Who Is The Real Chris Penhall?

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Who Is The Real Chris Penhall?

This week it’s the turn of Choc Lit/Joffe author Chris Penhall to tell us more about the person behind her books. Chris is not only a great author but very generous to other authors too – check out her radio slot Books and Tunes on West Wilts Radio. Her latest release is Finding Summer Happiness. She has given me a very interesting and enjoyable post …

Hi Morton

Thanks for inviting me to say a few words about my book, Finding Summer Happiness and to talk about Who Is the Real Chris Penhall….

I write stories about quirky, independent women which are set in places that I love. It means I can sit and imagine and take myself off to these gorgeous landscapes (where it only rains for dramatic purposes) wherever I am working and whatever the weather is like.

So, here are a few facts about me.

The coast

Finding Summer Happiness is set in Pembrokeshire, close to the coastal path. I was born in Neath in South Wales, and beaches were very much a part of my life as I grew up. We would go to Aberavon, Rest Bay in Porthcawl, Oxwich or Rhossili on the Gower Peninsula and would also go further afield sometimes, including to some glorious beaches in Pembrokeshire. My love of seascapes and beaches has continued all my life, which is one of the reasons so many of my novels are set overlooking the ocean. I also love to swim – particularly in open air pools – although I’m most often found in my local indoor pool. Isn’t swimming in an outdoor pool in the rain fantastic? I went to the mixed pond on Hampstead Heath a couple of years ago with a friend – it was raining heavily when we met at the tube station, but we decided to go anyway. It was still raining when we arrived on the heath, but it stopped as soon as we stepped out of the changing rooms. It was the height of summer, but the rain had put a lot of people off, so there were only about five of us swimming. It was an absolutely magical experience, and one I based a chapter on in my novel, Summer in Your Eyes. (In my world absolutely no experience is wasted!)

Dancing

I love to dance. For many years in my youth, I was a rather frustrated and self-conscious dance around my handbag at discos kind of girl. But somewhere inside me – the little girl that tried dancing for a term aged 7 (and let me tell you – in my own mind – absolutely shone during our troupe’s rendition of Me and My Shadow) – I was waiting for something to be unleashed. That came many years later – as a young, widowed mother needing an escape – in the form of salsa. Not the food, the dance. I was hooked. I was not good. But I was hooked. I’m still not good. I am, however, very enthusiastic. And although I no longer go as often as I did, I still don my salsa shoes and screech around to Latin music about once or twice a month. Its absolute heaven.

Dancing was also the catalyst for me putting my first creative writing out to people who didn’t know me. I stared putting together The Salsa Diaries which were occasional web posts based on my somewhat ‘unique’ take on the dance scene. I even did one as a comic strip – From Salsa Hick to Salsa Chick, that one was called. They were quite well received, and I’ve kept a few of them on my website. I also made three radio documentaries about the salsa scene for BBC Essex, so I suppose you could say it fed my feet, my soul and my creativity.

I also took up tap dancing about five years ago. I have passed two exams and appeared on stage at the local theatre in the annual show and have often wondered why it took me so long to find it! Tap is quite difficult though isn’t it…or is that just me? In last year’s show I even got to wear a sailor’s hat for our routine to Anything Goes. I didn’t realise that should have been on my list of things I’d love to do, until I did it. I can’t recommend it enough. (I’m talking about the sailors’ hat…)

Painting

I have recently taken up painting and I absolutely love it. I go to a group on a Thursday evening where we paint, and chat and drink tea and I get so much more out of if than I ever thought I would. I love the fact that I have got so much to learn and can lose myself in it completely. I also have a few completed paintings under my belt, one of which is on my wall. I’m very proud of it!

Bears

For many years I used to accompany Pudsey Bear out and about in Essex for BBC Essex’s Children in Need Day output. Sometimes I would be presenting our features live on air as we drove around the county. Sometimes I was just helping him get from A to B and generally being supportive, kind, and making sure he got regular cups of tea. I have accompanied him on so many things including Christmas Light switch ons, school visits, and a toy parade…and I can’t single anything out as my favourite. But doing a commentary on a Guinness World Record attempt on the most number of High Fives in a minute by a clown, which took place on a school field, where he was followed by Pudsey Bear trying to run after him has to be one of the most surreal…

About Chris Penhall

Chris Penhall writes uplifting stories set in gorgeous places.

She won the 2019 Choc-Lit Search for a Star competition, sponsored by Your Cat Magazine, for her debut novel, The House That Alice Built. It is the first in the Portuguese Paradise series of books, followed by the sequel, New Beginnings at the Little House in the Sun and The House on the Hill – A Summer in the Algarve. The books can be read as stand-alone novels, too.

She has also written two stand-alone novels, Finding Summer Happiness and Summer in Your Eyes.

Born in South Wales, she has also lived in London and in Portugal which have all provided inspiration for her novels.

She has worked for BBC local radio for many years, producing programmes, sometimes talking on air, and producing 4 one-hour radio documentaries about salsa and comedy. A very, very long time ago, she worked for BBC Radio 4 – where she spent some time working on a programme called Bookshelf, (which was about books!) and for Radio 1 before leaving, trying new things for a few years, and ending up back working in radio again! She is also a podcast and content producer – working for Jibba Jabba Pods as an Associate Producer on the Richard and Judy Book Club Podcast from 2011 to 2020, and has her own community radio programme, called Books and Tunes.

A lover of books, music and cats, Chris is also an enthusiastic salsa dancer, a keen cook, and loves to travel. She also loves hammocks, but has still to master the art of getting in or out of one with elegance and style.

She is never happier than when she is gazing at the sea.

You can find more information about her on her website: www.chrispenhall.co.uk

or follow her on Twitter/X: @ChrisPenhall

Instagram: @christinepenhall

or Facebook as ChrisPenhallWriter

About Finding Summer Happiness

Even the best laid plans can go awry . . .

Successful business-woman Miriam Ryan appears to have it all — Director of a popular catering company in London, she is famed for her high-profile events.

But like anything that is picture perfect, there are cracks under the surface. Worn out with constant catering and entertaining, Miriam retreats to the Welsh village where she spent carefree summers as a child.

When Miriam arrives she finds her quiet solitude disrupted by her welcoming neighbours keen to include her in village life. Not only that, but the cottage she has rented comes with an overlooked condition: a supper club she is expected to run!

Through the weekly dinners Miriam gets to know the villagers, especially a grumpy but gorgeous astronomer who has a habit of turning up when she least expects it.

Soon she realises that maybe it’s time to allow a little bit of summer happiness into her life.

And Miriam is about to discover that you won’t find happiness without breaking a few eggs . . .

Buying Link for Finding Summer Happiness – https://geni.us/summer-happiness-fbt