Berries and Blooms

The Novel has gone to its first publisher and my agent is now in Antarctica, so news will be on hold till after Christmas. But it's good to know that she loves it and so do two others at the agency. Phew!

And last week we agreed content on the next two Stravaganzas and the next historical novel for Bloomsbury so all I have to do is keep my head down and get on with it. I've booked a swift trip to Padua in Febnruary as essential research. The Bloomsbury Christmas party was last week too and the sales director greeted myself, Celia Rees and Nicky Browne as "Bloomsberries," which I rather like, conveying as it does both freshness and maturity.

So many people are considering writing or have written adult novels that I'm starting a little sub-group of the SAS to get us all together.

Christmas has definitely arrived here, with tree, mistletoe, wreath and a plethora of cards. We've had the first two visits, plus Stevie's work Christmas dinner, which happened at his boss's house in Oxford, where there was much talk of the appointment of the new bishop - I felt as if I were living in a updated version of Barchester Towers!