The idea for my first novel, ‘Vintage’ came to me when I attended a wine appreciation course in London. I was newly single and thought the wine course might be an interesting way to make new friends. The woman who gave the course was not much older than I was - in her early thirties - and yet she was already a ‘Master of Wine’, a qualification that takes many years of study and dedication. She was a fantastic teacher and I watched with great admiration and amusement as she coped with the disrespect of some of the students in the group (mostly, but not all, men), who underestimated her knowledge and skill precisely because she was a girl.

That tutor opened up the world of wine to me. It wasn’t simply a matter of tasting the chardonnay! She had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the vineyards from whence these wines came and the personalities who ran them. Like her, many of the winemakers she talked about were young women.
I very much liked the idea of these women, out there in all weathers, getting their hands dirty to create a product we think of as so glamorous. They were truly making it in a man’s world – producing award-winning wines. They were a long way from the half-fulfilled Bridget Jones’ stereotype that I’d become so bored of reading.

The big appeal of chick lit was that it reflected the lives of the people who read it. Let’s face it, we all know / have been a Bridget. During the nineties, chick lit heroines convinced us that despite dull jobs and a constant battle with calories and fags everything would turn out all right in the end. But like a decade on nothing but comfort food, chick lit had become just a little bit dull.

A quick glance at the shelves of any newsagent reveals our current preoccupations. Magazines such as ‘Hello’ document the lives of actresses, heiresses and millionaire businesswomen. They’re glamorous and exotic. Most importantly, they make us want to raise our game. After a decade of feeling comforted but also a little patronised, we want to be entertained and inspired to be our best.

We all sympathised with Bridget Jones but none of us really wanted to be her. Chick lit novels transported us to the other end of your sofa. The new bonkbusters can take you to the deck of a yacht, a chalet in Gstaad or a bedroom in a ninety-room chateau.

My own novel, VINTAGE, follows the fortunes of three very different women as they negotiate the glamorous world of viniculture. In places it is gritty and dirty. Just like real life. But there are no scenes whatsoever of women counting calories. No-one spends a chapter sitting by the phone, waiting for ‘the one’ to call. Though, needless to say, there’s plenty of sex, none of it happens while the heroine is wearing big knickers! I hope that ‘Vintage’ will leave you feeling thoroughly refreshed and entertained! I do believe it’s best read with a glass of Cristal to hand…

Online articles for Vintage

Click here to read the 'Kerry Katona and friends in the Return of the Bonkbuster' article, The Times, 22nd March 2008

Click here to read the 'Yountville, USA: my kind of town' article, The Telegraph, 9th April 2008