Julia Roberts Author

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An amazing work ethic…

Whatever your views on the monarchy, I’m sure most people would not begrudge the appreciation shown to our queen over the past few days, celebrating her dedication to the life she was born into. I have enormous respect for her wonderful work ethic which is highlighted for me as my mum was born the same year as Her Majesty and is now finding life a little more tiring that she used to. Mum is a former ballet teacher who only stopped teaching at the ripe old age of 92 but she’s still incredibly agile and, just like our queen has a wonderful sense of humour. The sketch with Paddington Bear during the Platinum Jubilee celebration concert on Saturday night had me laughing out loud. It was absolutely brilliant!

This photo on Twitter also appealed to my sense of humour. I had to look at it a couple of times before the penny dropped! I did use some bun tins to make jam tarts with the left-over shortcrust pastry from the broccoli, cheese and walnut quiche I made last Thursday, along with cheese spelt scones and a Victoria sandwich cake, but I also strung actual ‘bunting’ too, along with flags and balloons. The whole occasion really lifted my spirits and in general seemed to promote a spirit of togetherness up and down our country which has been sadly lacking of late.

I was working for three of the four days of the jubilee celebrations, but it didn’t stop me noticing that two of my books reached nice round numbers in terms of Amazon ratings/reviews.

Little Girl Missing, which had been on a Kindle Monthly Deal for May, achieved 700 ratings and The Woman on the Beach clocked up my highest ratings so far, 1600. I’m so appreciative of everyone who takes the time to leave a review or spreads awareness of my books by word of mouth. I took both of these books, along with The Liberty Sands trilogy with me on our recent holiday to Barbados. We went with my friend Denise, who I’ve known since my Price is Right days, and her partner Steve.

We were celebrating Denise’s birthday. For three weeks each year, she is the same age as me, so it doesn’t take a genius to work out that my birthday is imminent. In fact, from this coming Friday I would be able to claim my state pension!!! I’ve deferred for the time being as I’m not ready to stop the day job yet even though it would give me more time for writing. It was lovely to go away without my laptop for once and completely relax and unwind. Instead of writing, I read a couple of books, one of which was How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie which I found an enjoyable if slightly macabre read. I’ve also made a start on Magpie by Elizabeth Day which I traded Amazon chart positions with several times last autumn – very good so far!

So, although I take my books on hols with me it’s for purposes other than reading! I love taking location shots of them and Barbados was particularly relevant for If He Really Loved Me as part of the second half of the book is set in Barbados, including my favourite scene between Hollie and her son Harry. We visited Bathsheba beach where the scene was played out and were quite surprised to see it awash with seaweed. Apparently, it happens to some degree at this time of year, but they were particularly badly affected this season. As you can see, the west coast where we were staying was unaffected.

My husband, Chris managed to get some good shots of me posing both as and with The Woman on the Beach. I left the books at the Crystal Cove Resort where we stayed as additions to their beach library.

One book that didn’t make the journey to the Caribbean with me was My Mother’s Secret. There is a beach scene in it, but not an exotic one so it didn’t seem quite as appropriate. We’re talking Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast in April! However, I do have some good news regarding it. She has been selected to be part of a Kobo 40% off deal from 13th – 17th June across all their territories if you prefer not to buy your ebooks from Amazon.

So, along with baking for our jubilee celebration I’ve also been out in the garden planting out bedding plants in hanging baskets and containers and veggies in my veg trug – I must admit to having help from our gardener, Dennis who visits once a fortnight for a couple of hours to do the heavy stuff.

I thought I would make this month’s competition question a picture one. To win signed copies of Alice in Theatreland and The Woman on the Beach you simply have to identify what vegetable plants these are.

Are they:

  1. Peas
  2. Cabbages
  3. Runner beans  

Leave your answer in a comment before midnight this Friday, June 10th and we’ll email the randomly selected winner on Saturday.

Terry Lello won last month’s competition, but although we emailed the good news we haven’t heard back. In the spirit of fairness for all, we’ll give another few days and if we haven’t received a response before the closing date of this latest competition, we’ll draw a new winner. If you know Terry Lello, give him/her a nudge!

Until next time,

much love

Julia xx

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Comments

  23. I would guess you are growing runner beans Julia.

    And re your Platinum Jubilee decorations, Good on you for going full out. Oueen Elizabeth is an inspiration and God Bless her. 70 years is totally incredible!

    Reply

  35. ooh veggies mine don’t make it ha, except for tomatoes for some reason!
    Answer is runner beans

    Reply

  36. I can’t believe that from this coming Friday you would be able to claim your state pension. You look so much younger than that!

    Your vegetables are looking great and I hope they will taste as good as they look. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at gardening so I struggled with your picture competition but I think the answer is: 3. Runner beans!

    Reply

  38. Happy birthday Julia have a good one x
    I’m won’t be greedy and answer the question being as I won the last one

    Reply

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