a taste of garlic: interview

When I received an email from atasteofgarlic.com, I assumed that it had been sent from the garlic marketing board as part of a PR initiative (I get sent a lot of this sort of thing.) So I ignored it. I opend the second one by mistake and I'm so glad I did because it was request for an interview; and when I looked, I found a great little site, reviewing French blogs (there are many of them) and the latest books about France. Atasteofgarlic.com was set up by Keith Eckstein who previously worked for Gardners book wholesalers in the UK and is now based here in France. Anyway, his questions were among the funniest I've been asked and can be seen here: http://www.atasteofgarlic.com, along with interviews with fellow authors including Joanne Harris and John Dummer, author of the very amusing 'Serge Bastarde Ate My Baguette' (the story of a roguish antique dealer and surely one of the best book titles of the year?)

So far the year has got off to a cracking start. News reaches me from one central prestigious London store that Tout Sweet is their No1 besteller in travel writing paperbacks and No30 bestseller in paperbacks (general fiction), which might not sound like a big deal, but it's ahead of bestselling authors Jodi Picoult (No 33) and Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame (No 36).

Even more exciting was the news from Waterstones High Street Kensington that a famous actress bought a copy of Tout Sweet before Christmas and went back to buy five more copies for her friends. She has since passed on the message that they are now all eagerly awaiting Toute Allure. That piece of news has just about made my year. It's so nice to be writing a book that someone is actually waiting for.