Gallery
Here’s a bunch of photos which I love of things – and people – that are important to me…
My Mad Mates
Oh I shall miss the mad show that was Liveish at Radio Sheffield. My perfect partner in crime – Jack Land-Noble (or Land-Rover as he known here) with my old pal and host Bernie Clifton. An end of a bonkers, brilliant era 🙁
Posh Birds
Sometimes you have one of those dream evenings as an author with grand hotels, swanky London surroundings and all sponsored by a champagne firm. From L to R – a very lucky me, Susan Elliot-Wright, Jo Dickinson (my fab editor). Catherine Steadman and Anstey Harris. All that and finding out your book has stayed at number 5 in the Sunday Times list for the 2nd week as well. Sigh!
Morrisons Launch
The hardback of Mrs Mayhew was launched in Morrisons Barnsley and this is Danny the manager looking happy for the sales and I’m looking happy for the flowers.
Posing in Tesco
This lady’s husband was standing upstairs in the cafe to get a good pic – so we obliged!
Wonderful Luke
This lad – Luke Palfreyman – won a Proud of Barnsley award in 2018. He’s had a double lung transplant which saved his life. A subject very close to my heart whilst writing The Mother of All Christmases.
Lovely Readers
It really is a joy to meet with wonderful people who love your books
QUEUEUEUE
A Christmas queue in Tesco… people stood for 2 hours to buy a book and get it signed FROM ME!!! I wouldn’t have stood 2 hours for Liam Neeson!
A Grand Reunion
Rachel and I worked together at the very mill which I left to join a swanky firm whose boss sacked me ‘for having an accent better suited to the textile industry where I came from.’ That mill was full of fun and friendship and it was so lovely to catch up over too many (over 25!) years recently in Horbury
Sunflower Barbara!
One of my lovely readers who, after giving me this present, will always be known as Sunflower Barbara!
Signing Mrs Mayhew
A lovely morning signing books in Waterstones Wakefield
Hairy Biker Alert
Dave Myers (left) listens to all my books in order to relax. What a lovely compliment! He invited my OH and me to go and see them on tour in York and then have a natter backstage. And yes – they are just as lovely and down to earth as you would hope them to be 🙂
Writers on Tour
From left to right – Heidi Swain, Cathy Bramley, Karen Swann, Moi and Lucy Dillon in Leeds – a HOOT!
Twins!
One of my lovely readers made me a snood so I could look like Bear!
Autumn Bear
Bear posing in Autumn Leaves… he was a big bugger at 5 months old!
Photobomber
Vince photobombed Crespo’s majestic pose!
Dickie & Me
The inimitable Mr Bird
Po & the Fake Toast
Oh I do miss my lovely boy 🙁
Mum & Daughter
Here’s me and my lovely mum Mother’s Day 2018. Yes she is still a natural redhead at 86!
Me Yorkshire Tea Towels
They are for sale on my website and have gone all over the world and are hanging in bars in antipodean houses. Everyone will be talking proper Yorkshire soon!
Rev Richard Coles… swoon!
The Rev Richard Coles was also at the RNA awards and he is LOVELY!
The glorious queue for signed books in Tesco
It stretched from one side of the store to the other. Waiting time for a book to be signed… one and a half hours. Gulp!
Mad Uncle Bernie Clifton, Mad Jack Land-Noble and Mad Milly Johnson on BBC Radio Sheffield.
I’m the sanest out of the three, which speaks volumes!
Alan…
Who is more of an ‘internet sensation’ that I could ever hope to be!
The rarest of all sights..
…Rarer than Halley’s comet – the wonderful SJ to my right!
Every year…
Jenny and I have our picture taken together at book signings.
I have yet to perfect the ‘posed smile’.
My readers do it beautifully though!
The Vicar of (sort of) Dibley
What a delight this lady was – a retired vicar with a million stories that I wanted to hear (and steal).
At a ‘do’
Laura ‘Laura Kemp’ Kemp in the middle (she is VERY funny) and my agent Lizzy ‘The Krem de la Krem’ Kremer who is actually blurred in real life too.
Meeting Readers in Brum
Had a wonderful day in Waterstones Birmingham meeting lovely readers.
Girls in Brum
A still from a great evening in Brum with (L-R) Yours Truly, Miranda Dickinson, Debbie Johnson and Cathy Bramley
Jilly & Milly
I met Jilly Cooper at the RNA awards this year and she is a PEACH.
With a Willy and a Jonny in Penistone.
Willy Russell and Jonny Mitchell from Educating Yorkshire. In Penistone. You couldn’t make it up. What an evening we had!
Winner!
I think the winner of my Fat Rascals from Bettys competition was pretty happy about receiving her prize.
My Oldest Fan
Jean and I meeting on Yorkshire Day this year (hence the roses). What a peach and she looks nothing like the age she is either.
Book Signing
I signed 500 books that morning. And no – I NEVER get writer’s cramp
Tesco Launch
Chris and Raimonda who own the New York Cheesecake Company and Tesco Buyer Karen at the Tesco launch of Perfectly Imperfect Woman. Raimonda didn’t supply slices of cheesecake but SLABS. Delightful, delicious, fabulous SLABS. That’s how you do a launch in Barnsley.
Jill Mansell
My lovely, lovely friend Jill Mansell and I at the Romantic Novelists’ Conference. She’s always so colourful – like a butterfly
Enforced Tea
Sadly my job often involves having to force down an afternoon tea with one of my readers and my editor Jo. It’s hell I say, HELL!!!
Temporary Flat Mates
My temporary flat mates at the RNA conference: Jo Thomas, Judy Astley, Bernie Kennedy, Jill Mansell and Katie Fforde. Known them all for years and they’re proper top birds.
With Jane Holland
Jane Holland and I at the RNA Conference – she and I are like the naughty kids in the classroom when together. She brings out the worst in me and vice versa. Great fun – LOVE her company
Me!
I went into New Hall prison to talk to the residents and found my portrait on the wall.
Top of the World
We took a research trip to the Land of the Northern Lights – and this is us in Alta this Feb!
February in the Arctic
Some people really know how to b**ger up a wonderful pic of all those snow-covered mountains!
Thousands of Books!
I signed 3000 Mrs Mayhews in one day. I wish the rest of me was as fit as my signing hand!
Simply Crackers
Geine and her factory ‘Simply Crackers’ in Grantham were an essential part of helping me to get ‘The Crackers Yard’ just right in the Mother of All Christmases. What I don’t know about crackers now, isn’t worth talking about 🙂
Mrs Mayhew Mayhem
Lots and lots of Mrs Mayhew books sold and signed at Waterstones Meadowhall – they’re always so lovely to me there.
Oriana in Feb
Love cruising, love love love it and this will be the last time we will be going on the Oriana as it leaves the fleet. So we are so glad we had a great time 🙂