s Gallery in Dalston, east London, was a fascinating place - not least for their extensive collection of painted eggs, on which clowns can ‘copyright’ their make up. This was to be the last book in the McCabe series - not written as a trilogy, but interlinked nonetheless. By the time I finished this novel, I knew, though, that I’d revisit the sisters. But I needed some space from them first. And a posse of brand new characters needed my attention in the meantime. So Love Rules was next.
Read the first chapter of Pip
Read a brief synopsis of Pip
See what happened next to Pip
This novel took me back to my roots in Art History - I worked for a while as an archivist at the National Arts Collection Fund and I based the little room in which Fen hides away on the one I used. She has to choose between two very different men - bizarrely, she ends up with the one I wouldn’t have chosen. But that’s characters for you - the author ultimately has little control. During this time, I fell pregnant with my first child. My hormones were all over the place. My four previous novels had all been pretty raunchy but Fen was (initially) OUTRAGEOUS. For the first time, my editor put thick red lines through many paragraphs and scribbled in the margins such gems as: “Yuck!” or “Tone it down, woman!” Fen had a change of cover design - and the model was none other than Sienna Miller.
Read the first chapter of Fen
Read a brief synopsis of Fen
See what happened to Fen next
Though this was my 4th novel, it was this book that really drummed home to me that I WAS AN AUTHOR. I had long been a fan of the Tour de France - from the comfort of my sofa…and now, my writing credentials enabled me to bag an access-all-areas pass. Bizarrely, life imitated art rather than vice versa - and I followed in Cat’s footsteps, spending my time on the Tour masquerading as a journalist, writing for the Times, for radio and for cycling magazines. The first Tour I went on was 1998 - which was the one with all the huge drug scandals. It was won by the inimitable Marco Pantani - who later died from a drugs overdose. The next Tour was won by Lance Armstrong. Many of the real riders, all of whom were very kind and welcoming, traded anecdotes or rides in their team cars for a cameo appearance in the book!
Read the first chapter of Cat
Read a brief synopsis of Cat
See what happened next to Cat
Our mother ran off with a cowboy from Denver when we were small…
Brought up by their eccentric uncle Django, the McCabe sisters had assumed their mid-thirties would be a time of happiness and stability.
The youngest, Cat, returns home from four years abroad, to start a new phase of her life. Easy – or so she thinks.
Fen, the middle sister, is determined to be a better mother to her baby daughter than her own was to her – but might this be at the expense of her love-life?
And is the eldest, Pip, too busy taking care of her stepson, her husband, her sisters, her uncle to notice her own needs?
At Django’s 75th birthday party, secrets are revealed that will change how the three sisters view their family forever. Heart and home, previously intertwined, are forced apart as identities are called into question.
Mothers, daughters, lovers, liars… what do you do when you find out that your sisters aren’t quite your sisters?
This time of year is usually Launch Party time – but this year, I just didn’t feel like having one. I’m ever so proud of Home Truths but it was written at a time when shitty things were happening and it felt inappropriate to have an unabashed knees-up. 2005 had it’s ups and downs for me. I lost two people very special to me, to cancer. My father-in-law, David Sutcliffe, died in May and my beautiful friend Liz Berney died on Christmas Eve. They both loved coming to my launch parties – Liz in particular had a very entertaining knack of upstaging me on my big night. I just don’t feel like partying at the mo’.
Liz was perhaps the most sociable – and widely loved – person I’ve ever met. She made friends with such ease and people gravitated to her because she was such fun, so energetic and daffy and sensitive and kind. She was a member of a reading group – though she was usually far too busy and scatty to ever actually read the book in discussion! One time, she picked my 5th book, Fen, as her choice for the group. Sure enough, an hour or so before the group was due to gather, Liz phoned me for the low-down on the plot, the characters…and the ending! (more…)
2004/2005
Blimey, a year’s worth of news to update you with… how on earth can I do this in less than the length of a novel? Well, I suppose I’m lucky that, because I’m now just a boring old frumpy mum, I have relatively little scandal and skulduggery to recount. Rather than give you a month by month breakdown, perhaps I’ll tell you about the key people in my life.
(more…)
Pip McCabe, 30, likes to say she doesn’t need a man and she doesn’t need money...
However, her friends and her sisters think she would benefit from a little more of each. But stripy tights, starched pigtails, a bright red nose and an ability to juggle whilst doing the splits only just about pay the bills and seldom lead to romance or romps. Pip, though, takes her clowning very seriously, whether at spoilt kids’ parties or on the wards of children’s hospitals. She simply doesn’t have time for a man, she claims. And her bank balance hovers just above the red, so that’s OK.
Zac Holmes, 34, has a successful, high-powered career, a fabulous flat and an adored 6-year-old son from a previous relationship. Popular, charming and affluent, Zac feels that no-strings flings suit his lifestyle as much as the pleasing bonuses he earns at work.
When Zac and Pip first meet, it is far from love or lust at first sight. What can a clown and an accountant possibly have in common? Against a lively backdrop of parties and parks, hospitals and hotels, the attempt to find out…
Read more about what happened to Pip
Well, it was a long, hot summer but I made sure I did a couple of cool things (other than allow Felix to drench me with the hosepipe). Andy turned 40 and we had a fabulous weekend in Stockholm. We went to see the Rolling Stones and were privileged to partake of the whole VIP/ backstage experience. Though I don’t do name-dropping, suffice it to say, we met some lovely people and enjoyed a spectacular concert, strutting our funky stuff alongside a great Swedish audience. What a gorgeous city. We hope to return in the winter to experience a very different side of it - dog-sleds and all.
(more…)
Well, there’s a bit of catching up for me to do for you… August was a quiet month during which I really knuckled down to Pip - it wasn’t all work and no play, though - Jessica Adams’s launch party for her wonderful novel “I’m a Believer” was fun. It would have been more fun had I not been in the throes of morning sickness which, for me, was all-day, all-night sickness. I stuck to mineral water but toasted my pal and her publishers. September was exciting with Fen rampaging up the charts. It was thrilling to see her strutting her stuff at no.4 so a big thanks to all of you who helped her on her way. I spoke at the Cheltenham and Guildford literary festivals, both of which were fun and rewarding. I also visited loads of bookshops including many in the Hammicks and Methvens chains - a warm thank you to the staff who give my girls a fantastic helping hand.
(more…)
