{"id":4513529069612,"title":"Life Skills (1999)","handle":"life-skills-1999","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I first met my agent she suggested that I should write about my life on the canals, running a pair of narrow boats as a hotel.  I flatly refused.  It was far too much like hard work and no one would want to read it.  But this was my fifth book, I didn’t have any other ideas at the time.  Besides, time had passed – quite a lot of time – and narrow boats had become romantic for me again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy girl starts the book giving up the life she knew, rather like I did when I got fed up with doing secretarial work and went on a cookery course.  (It was for debutants and my fellow pupils were all very grand.  Lady Diana, who became Princess of Wales went on it after I had been there and she wasn’t famous for her cooking either.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut my husband and I decided to use my new skill to have a business which meant he didn’t have to go away to sea.  We were newly weds and very young.  We did learn a lot!  And a lot of the things that happen in the book happened to use in real life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI wanted this book to have two heroines – it was a while since I’d done this – but I wanted one of them to appear to be an over privileged air head and if I was actually in her head, we’d find out immediately that she wasn’t.  She was fun to write and my sensible heroine ended up learning a lot about life, hence the title.\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2020-02-07T12:06:57+00:00","created_at":"2020-02-07T12:26:46+00:00","vendor":"Katie Fforde","type":"books","tags":["book","Katie Fforde","Life Skills"],"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":32076172099628,"title":"Default Title","option1":"Default Title","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780099280231","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":false,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"Life Skills (1999)","public_title":null,"options":["Default Title"],"price":899,"weight":318,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780099280231","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/24._Life_Skills.jpg?v=1582547055"],"featured_image":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/24._Life_Skills.jpg?v=1582547055","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":6594417655852,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.651,"height":753,"width":490,"src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/24._Life_Skills.jpg?v=1582547055"},"aspect_ratio":0.651,"height":753,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/24._Life_Skills.jpg?v=1582547055","width":490}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I first met my agent she suggested that I should write about my life on the canals, running a pair of narrow boats as a hotel.  I flatly refused.  It was far too much like hard work and no one would want to read it.  But this was my fifth book, I didn’t have any other ideas at the time.  Besides, time had passed – quite a lot of time – and narrow boats had become romantic for me again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy girl starts the book giving up the life she knew, rather like I did when I got fed up with doing secretarial work and went on a cookery course.  (It was for debutants and my fellow pupils were all very grand.  Lady Diana, who became Princess of Wales went on it after I had been there and she wasn’t famous for her cooking either.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut my husband and I decided to use my new skill to have a business which meant he didn’t have to go away to sea.  We were newly weds and very young.  We did learn a lot!  And a lot of the things that happen in the book happened to use in real life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI wanted this book to have two heroines – it was a while since I’d done this – but I wanted one of them to appear to be an over privileged air head and if I was actually in her head, we’d find out immediately that she wasn’t.  She was fun to write and my sensible heroine ended up learning a lot about life, hence the title.\u003c\/p\u003e"}

{"id":4513532117036,"title":"Stately Pursuits (1997)","handle":"stately-pursuits-1997","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile I was writing Wild Designs I saw a small ad (a habit of mine) offering a course on ‘How to Look After a Great House.’  I was fascinated and intrigued but, being still quite inexperienced, I didn’t immediately drop everything and go on the course because I was busy writing another book.  I assumed, in my naivety, that the course would be offered again and I could go on it later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had foolishly mentioned my plan to write about a stately home to my agent and she loved the idea, so much so that when I realised the course was gone forever I still felt obliged to write the book.   It was hard, getting behind the scenes of a stately home. I had a friend who volunteered at Ham House and I got in there.  I also went round a local stately home (Uley Manor, small and delightful) but being quite shy I didn’t dare say I was a local author and could they tell me a bit about running it.  Nowadays I would write and ask and all would be well.  I also went round Berkley Castle courtesy of a friend who ran the butterfly house.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen I had to have a story.  I gave my heroine a mother who, when being made aware that her daughter had been recently dumped, thought she might as well be useful if she was miserable anyway.  Thus my poor Hetty was sent off to look after the house belonging to a distant uncle who was in hospital.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFortunately for me, the poor girl was so busy she couldn’t stay broken hearted for long.\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2020-02-07T12:06:57+00:00","created_at":"2020-02-07T12:28:37+00:00","vendor":"Katie Fforde","type":"books","tags":["book","Katie Fforde","Stately Pursuits"],"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":32076179832876,"title":"Default Title","option1":"Default Title","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780099446682","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":false,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"Stately Pursuits (1997)","public_title":null,"options":["Default Title"],"price":899,"weight":318,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780099446682","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/StatelyPursuits.jpg?v=1628602710","\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/25._Stately_Pursuits.jpg?v=1628602710"],"featured_image":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/StatelyPursuits.jpg?v=1628602710","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":24374617145499,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.646,"height":2560,"width":1653,"src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/StatelyPursuits.jpg?v=1628602710"},"aspect_ratio":0.646,"height":2560,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/StatelyPursuits.jpg?v=1628602710","width":1653},{"alt":null,"id":6594478374956,"position":2,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":753,"width":491,"src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/25._Stately_Pursuits.jpg?v=1628602710"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":753,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/25._Stately_Pursuits.jpg?v=1628602710","width":491}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile I was writing Wild Designs I saw a small ad (a habit of mine) offering a course on ‘How to Look After a Great House.’  I was fascinated and intrigued but, being still quite inexperienced, I didn’t immediately drop everything and go on the course because I was busy writing another book.  I assumed, in my naivety, that the course would be offered again and I could go on it later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had foolishly mentioned my plan to write about a stately home to my agent and she loved the idea, so much so that when I realised the course was gone forever I still felt obliged to write the book.   It was hard, getting behind the scenes of a stately home. I had a friend who volunteered at Ham House and I got in there.  I also went round a local stately home (Uley Manor, small and delightful) but being quite shy I didn’t dare say I was a local author and could they tell me a bit about running it.  Nowadays I would write and ask and all would be well.  I also went round Berkley Castle courtesy of a friend who ran the butterfly house.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen I had to have a story.  I gave my heroine a mother who, when being made aware that her daughter had been recently dumped, thought she might as well be useful if she was miserable anyway.  Thus my poor Hetty was sent off to look after the house belonging to a distant uncle who was in hospital.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFortunately for me, the poor girl was so busy she couldn’t stay broken hearted for long.\u003c\/p\u003e"}

{"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 Designs"],"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":32076191399980,"title":"Default Title","option1":"Default Title","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780099446675","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":false,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"Wild Designs (1996)","public_title":null,"options":["Default Title"],"price":899,"weight":318,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780099446675","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/WildDesigns.png?v=1594839685"],"featured_image":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/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":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/WildDesigns.png?v=1594839685"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2339,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/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 Title"],"price":899,"weight":318,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780099446668","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780099446668.jpg?v=1604950916","\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/27._roserevived.jpg?v=1604950916"],"featured_image":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780099446668.jpg?v=1604950916","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":12365304529051,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2339,"width":1524,"src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780099446668.jpg?v=1604950916"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2339,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780099446668.jpg?v=1604950916","width":1524},{"alt":null,"id":6594581987372,"position":2,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.649,"height":753,"width":489,"src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/27._roserevived.jpg?v=1604950916"},"aspect_ratio":0.649,"height":753,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/27._roserevived.jpg?v=1604950916","width":489}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\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"}

{"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":[]}],"images":["\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/LivingDangerously.png?v=1594812398"],"featured_image":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/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":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/LivingDangerously.png?v=1594812398"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2339,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/katiefforde.com\/cdn\/shop\/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"}