This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
By Jenny Banks
At Morton’s Club in Mayfair last week, we had the pleasure of attending Giovanna Fletcher’s book launch for her debut novel, Billy and Me, which was published by Penguin on May 23rd.
The novel centres on Sophie, a young woman living in a small village who finds her quiet life upturned when she meets a famous actor, Billy.
Over a glass of bubbly, we spoke with Giovanna about Billy and Me. It sounds like a lovely book by an even lovelier author and we're very excited to be reviewing it soon, here on Novelicious. Giovanna told us how she hardly slept the night before with worrying about her speech, but her jitters proved ill-founded. It was a really beautiful speech, especially when Giovanna explained how she was always destined to be a part of Penguin; her days at drama school pretending to be a penguin mixed with her positive thinking after reading The Secret ensured Giovanna firmly became part of the Penguin fold.
There were many people at the book launch, and luckily we managed to speak with two lovely ladies: Ali McNamara, who gave us some details on her new book Step Back In Time, and Novelicious's recent inductee into the International Chick Lit Month Hall of Fame, Jill Mansell. It was in fact quite a glittering night; you may know that Giovanna is married to Tom Fletcher from McFly, all of whom were there to offer support, and although Giovanna was very busy, she happily stopped for a photo and gave each guest a gift bag.
Thank you Giovanna and Penguin for such a great night and all the best with Billy and Me!