Author of The Secret Life of Lucy Lovecake
Pippa James
I always see the movie version of my stories as I write and I saw my hero in The Secret Life of Lucy Lovecake (Michel Amiel) as looking a lot like Tom Hardy. As a writer I believe in the power of the central characters and feel they carry the narrative. I’m interested in motives, relationships, inspiration.
Most people know I love girl things with a passion, but not many people know that I have my own WWF wrestling move – the Frogsplash! Also, I once wrote to Jeremy Clarkson to tell him to stop being rude about gingers. I’m pretty sure I could take him down with the Frogsplash.
The Lingerie aspect of my novel is inspired by a real life interest. I’m glad that shops like Victoria’s Secret have made beautiful underwear very mainstream. I first got interested in vintage pieces found on Edinburgh’s Victoria Street, which is why Daisy works in Voluptas, a shop selling antique underwear. Incidentally, Voluptas is the Roman goddess of sensuous pleasures.
Although I have a degree in English Literature from Edinburgh University, I would love to do another degree in History of Art, ideally at Oxford. I have a thirst for knowledge and I love that art history binds together social, political and cultural history. Vienna is my new favourite city for art - one of my sons is living there for a year.
I do like baking but I feel I need to do a proper course like my heroine Daisy Delaney. I once had a baking disaster and hid the evidence - a tray of rock-hard scones – in the garden during a tea party. Only to have the window cleaner bring the burnt offerings indoors and pronounce to my guests: “Even the birds are not eating these things!”
As well as writing full-time, I work with children who have severe challenges - which is one of the most satisfying things I do. Preservation of human dignity is a basic right and to assist those who have no voice is a privilege.
As a trained English teacher, one of my favourite novels has always been The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. I never understood what it meant to be in the prime of one’s life - until I hit it! I feel happier, more confident, more alive AND more rebellious now than I did in my teens.
Ever since I admired my grandmother’s bottles of Dior perfume as a little girl, and made petal perfume from rose petals in her garden, I have had an ambition to make my own fragrance in Grasse in Provence. I’d like to write about that too.
I wasn’t good at maths or PE at school. This freed up time for reading and also taught me how it feels to be unsuccessful at something, which I have found useful throughout my life. We can’t all be good at everything. I think it’s nice to be able to empathise with others, even if their challenges are different from your own.
Old-fashioned fairy-tale stories frustrate me. What happens after you marry the prince?
I like what someone once told me - that everyone in the world is shy, but we all mask it in different ways. I think that might be true… I enjoy TED (technology, entertainment and design)talks and I like the one about introverts and extroverts. Quietness does not always mean a lack of confidence. Maybe the bubbly people are the most vulnerable of all?
