I am cracking open the huge festive Toblerone that’s been hidden in the pantry for choco-emergencies to celebrate the fact that The Runaway Princess is finally published today!
(UK readers: it’ll be available digitally here next month, I hope, and in print format next spring/summer – date not yet set! But it’s on its way…)
I am very excited about this because I really loved writing The Runaway Princess, and Amy Wilde is one of my favourite characters. She’s very down-to-earth, but she has a dry sense of humour – I’d like to think that if I were suddenly flipped into a parallel reality in which I was expected to have witty yet non-controversial opinions on everything from windfarms to Lady Windermere’s Fan to gusts of wind up my non-weighted skirt hem, I’d manage as well as she does. I should point out – not that my mother is reading this, or anything – that none of Amy’s northern family are based on my own dear northern family. Apart from Amy’s mum being a dab hand with a sponge. My mother, also.
Here are some good reasons to put The Runaway Princess in your shopping basket…
1. If you cringed on behalf of poor HRH K-Middy and her accidental holiday snaps, you will be right behind the heroine, Amy, who comes from an even more normal background. Amy only has a matter of weeks to turn herself from a well-upholstered Yorkshire gardener into the sort of uber-polished princess who can wear Nude Heels and a tiny cocktail hat that looks like an alien communication device, and all without blushing. In that time, she also manages to design a rose garden and address various Family Secrets.
2. it’s properly romantic, and at no point does the hero, Leo, slap, punch, whip, thrash, skelp, hoy, batter, crack, wallop, rive or clatter the heroine in the name of anyone’s inner goddess.
3. (Sorry if that now means you’re deleting the book from your shopping basket)
4. It’s set all over London so if you’re missing those atmospheric Olympics shots of Tower Bridge and the London Eye and the Dartford Tunnel Buckingham Palace, Amy and Leo’s Mayfair love affair will be right up your Downing Street.
5. There are princes in this who are even worse behaved than Prince Harry. And come on, who doesn’t love a naughty prince?
6. If you’ve ever dreamed about booking Westminster Abbey for your own nuptials, imagined yourself in The Dress and exactly how Prince Harry will pop the question, but then thought, ‘Oh, hang on… What if Uncle Ken insisted on turning up in that sparkly jacket he’s worn to every family wedding since cousin Nicola’s third one to that guy who turned out to be… oh. No. Uncle Ken. And Nicola. And Nicola’s third “husband”. Hmm. Would it be really bad etiquette to send exactly half my family to Iceland for the whole month of my royal wedding?’ This book is totally for you.
7. You can read it and then come back here and we can have have long discussions about exactly how many wardrobes of coat dresses you think you’d need to be a top European royal and whether you’d want to be mates with Princess Charlene of Monaco or Chelsy Davy. Because I am happy to discuss that till the COWS COME HOME.
8. I don’t know how things are where you are, but winter has definitely kicked off here, and this book would go so well with a packet of chocolate digestives, a pot of tea and a blanket over the knees…
Becca / 5th October, 2012
I’m planning on picking up your latest novel, having enjoyed the previous two quite a lot. If Amy ends up going the vintage route on any of her princess-in-training clothing (take that, fashion copy-cats!), I will probably cheer out loud, and garner strange looks from my cat and Scottie puppy. There’s nothing quite like wearing something well-made, highly flattering, and that no one else is likely to own, and carrying it off with aplomb. I keep hoping that Kate Middleton will go fully vintage one fine day, but it’s unlikely, given that she almost single-handedly increased sales for her favorite UK labels. Definitely looking forward to the read, and glad to see the new website! It’s been hard to find much about your books otherwise (at least in the US, where I am). All the best with the book launch!
Hester Browne / 5th October, 2012
I hope Kate finds a few vintage pieces too – if any house has a few gems lying around in the wardrobe it must be Buckingham Palace. I think she’s been very astute in the way she’s used her clothes to win the hearts of even the grumpiest British public: enough couture glamour to swoon over on the red carpet, mixed with high street pieces that make her feel ‘real’. Sadly, the LK Bennett nude Sledge magic doesn’t seem to work on my more-carthorse-than-racehorse legs, but that hasn’t stopped me acquiring a pair!
If you like vintage, then have you read The Little Lady Agency books? Melissa, the heroine, is a real vintage girl, right down to her stockings and corsetry.
Becca / 5th October, 2012
Thanks for the response! I actually have read your books in reverse order thus far, starting with Swept Off Her Feet (still my favorite… my educational background is in History, so I could really relate to Evie… and ebaying… and old swords… the list goes on). If there is corsetry involved, I clearly need to pick up The Little Lady Agency series. We vintage lovers have to stick together, right? Now I’m hoping Melissa’s got a collection. (Most of mine is too small for me to wear, but I love it nonetheless… including the tiny gloves that belonged to my fashionable great-grandmother in the 40s and 50s. But vintage hats are always good, even though practically no one in the US wears them unless they’re sporty. A real shame.)
There’s a popular blog called “What Kate Wore” that I think is written by an American. It covers all of Kate’s outfits, as well as provides links for purchasing the looks, assuming they’re available or remotely affordable for the rest of us. I enjoy following it, because I think Kate’s choices are generally brilliant, and she’s given millions of women around the world a model of a classy celebrity to look up to and emulate (as opposed to the antics of La Lohan and Snooki… ugh).
However, I also grew up with a mother with a background in costume design, so I had it drilled into me at a young age that most of us need to dress to suit our own particular shapes. Kate’s clothing, as lovely as it is, would make me look silly, since I’m just not slim like that, and never will be. But that doesn’t keep me from enjoying her classic look, and the hair I can definitely do more about. Power to you for going for the LK Bennett nude Sledge heels, though! I’m not sure I can walk a full city blcok in heels that tall (hence, why I really loved that scene in The Finishing Touches where Betsy teaches the students to push the pram in heels. I need that like you wouldn’t believe!).
Patti D / 5th October, 2012
I am cracking up laughing with #2; everyone has gone so “Fifty Shades of everything:…but it’s the “inner goddess” that got me! Drove me nuts through those books.
Kevin Loh ♡ (@ChickLitterKev) / 7th October, 2012
Seriously, I told you I’d visit everyday, no? Anyway, you don’t have to write down 8 reasons why I should pick up The Runaway Princess. Seriously. I am now constantly bugging Simon & Schuster for a copy. If they wouldn’t send me one, could you pipe in and help?
The story sounds fab! God forbid me, I should be studying but no way. I shall study in peace only if I’ve read your book – my ultimatum to myself – because I really really REALLY want to read it. I loved the Princess Diaries films and I reckon Amy’s story will be a BETTER, CHICK LIT version of Mia’s.. (If Meg Cabot sees this, I love you Meg.)
By the way, if you don’t mind, I’d like to suggest these following colours to my aunt’s wedding theme; soft coral pink, Tiffany blue , Paris green, light gold. Blimey. I would marry the web designer if I could! Once again, splendid website!
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