It’s off-topic but I thought you might like a bit of a report on the award event…
I nearly didn’t get there! Weather was very bad on the mainland with heavy gales and it wasn’t too good on Arran either. Two ferries were cancelled, so we had to come home again, knowing we’d miss our London train. I texted the organisers to say there was a good chance I wouldn’t actually be there for the event.
This was even worse than it seems because they and I knew that I’d
won. (I knew weeks ago but the news has been embargoed.) But the weather improved rapidly and they announced a ferry would run. We emailed our daughter and asked her to book us flights from Glasgow to London while we scrambled for the ferry.
The flight was delayed and it took a long time to get to London, but fortunately we were travelling the day before the event.
I was very anxious on the morning of the event, even though I knew I’d won. (I think I don’t much like being the centre of attention. And I
hate being photographed.) I only got one glass of champagne and I can't say I really tasted it. Too nervous. The breakfast was a wonderful selection of Danish pastries which my husband said were very nice but I couldn't face one and I didn't want to get crumbs or grease on my clothes! Everyone liked the colour of my Oska top and said how it suited me and I wore my mother's opal ring which matched beautifully.
Novelist Katie Fforde presented me with the trophy. I did a little speech and thanked everyone including my fans who'd voted. Trisha Ashley, the other short-listed author was there, but the other short-listee was Barbara Taylor Bradford who lives in New York. She sent a nice message which her publicist read out.
The
Woman’s Weekly reader winner came from Durham. I think she was probably in her 70s and she had read all the short-listed books but had actually voted for Victoria Hislop's THE ISLAND! But she said she'd really enjoyed STAR GAZING and I gave her a signed copy. We chatted about Scotland which she knew quite well.
The editor of WW was very bubbly and we had quite a long chat. She says they are trying to encourage WW readers to read more books, hence the poll. She said they won't be able to run a feature for a few weeks yet - that's how far in advance they work - but she did say there would be a feature, so I hope that will boost sales of SG eventually. (SG has been buoyant on AmazonUK all w/e.)
The trophy is very attractive, star-shaped and made of crystal, but it came with a padded box so it was easy to transport home.
After the event Philip and I went to have lunch in a quiet Italian restaurant, then we killed time before our train with a bit of window-shopping. We went into Selfridges and browsed around. How the rich live, eh?... It was another world. And the musak was deafening.
Then the loooooooooooong journey home to Arran...
to Sassenach for letting us know!
I've uploaded photos of the event on my Facebook author page and I'll try to post some on this site later. I've been wading through my inbox all day since I got back to Arran. There's a lot PR to be done as a consequence of winning and with no publisher currently, I have to exploit every opportunity.
I look forward to seeing pics and all once you have a little more time.
