Lulu Taylor – Deep Romance

Lulu Taylor hit the Sunday Times bestseller lists with a winter-themed escapist story with hidden depths – and found she had a winning formula for holiday reads that are perfect for curling up on the sofa with cup of hot chocolate or a glass of mulled wine. The latest, A Winter Memory, is an absorbing family drama set on the edge of a Scottish loch in an ancient manor house. It’s a perfect setting for revelations of love, obsession and betrayal. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Lulu talks about the international fascination with snowy mysteries, what keeps Christmas stories high on the best seller lists, and her opportunity to interview Sarah, Duchess of York about her recently published Mills & Boon romance. This is the 199th episode in The Joys of Binge Reading, so next week we celebrate 200 shows with a very special guest – more of that at the end. We've got three E book copies of Lulu's Christmas book, A Winter Memory, to give away to three lucky readers. Enter the draw on our website or on the Joys of Binge Reading Facebook page. ENTER TO WIN LULU'S BOOK Before we get to Lulu, just a reminder that you can support the podcast for the equivalent of a cup of coffee a month and get exclusive bonus content while you do – access to Behind-the-Scenes stories, tips on who is coming up in future episodes so you can read the books beforehand, and insights into our featured authors – like Lulu - in the Getting to Know You quickfire questions… GET BONUS CONTENT BY SUPPORTING BINGE READING ON PATREON Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: How Lulu got started writing Judith Krantz style 'blockbusters'Publishing disaster turned to opportunityThe magic of Christmas storiesLockdown dislocation interrupted this year's outputThe many writers she admires Background work as an editor proves useful Where to find Lulu Taylor:  Website: http://lulutaylor.co.uk/ Facebook: @lulutaylorbooks Twitter: @MissLuluTaylor Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2737506.Lulu_Taylor What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. But now, here’s Lulu. Jenny Wheeler: Hello there Lulu and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us. Introducing romance mystery author Lulu Taylor Lulu Taylor: Hi, Jenny. Thanks so much. It's lovely to be with you. Lulu Taylor - romance under laid by mystery and deep family secrets Jenny Wheeler: You have created a real niche for yourself with these last eight books, many of which have been London Sunday Times bestsellers. They are winter themed stories. On every one of the covers are these gorgeous snowy settings with ancient houses and wrought iron gates, which immediately sets up a certain kind of story. This has become a bit of a sweet spot for part of your work, hasn't it? Tell us about it. Lulu Taylor: It’s quite funny because that happened by accident. My first book in this genre was called The Winter Folly, and it was called that despite the fact that quite a lot of the book is set in the middle of summer. But there was this building, the folly, and the moment it features in the story is in winter, so I thought, The Winter Folly sounds really resonant. They said, that's lucky because we've decided to publish you in early December. At the time I thought, I guess that's an alright slot, but generally people said to me, that's not a great place to be published. All the big autumn and winter books come out much earlier. No one's buying books at that time of the year. This is actually a bit disastrous for you. So, I was a little bit apprehensive. How a disaster turned into a wonderful opportunity Lulu Taylor's first 'winter book' The Winter Folly - a great success. But that turned out to be incredibly lucky. Because they had these winter titles, because the art department at Macmillan came up...