Blog Tour: The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club by Chrissie Manby, Q & A and Review

The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club by Chrissie Manby

Published: 21st September 2017

Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks

Pages: 384

Available in Paperback and on Kindle

Pre-Order now from Amazon

Rating 5/5

Today I am super excited to be welcoming one of my favourite authors to the blog Chrissie Manby. Thank you so much Chrissie for taking the time to answer some of my questions about her writing and in particular her latest novel The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club.  So please enjoy this first stop on the blog tour for The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club and make sure you follow along with the other stops all week. 

Q & A with Chrissie Manby

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to become a writer?

What inspired me to become a writer?  Failing at becoming anything else!  Growing up in Gloucester, what I wanted to be was a fashion designer.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get much support for that career plan so I went off to Oxford to study Experimental Psychology instead, with a view to becoming a clinical psychologist.  I dropped off that career pathway when I got a 2:2, which meant I couldn’t get onto a graduate training course.  In a moment of desperation, I moved to London and became a temp.  I got a temp job at an audio book company, which is where I met science fiction writer David Garnett.  He dared me to write a novel (I’d already written and published several short stories). I took the dare up.  He passed my manuscript to his editor. She liked it.  And the rest is history!

The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club is your seventeenth ( I think) book, is it difficult to keep coming up with new ideas for books after so many?

It’s actually my twenty-second book as Chris / Chrissie Manby and my thirty-sixth book overall (I think!).  I also write as Stephanie Ash, Stella Knightley and Olivia Darling.  Coming up with ideas isn’t a problem for me (obviously).  Seeing them through to the end sometimes is. I am always suspicious of people who can’t come up with at least ten book ideas in a day.  It suggests to me that they’re really not engaged with the world around them.  Ideas are everywhere and if you’re going to be a novelist, you better learn how to spot them.

Can you sum up The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club in one sentence?

Three strangers, hopeless both in and out of the kitchen, find friendship and happiness through a beginners’ cookery class.

What was your inspiration for writing The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club?

Well, not cooking.  I’m a totally terrible cook and have very little interest in becoming a better one.  I was inspired more by all those smug healthy eating blogs in which twenty-two year olds bang on about their ‘journeys’ and call a slice of apple with a blob of peanut butter on it a ‘recipe’. They make me howl.  At twenty-two, you could live off chips and Tizer and still look like a goddess.  They should all sod off and come back when they’ve hit the perimenopause, then tell us about the healing powers of kale.

Liz, John and Bella are very different characters, which was your favourite and why?

Liz is my favourite because she gets all the laughs.  I love writing mad-cap funny characters.

How did you want readers to feel after reading The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club?

Inspired to post a five star review on Amazon? J

What can we expect to see from you next?

More Newbay (my made-up Devon town), more laughter, more cooking (totally made up. Do not try any of my recipes at home).

Who are some of your favourite authors?

I will read anything by Lucy Dillon, Juliet Ashton, Michele Gorman, Fiona Walker, Rebecca Chance and Alexandra Potter.  Also Anne Tyler, Carl Hiaasen and Michelle Lovric. Oh, and Alex Marwood writes amazing thrillers.

Which three books have you enjoyed reading the most so far this year?

Juliet Ashton’s The Woman at Number 24 was smashing.  We read it at my book club.  Everybody adored it! I’ve also enjoyed rereading Michelle Lovric’s Carnevale, which is set in the Venice of Casanova and Byron. It’s a huge book but every page just sings.  And last week I devoured The Other Woman by Laura Wilson, which is the cleverest, funniest thriller I’ve read in years.

How do you intend to celebrate publication day?

By working. Unless someone buys me a bottle of champagne. Hint hint!

Describe your writing process?

What a terrible question. Worse than ‘how long is a piece of string’.  It’s impossible to describe my writing process except to say that I plot really carefully, I work out how long I’ve got until my deadline, then I set myself a word count and stick to it.

What advice would you give to anyone wishing to pursue a writing career?

Write. Too many would-be writers spend more time worrying about how to get an agent than actually finishing their first book.  Having a whole manuscript ready to go puts you at a huge head start when it comes to getting an agent anyway.

Quick fire questions:

Tea of Coffee? Tea.

Sweet or Savoury? Both.

Cosy fires or summer sun? Both.

High heel or flats? Flat. Though I wish I could wear heels.

Drive or be driven? Drive. Definitely. Hate being a passenger.

Blurb

In the quaint seaside town of Newbay, a beginner's cookery course is starting. And three very different students have signed up...
Liz's husband has left her for a twenty-something clean-eating blogger, and she's determined to show the world - and her daughter - she's just as capable in the kitchen. John, newly widowed after fifty years of marriage, can't live on sympathy lasagnes forever. To thirty-year-old workaholic Bella, the course is a welcome escape from her high-pressure job. Their only common ground: between them, they can barely boil an egg!
Enter talented chef Alex, who is determined to introduce his pupils to the comforts of cuisine. As Liz, John and Bella encounter various disasters in the kitchen, the unlikely trio soon form a fast friendship. Their culinary skills might be catastrophic - but could the cookery club have given them a recipe for happiness?

Review

The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club is the latest novel by Chrissie Manby and features four people brought together at a cookery course run by chef Alex. Liz has joined the course after daughter Saskia has started has started taking more interest in the food cooked by Brittany, her husband’s new girlfriend who is a health food blogger rather than the luxury ready meals Liz dishes up. Bella has joined up to reignite her passion for cooking which has been lost since her father died and John has joined as he’s getting sick of not being able to fend for himself after his beloved wife Sonia has died. Throughout the six week course the three become friends along with Alex and all begin to deal with problems they’ve been hiding from.

The characters in this book are a little stereotypical but I think the way Chrissie Manby has added comedy to this novel makes the characters work perfectly together. Liz is your typical working mum in her late forties who’s having trouble with her philandering husband Ian and difficult teenager Saskia. Saskia seems to have started idolising Ian’s new girlfriend Brittany, deciding to be a vegetarian and turning her nose up at everything processed that Liz tries to feed her. Poor Liz, despite trying her best for her family she never seems to get it right and more than one cooking experience ends in disaster. My favourite moment involving Liz was the processed meat incident which had me in hysterics and still makes me smile when I think of it, I would so love to have been a guest in the hotel watching the whole scene. I also loved the inclusion of the Waggy Weight Loss club for Liz’s poor dog Ted, the rivalry at the meetings reminded me so much of weight loss groups I’ve attended for myself, brilliant fun to read about.

Liz was by far my favourite character in the book, both Bella and John seem to have more serious less chaotic lives. Bella has joined the cookery club to regain the passion she once had for food and despite numerous interruptions from her work as a duty solicitor, her love for food isn’t the only thing that gets reignited. It’s not long before Bella has decided to make some big changes in her life.  Even John has a little secret which he’s been keeping which added a little mystery to the book.

I loved everything about this book, it has a little romance, a little mystery, and great insights into family dynamics but most of all its hilarious. It’s Chrissie Manby at her absolute best and is the funniest book I’ve read all year. Thank you so much to Hodder and Netgalley for sending me a copy to review and inviting me to be part of the blog tour for The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club. Thank you also to Chrissie Manby for taking time to answer my questions, I can’t wait to read your next book.

Blog Tour: Blood Sister, Q & A with Dreda Say Mitchell and Review

Blood Sister by Dreda Say Mitchell

Published: 11th August 2016

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Pages: 458

Available in Paperback and on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Rating: 4/5

Today it's my stop on the Blood Sister tour and I'd like to welcome Dreda and thank her for taking time to answer a few of my questions:

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to become a writer?

I’m an east End girl who grew up on a Council estate. My family came over to Britain from the Caribbean island of Grenada in the 1960s. I was a chambermaid and waitress before realizing my dream of becoming a teacher. I got the writing bug from coming from a family who loved telling stories and I visiting Whitechapel Library as a child. It was years later that I decided to write my first book about a character that wanted to get out of the underworld. The East End was in my blood, so I decided to write about it.

Blood Sister is part of a new trilogy, how does it differ from your previous book

It’s similar and different to my past books. My Gangland Girl series is set in East London’s badlands, but they are very much very fast paced thrillers whereas my new Flesh and Blood Trilogy still thrills, but it spends more time getting to know the characters lives and relationships. Then I went on to write a series of thrillers about a black, female cop – I adore DI Rio Wray – which are fast paced, but also police procedurals.

Can you sum up Blood Sister in one sentence?

Women behaving very badly!

 What was your inspiration for writing Blood Sister?

I was inspired by the strong and independent women I knew and grew up with on the East London housing estate I lived on. My estate was filled with people who just wanted to make a good life for themselves and their families but there was also a lot of ducking and diving going on and it’s that which interests me. So Blood Sister, the first in the Flesh and Blood Trilogy, is about two sisters, who want to get off their estate, but they both try to do it in different ways. Jen wants to settle down with the perfect man and Tiff wants the good life of the criminal underworld. And then they meet a tough and ruthless woman called Dee…That’s when the crime hits the fan!

Jen, Tiffany and Dee are all strong women, which was your favourite character in the book and why?

I can’t help but love a bad girl, so it’s Dee. She so fierce and determined to rise to the top of the criminal world, but at the same time she’s generous and so vulnerable because of her childhood. A big thing for me is writing about flawed and troubled characters because I think that reflects much of the world I see around me. 

How did you want readers to feel after reading Blood Sister?

Super excited and rearing to read the next book in the trilogy. I want my readers to feel entertained, engaged with the characters, shocked at the twists and turns, but also hope it gets readers reflecting on their own lives.

What can we expect to see from you next?

The next book in the trilogy, Blood Mother, which is out February 2017 and then the last installment, Blood Daughter, out later that year. Blood Mother takes the story right back to 1972.

Who are some of your favourite authors?

Lee Child, Martina Cole, Gillian Flynn and Alice Walker.

Which three books have you enjoyed reading the most so far this year?

Darktown by Thomas Mullen. This hasn’t come out here yet so I was honoured to get a sneak peek.

The unseeing by Anna Mazzola

Cut To The Bone by Alex Caan.

The last two are gripping books by debut authors. Must reads!

How do you intend to celebrate publication day?

Chillin’ out! And spreading the word.

Describe your writing process?

I’m a plotter so I spend a good amount of time plotting before committing to the page and shape who my lead characters are. This means that I don’t face the blank page syndrome when I start writing.

I also have a very structured writing page, so I’m an early bird and will keep writing, usually two scenes, which is around 3,000 words. This means I can write a novel pretty quickly.

What advice would you give to anyone wishing to pursue a writing career?

Go for it! I started mine when I was well into my thirties after working in education for many years; so it’s never too late. I joined a writing group, so this may be the way to kickstart your career. Or you may the Lone Ranger type who prefers to do it alone. Whatever you decide, do it now!

Quick fire questions:

Tea of Coffee? Herbal tea. Love Matcha green tea

Sweet or Savoury? Sweet, but no gluten please!

Cosy fires or summer sun? Both.

High heel or flats? Flats

Drive or be driven? Driven, in more ways than one.

Blurb

There are two ways out of Essex Lane Estate, better known as The Devil. You make good, or you turn bad.
Jen Miller is determined not to make the same mistakes her mother did. She's waiting to find herself a good job and a decent man.
Her younger sister Tiff is running errands for a gangster and looking for any opportunity for fun and profit. But she might just be in over her head...
The choices you make and the plans you have don't always turn out like you expect. Especially if you live on The Devil's Estate. When their paths cross with the unstoppable Dee - a woman with her own agenda - Jen and Tiff will learn that lesson the hard way.
At least they can rely on each other.
Can't they?

Review
Blood Sister is the first book in Dreda Say Mitchell’s new trilogy Flesh and Blood which follows one family from the Essex Lane Estate over forty years. This was the first book that I’ve read by Dreda Say Mitchell and I’m hooked already on her writing and cannot wait till Blood Mother is out next year.

Blood Sister focuses on the Miller sister Jen and Tiffany.  Jennifer is studying at art collage and longs to be a fashion designer and make it out of Devil’s Estate where they live, hopefully on the arm of her prince charming. Tiffany at sixteen is a bored teenager who goes looking for trouble to get her kicks, this time she’s taken on the job as a run around for a big-time gangster and it’s not long before Tiff realises she might be in deeper than she can handle.

Across town Dee Clark is working on making herself indispensable to John Black, nightclub owner and hot shot gangster on the verge of making it big. Dee is a woman who gets what she wants and this time she wants a ring on her finger and a massive fortune to go with it and she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

When these three find themselves mixed up with the wrong kind of men will they be able to get out without any bloodshed and will their lives lead them down the path towards their dreams?

Blood Sister is a novel which is based on the criminal underworld of East End London, something I don’t really know much about so I found it enthralling at times. The novel is split into two parts the first in 1993, the second ten years later in 2003. Honestly I found the first half of this novel much more intense as it dealt with the criminal comings and goings based around The Alley Club and John Black’s gangster ring, the second half of the book I didn’t find as believable but I did enjoy the twist at the end.

I loved that the stronger characters in this novel were the women and I found all three women interesting in their own ways. I liked Jen because she was determined to better herself and wasn’t going to settle for any old man to take her out. I did feel she was a little naive in certain situations and not quite as savvy as she would like people to believe. I liked Dee because she was scary and wouldn’t take any nonsense from anyone. I did feel she was strong enough to make her dreams come true on her own without the need for a man to provide for her, but maybe she just wanted to be loved. Tiffany was definitely my favourite character and I love how she changed over the course of the novel from a whiny teenager thinking she knows it all to someone who works hard for her dreams and knows how to make them happen on her own, even if it means not be completely honest all the time.

Blood Sister is a gripping and at times a violent novel which had me hooked from the start. I really enjoyed that there was a focus on the home lives of Jen and Tiff as for me it made the story more real. I’m looking forward to reading Blood Mother as I’m hoping it will tell us more about why the Millers and the Ingrams don’t get on.

If you’re a fan of Dreda’s previous novels then I’m sure you will this new book and if like me your new to her writing I’m convinced you will enjoy this as it was full of twists and turns right from the start and like me will be eagerly awaiting the next book.

Thank you so much to Hodder for inviting me to be part of this blog tour and for sending me a copy to review.

Blog Tour Q&A with Liz Nugent

Today its my stop on the Lying In Wait blog tour and I'd like to welcome Liz Nugent to the blog and thank her for kindly answering a few of my questions. Lying In Wait is available now and can be purchased from Amazon here. 

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to become a writer?

I was always a voracious reader from a very early age, and lost myself in different worlds and different personalities. I think I wanted to create my own world and my own characters. Slightly sinister stories appealed to me most and in fairly quick succession, I worked on a stage production of John Banville’s The Book of Evidence (I used to be a stage manager) and read Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. The central characters fascinated me, so I thought I’d write one.

Lying in Wait is your second novel, how does it differ from your first Unravelling Oliver?

Whereas Oliver was a man determined to be childless, in Lying in Wait, the protagonist Lydia is obsessed with being a mother. Unravelling Oliver spanned over fifty years whereas the action in Lying in Wait happens in three parts 1980, 1985 and very briefly, present day.  Oliver kills people indirectly but Lydia is ‘hands-on’!

What was your inspiration for writing Lying in Wait? A man once told me that he strongly suspected his father had murdered a prostitute in the 1960s. He had no evidence or no way of proving it. He never had the courage to challenge his father and went to his grave wondering. He told me this story about 25 years ago and he is long dead now. I always wondered what it would be like to grow up in a house where you suspect your father is a murderer.

Which was your favourite character in the book and why?

Even though Karen is brave, honest and strong, I really loved Laurence. He really tried his best to do the right thing, to make up for the mistakes of his parents. For most of the novel, he is blind to his mother’s manipulations. His struggle with his weight is entirely psychological. In writing his life, I realised I needed to give him at least one amazing day where he could see life’s possibilities, so I sent him to Rome!

Was it difficult to write about such unnerving characters?

It’s quite liberating to write really monstrous characters because they can say outrageous things that wouldn’t cross our minds normally. The plotting of the book is the hard bit. I find characterisation relatively easy.

Describe Lying in Wait in three word?

Mothering is smothering.

How did you want readers to feel after reading Lying in Wait?

I’d like them to be shocked and exhilarated and immediately recommend it to all of their friends. J

What can we expect to see from you next?

A new novel in late 2017, I hope!

Who are some of your favourite authors?

Way too many to mention and I know so many great writers that I’m afraid I’d leave someone out and offend them. I read across all genres. My favourite dead writers would be John Williams, Emily Bronte, John Steinbeck, Thomas Hardy, Daphne du Maurier, Truman Capote etc.

Which three books have you enjoyed most so far this year?

Tastes Like Fear by Sarah Hilary

The Maker of Swans by Paraic O’Donnell

The Diary of Mary Travers by Eibhear Walsh

How do you intend to celebrate publication day?

Penguin Ireland are generously hosting a launch for me on publication day so I expect to see lots of friends and drink some wine.

What advice would you give to anyone wishing to pursue a writing career?

Get off the Internet and read more books. The more you read, the more you learn about the craft of writing.

Quick fire questions:

Do you prefer:

Tea of Coffee? Tea. When I was a baby, my mother used to give me milky coffee in my beaker. When I was about fifteen, I stopped drinking it and now probably have two coffees per year. I don’t think I could write without tea!

Sweet or Savoury? Sweet. I don’t know how many times I have offered to be Cadbury’s brand ambassador. I think they have blocked me on Twitter.

Cosy fires or summer sun? Tough one. Winters are so long here and a cosy fire is so comforting, but our summers are usually miserable too, so I have to go for summer sun, just not Irish summer sun.

High heel or flats? I have a condition called dystonia which makes walking in high heels impossible so I have never worn them in my life. I am permanently jealous of other people’s shoes, but the upside is that I don’t spend ridiculous amounts of money on shoes. I live in Sketchers.

To drive or be driven? Drive. I need to be in charge. My car, my rules. I’m not actually a very good driver and once wrote off three cars inside one year (nobody injured thank God) but it hasn’t cured me. I still want to be the driver and if not, I want to be in the front seat. That will of course change when I get a limo and driver. Ha ha!

Thank you, Joanne, for the excellent questions, and for taking part in this blog tour. Liz x