{"id":4513534902316,"title":"Wild Designs (1996)","handle":"wild-designs-1996","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWild Designs was my third book and was inspired by a bit of research I intended to be used in book two, The Rose Revived.  I had gone with a friend to research a local garden designer, now more famous for being the mother of Hugh Fernley Wittingstall.  She is called Jane.  She was the first woman to have a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show and her stories were so inspiring I knew the subject needed a whole book, not just a strand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf course times had moved on a lot since Jane’s garden and now men and women are pretty equally represented.  I found it quite difficult to get someone who was doing a garden to let me go behind the scenes and research but my then agent, Sarah Molloy got me into the Harpers’ and Queen’s garden, courtesy of Clifton Nurseries. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThrough them I managed to get a ‘build up’ pass which mean I was working for the garden and volunteered to get tea whenever anyone needed it.  It was enormous fun and such a revelation.  Seeing whole trees being moved about by crane, fig trees encased in polythene with heaters, trying to get the leaves to open, and molehills turned into mountains (give or take a few tons of earth) was inspiring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLots of it I had to make up of course.  I couldn’t have got a pass to let me be at Chelsea when the Queen went round.  Spoiler alert, I cheated and sent my heroine to the loo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI put all my life into that book.  At the time I was a school governor and as such was invited to be a helping adult when the school (primary) went on a trip to France.\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2020-02-07T12:06:57+00:00","created_at":"2020-02-07T12:30:03+00:00","vendor":"Katie Fforde","type":"books","tags":["book","Katie Fforde","Wild 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Title"],"price":899,"weight":318,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780099446675","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[],"quantity_rule":{"min":1,"max":null,"increment":1}}],"images":["\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0309\/6199\/1724\/products\/WildDesigns.png?v=1594839685"],"featured_image":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0309\/6199\/1724\/products\/WildDesigns.png?v=1594839685","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":10118717833371,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2339,"width":1524,"src":"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0309\/6199\/1724\/products\/WildDesigns.png?v=1594839685"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2339,"media_type":"image","src":"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0309\/6199\/1724\/products\/WildDesigns.png?v=1594839685","width":1524}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWild Designs was my third book and was inspired by a bit of research I intended to be used in book two, The Rose Revived.  I had gone with a friend to research a local garden designer, now more famous for being the mother of Hugh Fernley Wittingstall.  She is called Jane.  She was the first woman to have a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show and her stories were so inspiring I knew the subject needed a whole book, not just a strand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf course times had moved on a lot since Jane’s garden and now men and women are pretty equally represented.  I found it quite difficult to get someone who was doing a garden to let me go behind the scenes and research but my then agent, Sarah Molloy got me into the Harpers’ and Queen’s garden, courtesy of Clifton Nurseries. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThrough them I managed to get a ‘build up’ pass which mean I was working for the garden and volunteered to get tea whenever anyone needed it.  It was enormous fun and such a revelation.  Seeing whole trees being moved about by crane, fig trees encased in polythene with heaters, trying to get the leaves to open, and molehills turned into mountains (give or take a few tons of earth) was inspiring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLots of it I had to make up of course.  I couldn’t have got a pass to let me be at Chelsea when the Queen went round.  Spoiler alert, I cheated and sent my heroine to the loo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI put all my life into that book.  At the time I was a school governor and as such was invited to be a helping adult when the school (primary) went on a trip to France.\u003c\/p\u003e"}

{"id":4513538048044,"title":"The Rose Revived (1995)","handle":"the-rose-revived-1995","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis was my second book and my then agent told me I should set a book in London to avoid becoming a Cotswold writer.  (That worked well, then!).  I was anxious about setting a book in a place I had hardly visited for over ten years so I decided to set my book in a part of London I did feel I knew – the canals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen my husband and I were first married we had a pair of narrow boats that we operated as a hotel and after our first season we took the motor boat up to London for Christmas.  We explored London by canal a bit and this gave me my setting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA casual glance through the classified columns of a newspaper gave me a title, Cleaning Undertaken and the idea of three young women setting up a cleaning company together.  (I have been a cleaner in my time, which is something that makes friends who visit my house laugh nervously in utter disbelief).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMay, my main girl, lives on a narrow boat and so here I was on very safe ground.  I knew exactly what that was like.  But this book has three heroines and one of them, Sally who's an actress, gets carried off to Gloucestershire fairly swiftly.  There is also an Irish Wolfhound.  It was years and years before I could have a breed of dog in my book that I hadn’t owned myself.  I am more relaxed about this these days.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was a difficult book to write in some ways because it was only my second book, I was very inexperienced really.  But it had lots of fun in it even though editing it was hellish!  The title was immediately changed to The Rose Revived, which was the name of the narrow boat, a name which I stole from a pub on the Thames.\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2020-02-07T12:06:57+00:00","created_at":"2020-02-07T12:31:41+00:00","vendor":"Katie Fforde","type":"books","tags":["book","Katie Fforde","The Rose Revived"],"price":899,"price_min":899,"price_max":899,"available":true,"price_varies":false,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":32076199952428,"title":"Default Title","option1":"Default Title","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780099446668","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":false,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"The Rose Revived (1995)","public_title":null,"options":["Default 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charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis was my second book and my then agent told me I should set a book in London to avoid becoming a Cotswold writer.  (That worked well, then!).  I was anxious about setting a book in a place I had hardly visited for over ten years so I decided to set my book in a part of London I did feel I knew – the canals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen my husband and I were first married we had a pair of narrow boats that we operated as a hotel and after our first season we took the motor boat up to London for Christmas.  We explored London by canal a bit and this gave me my setting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA casual glance through the classified columns of a newspaper gave me a title, Cleaning Undertaken and the idea of three young women setting up a cleaning company together.  (I have been a cleaner in my time, which is something that makes friends who visit my house laugh nervously in utter disbelief).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMay, my main girl, lives on a narrow boat and so here I was on very safe ground.  I knew exactly what that was like.  But this book has three heroines and one of them, Sally who's an actress, gets carried off to Gloucestershire fairly swiftly.  There is also an Irish Wolfhound.  It was years and years before I could have a breed of dog in my book that I hadn’t owned myself.  I am more relaxed about this these days.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was a difficult book to write in some ways because it was only my second book, I was very inexperienced really.  But it had lots of fun in it even though editing it was hellish!  The title was immediately changed to The Rose Revived, which was the name of the narrow boat, a name which I stole from a pub on the Thames.\u003c\/p\u003e"}

{"id":4513542733868,"title":"Living Dangerously (1995)","handle":"living-dangerously-1995","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey say you put all your life into your first book and then when you have to write a second one you’ve used up all the food in the fridge.  This was definitely how I felt about starting a second book as I really did put my whole life – plus a few other lives into Living Dangerously.  My heroine, Polly, had my job (making salads in a wholefood café) my cat (she was very elderly and I wanted her immortalised – she actually went on to appear in my fourth book) my keep fit class, my wardrobe (mostly from jumble sales and charity shops) and my town.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI learnt to really love Stroud when I had a job there (the whole food café) and saw it early in the morning.  That was all a long time ago now and the town has changed a lot.  But the people are still a bit rebellious, still different from the inhabitants of other stone towns clinging to the side of hills.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWriting a full length book after trying to write for Mills and Boon for years was a bit like coming out of a convent – wonderful and terrifying.  But I was convinced no one was ever going to read this book except possibly, my agent, and flung everything in.  Although at the time it felt very difficult and very freeing but looking back I realise how much fun I had.   \u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2020-02-07T12:06:57+00:00","created_at":"2020-02-07T12:33:43+00:00","vendor":"Katie Fforde","type":"books","tags":["book","Katie Fforde","Living Dangerously"],"price":899,"price_min":899,"price_max":899,"available":true,"price_varies":false,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":32076217417772,"title":"Default Title","option1":"Default Title","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780099446651","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":false,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"Living Dangerously (1995)","public_title":null,"options":["Default Title"],"price":899,"weight":318,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780099446651","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[],"quantity_rule":{"min":1,"max":null,"increment":1}}],"images":["\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0309\/6199\/1724\/products\/LivingDangerously.png?v=1594812398"],"featured_image":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0309\/6199\/1724\/products\/LivingDangerously.png?v=1594812398","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":10110025433243,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2339,"width":1524,"src":"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0309\/6199\/1724\/products\/LivingDangerously.png?v=1594812398"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2339,"media_type":"image","src":"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0309\/6199\/1724\/products\/LivingDangerously.png?v=1594812398","width":1524}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey say you put all your life into your first book and then when you have to write a second one you’ve used up all the food in the fridge.  This was definitely how I felt about starting a second book as I really did put my whole life – plus a few other lives into Living Dangerously.  My heroine, Polly, had my job (making salads in a wholefood café) my cat (she was very elderly and I wanted her immortalised – she actually went on to appear in my fourth book) my keep fit class, my wardrobe (mostly from jumble sales and charity shops) and my town.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI learnt to really love Stroud when I had a job there (the whole food café) and saw it early in the morning.  That was all a long time ago now and the town has changed a lot.  But the people are still a bit rebellious, still different from the inhabitants of other stone towns clinging to the side of hills.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWriting a full length book after trying to write for Mills and Boon for years was a bit like coming out of a convent – wonderful and terrifying.  But I was convinced no one was ever going to read this book except possibly, my agent, and flung everything in.  Although at the time it felt very difficult and very freeing but looking back I realise how much fun I had.   \u003c\/p\u003e"}