J'AIME July/August 2021

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FEATURE Read all about it JENNY AMPHLETT MEETS THE HAMMERWICH AUTHOR WHO HAS MADE THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER LIST It’s taken 25 books and four different pen names, but when Phillipa Ashley finally became a Sunday Times bestselling author last Christmas she was as excited as the day she first saw her words in print. Phillipa, who cut her teeth as a young reporter on the Lichfield Mercury and still lives in Hammerwich, writes heartwarming romances which have been flying off the shelves during the pandemic. “I’ve worked so hard for this, but there’s luck involved as well.” she says. “Publishing is an incredibly fickle business and you just don’t know what’s going to happen with your next book. You just try to be positive and optimistic. “People think it’s possible for an author to be an overnight success but it takes years of practice, honing your skills, writing different books and working really hard. “It would be mad for a person to leave their career to become an author, that’s not how it works.” She tasted early success when her first book, Decent Exposure, won the RNA New Writers Award and in 2009 was made into a TV film called 12 Men of Christmas starring Kristin Chenoweth and Josh Hopkins. Yet it’s only during the past three or four years that she’s been able to make a full time living as an author. Phillipa writes two books each year through HarperCollins publishers, one released during the summer and another each Christmas. She speaks very highly of HarperCollins, one of the largest publishing houses in the world, and the relationship she’s been able to build with them over the last dozen books. For example she’s allowed the freedom to lead the direction of the covers of her books. “They ask me to send in some photos of how I think the cover could look and then the illustrator works from those.” Her latest release, An Endless Cornish Summer, hit the bookshops on June 24. It’s available from the likes of ASDA, Sainsburys, Amazon, Tesco and Waterstones and well as independent bookshops. 6 www.jaimemagazine.com
Signed copies are currently available at the Stafford branch of Waterstones. Phillipa’s work is also now available in e-book format, which she says sound like ‘little plays’ once they’ve been in the hands of a skilled narrator. “I’ve always got three books on the go,” she says, “There’s one that I’m promoting, one that I’m editing and one that I’m writing. “I get involved in writing and then I have to come off that book to do edits on something else. In the end it gets to the point where you can’t wait to get rid of a book to the editor. “Then when it comes out as a book you do look at it and think ‘did I write that?’ Writing can be quite lonely but a book is definitely a team effort.” Born and raised in the area, Phillipa went to Chasetown High School, later renamed Erasmus Darwin Academy, before studying English at Oxford. “I’ve always written romance and have written some quite steamy romance in the past. The books I write at the moment are more community based, with romance on the edge of that. “They’re escapist and are always about people overcoming problems. I love writing about small communities. “I’ve really found where I want to be with the books I’m writing at the moment. The publishers let me come up with all kinds of things, for example the book that’s just been released is about a woman who goes to find her bone marrow donor - who doesn’t really want to be found.” Phillipa’s latest heroine is an archaeologist, so she called on the experts at Cambridge University’s archaeology department for help. Another plotline involved boat building which obviously meant that she needed to hire a yacht in Falmouth, purely for research purposes of course. She says her journalism background proves very useful when it comes to background research and fact finding, and she has chosen to make some of her heroines copywriters or journalists. “The book that came out last summer was about a big London journalist who takes a job as a commercial features writer for a Cornish magazine www.jaimemagazine.com 7
Page 1 and 2: J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 2 1 J’AI
Page 3 and 4: Welcome to J’AIME Welcome to our
Page 8 and 9: and ends up writing about hot tubs
Page 10 and 11: FEATURE The lady under the lamp APP
Page 12 and 13: PROPERTY Luxurious by design DO YOU
Page 14 and 15: PROPERTY Property of the Month EACH
Page 16 and 17: INTERIORS When life gives you lemon
Page 18 and 19: £29.95 MINI JUG WITH EMBOSSED LEMO
Page 20 and 21: STUNNING LEMON YELLOW VASE, £278,
Page 22 and 23: INTERIORS A place for everything FR
Page 24 and 25: TWO ENAMELLED STORAGE TABLES IN BLA
Page 26 and 27: F O O D & D R I N K Cooking in stat
Page 28 and 29: keeping them engaged, ensuring that
Page 30 and 31: W H AT ’ S O N Theatre is back...
Page 32 and 33: W H AT ’ S O N The show must go o
Page 34 and 35: W H AT ’ S O N A unique festival
Page 36 and 37: overnight stay. Flagstaff, a small
Page 38 and 39: F I T N E S S How to have strong, b
Page 40 and 41: I N T H E N E W S A welcome return
Page 42 and 43: B E AU T Y Dare to bare WE ASKED DE
Page 44 and 45: I N T H E N E W S Midlands school c
Page 46 and 47: H E A LT H Putting up with pain is
Page 48: 44 www.jaimemagazine.com

J'AIME July/August 2021

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