Latest News - April 2012

Can it really be 2012 already? Year of the bunting. As a lifer in the capital, I am excitedly looking forward to both the Jubilee and the Olympics...And astoundingly we have men's 100m final tickets. I know the best view will be on the television, and if I sneeze that I will miss the whole event, but I can't wait to go and soak up the atmosphere. No doubt I will be seized by the moment and purchase something patriotically revolting from the official merchandise on offer. But for the rest of my life I will be able to bore future generations with my tale of ten seconds with the fastest men on earth.

To anyone who has popped to this section of my website in the last couple of years, I can only apologise. And I thank you for your patience. But I am delighted you were staying in touch and hopefully catching up on some reading. A special bonjour et merci to all my French readers. I am thrilled you are enjoying my novels and even more thankful that, despite my A-level in French, someone else has translated them for me.

The good news is that I am back. Or at least semi-back. And I am so looking forward to writing more than to-do lists and personal emails.

The excuse for my prolonged silence, in a nutshell, is two little girls. I have been on the steepest learning curve of my life. I know Makka Pakka from a Tombliboo. Dora The Explorer is teaching me Spanish. Mister Maker has taught me about finishing touches. The Wonder Pets have brought teeeeeeeeemwork to our home. Monkey Music is the most played album on my iPod. My phonics are almost perfect. I buy more Sudocrem and Calpol than Clarins and Lancome. But I make a mean banana muffin. I am fitter than I have been for years simply from running up and down stairs. I have learned not to sweat the small stuff. It wasn't an easy transition.

Before Alice arrived I honestly believed that I would be writing whilst she slept. That the actual birth aside, I wouldn't have to break my creative stride. How naive I was. First of all, she barely slept - or at least not during the day. So much for Gina Ford and her routines. That's one book I won't be recommending. Alice asserted her right to individuality from day one. And after I endured a mild case of post natal depression (never depressed exactly but very very anxious - as you can see I am still not quite able to say PND out loud...) we were just getting back to semi-normality when Sophie arrived. This time it was plainer sailing. Sophie ate, slept and laughed her way through her first year and I ran from child to child to husband to spaniel and back again.

Four years later we are all still alive. And smiling most of the time. The tide is turning. Life with two children is taking shape. And I, the eternal tomboy, is facing up to a pink and purple future. Growing up I preferred teddies to dolls, books to Barbie, shorts to skirts and music to make up. I hope that my girls will grow into empowered young women who aim high in their chosen fields. As a result they are bound to want to be It girls or footballers' wives, or on the X factor. Only time will tell.

I am still their humble servant, soon to be promoted to chauffeur, but gradually I am getting time for me back. I am sleeping for more than four hours at a time. My memory is returning. I feel like me. And I almost look like me too. I love them to bits ('in pieces' as Alice would say). But I am ready to write too.

I have several novels on the go. The first is An Unorthodox Life..... A warm, poignant, humorous and at times difficult tale of two very different women coming of age on a journey that takes them from childhood to adulthood and beyond. A bit more grown up than my previous novels it touches on themes of identity, culture and religion. It is the book I have been daring myself to write for some time. A very exciting and personal project for me.

And then there are a couple of romantic comedies in the usual Sigaloff style: Pink and Blue - with elements of motherhood thrown in but plenty of escapism too and The Game of Love - you know the one about love, life and divorce....Can you fall in love and end a marriage all in a day's work? Is everyone capable of true love? Even a divorce lawyer?

Also, I have almost completed a series of rhyming children's bedtime books, each with a moral. I am loving reading to my girls and I look forward to introducing Daisy Hopper, the first true pre-school shopper, Carrie Mee (a child who doesn't want to walk anywhere) and Molly Coddle (who can't be bothered to learn to do anything for herself).

Thanks to St Bettina (our very part time nanny) I am just clawing back a writing day a week. And once Alice is at big school in September and Sophie starts nursery in January and I have trained the grannies, there should be more writing time....

I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, thanks for your patience.

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