Introducing SUNDAY DINNERS
Hello,
With only a week until the release of my new novel Sunday Dinners, I thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce the book to the world (OK, fine, the handful of people who read my blog). So here we go....it's time to meet the Wilde family!
Sunday Dinners is more than just a novel. It's a celebration of the great British roast dinner. The novel was inspired in part by an article I read online about the death of the Sunday roast dinner. I couldn't believe it and to be honest, it makes me sad to think that something I've always held so dear and have such affection for is dying out. I don't know if it actually is or not, but it inspired the novel.
In the book we have six main characters. There's Greg Wilde, 54, a university lecturer, and the father of the family. Lizzy Wilde, 53, the mother and frustrated housewife. Lucy, 27, the eldest child and successful BBC script editor with a secret. Matt, 24, lazy, unambitious and broken hearted, and Holly, 18, sexually confused and about to head off to university. There's also Joan, Greg's mother, who lives in a home and is on her last legs. The book starts in 1999 when the children are small and the family is happy. It's fun, vibrant, and chaotic. It's what Sunday roasts are like with three young children. However, we jump forward thirteen years and the children are all about to move out or move on, and it's the end of an era. The Sunday roasts are coming to an end and Greg and Lizzy's marriage is facing a very uncertain future.
The theme of things coming to an end and moving on, is used throughout the book, and the Sunday roast as the thing that's keeping them all together. Because to me the weekly (or monthly in the case of the book) roast dinner is the time when family comes together. During the rest of the week, our lives are so fragmented, but for a few hours everyone gets together over roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, and gravy, and it's as though you're a family again. It's like Christmas day every Sunday. A quote I found when I started writing the book was, "Life is a balance of holding on and letting go" and it's this theme that creates the tension and drama in the book.
Writing the book was also a delicate balance of comedy and drama because when you get family together there's always laughter as well as tears. A lot of the comedy comes from the sibling rivalry between the children and also the reality of Joan realising that she's going to be dead soon. It's comedy grounded firmly in reality. I took a lot of influence from the TV show Outnumbered for this. I love that show because it shows family life exactly as it is and it's really funny and that's something I tried to do in the book. Most of the drama comes from Greg and Lizzy's marriage, which is in turmoil. Greg doesn't realise how unhappy Lizzy is until it's too late, and Lizzy is tired her life and needs something to change. It's the biggest storyline in the book and in a way it holds everything together - it's the backbone of the novel.
The last theme of the book I want to talk about is the idea of appearance. In many ways the Wilde family are the archetypal middle class family. They seem from the outside to have this perfect life, but once we're on the inside we realise how many problems each character has. Throughout the book, Greg is desperately trying to cling onto the Sunday roasts, because he believes it will save his family and his marriage. But as in real life, things change and move on, and Greg comes to the realisation that the perfect family and marriage he always wanted doesn't really exist and accepting the imperfections in everything is what makes it work.
Set around the table at their monthly roast dinners and set over 16 years of a family life, the Wilde family will have you laughing, crying, and nodding in recognition because to me they're just like all of us. They're a real family with histories, secrets, rivalries, and problems. But they love each other and stand by each other and when it comes to Sundays, they want nothing more than to be sitting down with each other at the dinner table. This is a very British book that's equally as funny as it is dramatic and at it's core is parenthood, marriage, love, life and roast dinners.
You can pre-order your copy of Sunday Dinner for just 99p right here!
Until next time.
Hugs,
Jon X
With only a week until the release of my new novel Sunday Dinners, I thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce the book to the world (OK, fine, the handful of people who read my blog). So here we go....it's time to meet the Wilde family!
Sunday Dinners is more than just a novel. It's a celebration of the great British roast dinner. The novel was inspired in part by an article I read online about the death of the Sunday roast dinner. I couldn't believe it and to be honest, it makes me sad to think that something I've always held so dear and have such affection for is dying out. I don't know if it actually is or not, but it inspired the novel.
In the book we have six main characters. There's Greg Wilde, 54, a university lecturer, and the father of the family. Lizzy Wilde, 53, the mother and frustrated housewife. Lucy, 27, the eldest child and successful BBC script editor with a secret. Matt, 24, lazy, unambitious and broken hearted, and Holly, 18, sexually confused and about to head off to university. There's also Joan, Greg's mother, who lives in a home and is on her last legs. The book starts in 1999 when the children are small and the family is happy. It's fun, vibrant, and chaotic. It's what Sunday roasts are like with three young children. However, we jump forward thirteen years and the children are all about to move out or move on, and it's the end of an era. The Sunday roasts are coming to an end and Greg and Lizzy's marriage is facing a very uncertain future.
The theme of things coming to an end and moving on, is used throughout the book, and the Sunday roast as the thing that's keeping them all together. Because to me the weekly (or monthly in the case of the book) roast dinner is the time when family comes together. During the rest of the week, our lives are so fragmented, but for a few hours everyone gets together over roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, and gravy, and it's as though you're a family again. It's like Christmas day every Sunday. A quote I found when I started writing the book was, "Life is a balance of holding on and letting go" and it's this theme that creates the tension and drama in the book.
Writing the book was also a delicate balance of comedy and drama because when you get family together there's always laughter as well as tears. A lot of the comedy comes from the sibling rivalry between the children and also the reality of Joan realising that she's going to be dead soon. It's comedy grounded firmly in reality. I took a lot of influence from the TV show Outnumbered for this. I love that show because it shows family life exactly as it is and it's really funny and that's something I tried to do in the book. Most of the drama comes from Greg and Lizzy's marriage, which is in turmoil. Greg doesn't realise how unhappy Lizzy is until it's too late, and Lizzy is tired her life and needs something to change. It's the biggest storyline in the book and in a way it holds everything together - it's the backbone of the novel.
The last theme of the book I want to talk about is the idea of appearance. In many ways the Wilde family are the archetypal middle class family. They seem from the outside to have this perfect life, but once we're on the inside we realise how many problems each character has. Throughout the book, Greg is desperately trying to cling onto the Sunday roasts, because he believes it will save his family and his marriage. But as in real life, things change and move on, and Greg comes to the realisation that the perfect family and marriage he always wanted doesn't really exist and accepting the imperfections in everything is what makes it work.
Set around the table at their monthly roast dinners and set over 16 years of a family life, the Wilde family will have you laughing, crying, and nodding in recognition because to me they're just like all of us. They're a real family with histories, secrets, rivalries, and problems. But they love each other and stand by each other and when it comes to Sundays, they want nothing more than to be sitting down with each other at the dinner table. This is a very British book that's equally as funny as it is dramatic and at it's core is parenthood, marriage, love, life and roast dinners.
You can pre-order your copy of Sunday Dinner for just 99p right here!
Until next time.
Hugs,
Jon X
No comments have been added yet.
