Another week and another interview with another brilliant author. This week it's the turn of Lynda Renham. Lynda is the very successful author of the romantic comedy novels, Croissants and Jam, Pink Wellies and Flat Caps and Coconuts and Wonderbras, just to name a few. Lynda is a brilliant writer, one very funny lady and in her own words, a little bit mad, but maybe it's this madness that makes her books so well loved. Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, I give you the delectable Lynda Renham.
A big welcome to Lynda Renham. How the devil are you?
Well, I’m just back from
Cambodia and I’m seriously jet lagged. I’m falling asleep everywhere. Mind you
I’m normally an insomniac so this is really an insomniac’s dream right? Oh, I’m
good, you have to admit. Dream, sleep… Yes well, anyway. Let’s crack on before
I send everyone else to sleep.
For those people out
there, you know the ones, the ones who might not know who you are, tell us a
bit about yourself?
Well, I’m a little bit mad, although I think I am perfectly sane but when
most people tell you the opposite I guess that’s proof. I’m a writer (for the
ones who don’t know who I am. I mean where have you been?) I write romantic
comedy novels but I also write political articles under my full name of Lynda
Renham-Cook. I live with my second husband and our cat Bendy, which is short
for Bendrix, named after a character from a Graham Green novel. I’ve been on
the radio, not that that means much but my publisher always says to mention it.
Your romantic comedy
novels, Croissants and Jam, Pink Wellies and Flat Caps and Coconuts and
Wonderbra’s have all done incredibly well. What is it about them that people
love?
The readers when
reviewing the novels say they make them laugh out loud. In fact one reader (a
well-known author who I won’t name) said she embarrassed herself often at a spa
weekend because she laughed so much in public when reading ‘The Valentine
Present and Other Diabolical Liberties’
How did you end up
(that sounds bad) being an author?
When I realised selling my body was not an option (that’s a joke,
obviously) I’ve always written but stopped for fifteen years during my first
marriage, which is a long story and will most certainly send you to sleep. My
now husband, Andrew, encouraged me to write again. I did and the rest, as they
say, is history.
Where does the
inspiration for your novels come from?
People and everyday situations. I am a great people watcher. Mostly though from my own crazy life. I am the woman who walks into the gents loo and wonders why there are so many men in the Ladies. I leave my handbag in supermarket trolleys. I walk across a restaurant from the loo with my skirt tucked into my knickers. I’m the woman who runs for a bus wearing a boob tube and ends up with her boobs hanging out when she gets on the bus. I’m my own novel.
I think one of the
hardest things about being an author (apart from the actual writing) is
deciding what genre you want to write in. How and why did you decide on
romantic comedies?
I’ve always had a good
sense of humour. I have written serious novels. There is one available titled
‘The Diary of Rector Byrnes’ which is a contemporary romance. I love that book.
It is under the name of Edith Waylen. It’s very gripping. But one day I
thought, wouldn’t it be nice to write a feel good book, a book like a feel good
movie. So I had a go and haven’t looked back.
What sort of books do
you like to read and who are your favourite authors?
I read most things. My
favourite author is Iris Murdoch and I was lucky to meet her husband John
Bayley and see where Iris wrote her novels. I also like Kimberly Chambers and
enjoy reading biographies.
I hope you don’t mind
me saying this, but you came to writing a bit later in life (only as opposed to
all those young upstarts trying to make it big in their twenties - how dare
they!). Do you think having more life experience helps when writing a novel?
I guess at thirty five *little cough* I do have more life experience. It seems like I burst onto the scene quite late, but I have been writing a long time actually. I think life experience can help in writing, absolutely. I wouldn’t want to be a young upstart again, that’s for sure.
How do you write? Are
you a planner or do you just jump in and work it out as you go - or somewhere
in-between?
A bit of both, I guess.
An idea comes. I make notes. Bounce ideas around with my husband and then
begin. The novel then kind of writes itself. Writing is weird. I look back at
what I’ve written and think I didn’t write that, did I?
It’s a Romantic Comedy
about a woman who loses everything on Christmas Eve but then discovers she has
been left a cottage, except all is not what it seems when she arrives at the
property…. That’s your bit…
And lastly the most
important question for any writer. What biscuits do you prefer with your tea?
Fig rolls.
 | ||
| Her latest novel The Valentine Present and Other Diabolical Liberties |
Thanks so much to Lynda for answering my questions and if you haven't read one of her books, I suggest you do it very soon. I'll be back soon with more authors and hopefully some news of my own!
Until next time.
Hugs,
Jon X
