Jane Green's Blog, page 135

The Other Woman: A Novel

[image error]Ellie and Dan are living proof that opposites attract. She's impulsive; he follows all the rules. He loves sports; she's allergic to any form of exercise. Ellie doesn't have a mother. Dan does — a very involved mother. In The Other Woman, Jane Green delivers a warm, witty, and touching look at mothers-in-law and marriage and what they teach us about ourselves.

Swapping Lives / Life Swap (UK version)

[image error]Vicky Townsley is single, solvent, and seriously successful. Features director of the hugely successful Poise! magazine, she has an amazing flat, good friends, a fantastic wardrobe . . . in short, everything — except the life she wants: marriage, children, and a house in the country.

Second Chance

[image error]Jane Green has become a nationally bestselling author with legions of fans through her novels about the true-life dilemmas of real women—their relationships, their careers, their loves, their triumphs and disappointments. In her latest book, Green tells the story of a group of people who haven't seen each other since they were best friends at school.

My Town

A few days ago we had some friends over to stay who are thinking of buying in the area, and we spent two days attempting to persuade them to live in our town, rather than the next one, or the one after that.

We took them to Elvira's for Bacon, Egg and Cheese rolls, and wandered over to the beach to eat them. The children cycled up and down the wide boulevard that takes them to the water, while we opened too much white wine at home. We drove them around showing them houses, doing the hard sell ...

Chicken Salad

Ten years ago, when I first moved to the United States, I noticed something peculiar about entertaining. Every time I invited someone for lunch, or dinner, or a barbeque, they brought food with them. It was, at the time, utterly bewildering. 'Do they think I can't cook?' I would whisper to my then-husband, as I placed their apple pie on the counter, wondering what I should do with the chocolate mousse I had slaved over all afternoon.

In England I was used to bringing things to dinner parties, ...

Kid Kingdom

This weekend we went to friends for dinner on Friday night. It was one of those glorious nights when all the adults were tanned and glowing, wine in hand, happy to be standing on a terrace surrounded by twinkling candles and good friends, while forty-odd children tore around the yard attempting to kill each other with Nerf guns.

At some point, the children became bored with attempted murder-by-sponge, and retired to the TV room, where someone put Jaws 4 on the TV. Under normal circumstances...

Attention Deficit Dis-WHAT WAS I TALKING ABOUT?

Recently I went to see a shrink-type person about some medication. I sat there and told him I was concerned I had ADD. This self-diagnosis was made a few years ago when one of my mothers-in-law advised me to read up on ADD as it would help me understand Beloved, who has it.

I started to read, got distracted, forgot to continue. I picked the book up again later, answered a Small calling for me, and forgot to pick it up again. I read it later that night, and was astonished. Every single symptom ...

Standing up to live

Today on Twitter someone posted the following quote: "How vain it is to sit down to write if you have not stood up to live". HENRY DAVID THOREAU

I love those words, and was reminded of all the people who ask me how long it takes a book. I usually tell them between six and nine months, but the more I think about it, the less true I realise that is.

The actual writing time may take six to nine months, but before that there is living to be done, for without inspiration a writer truly has nothing. ...

Figless Manor

I did not want to build a house. I very much like renovating, as evidenced by my redoing of The Mouse House, and then the Beach Cottage next door, but the prospect of building a house from scratch utterly overwhelmed me.

And what if we got it wrong? What if we built something that ended up looking nothing like the house we wanted. This, given my mercurial nature, was entirely possible. In my world it is absolutely feasible that I would be desperate for an antique farmhouse style, that nothing ...

The Writers' Room

In thinking hard about whether or not to write a sequel to Jemima J., I have found myself lying on a sofa in my office all morning, re-reading Jemima, this book I wrote in 1997, pre-children, pre-marriage, when I was living in London, in a tiny little flat in Maida Vale – except all the cabbies used to argue that it wasn't really Maida Vale, it was Kensal Rise, which was basically accurate – with a new shiny publishing deal, and big, sparkly dreams.

It was a basement flat, with a lovely...