Back in August I read a book that pretty much blew me away. I’m not joking, I absolutely adored it. The ending made me smile like a total loon and to know it was a debut novel was stunning! So when I got the chance to ask the lovely Ali McNamara, the author of the stunning From Notting Hill With Love… Actually, some questions I was so excited you have no idea. Well, the book is out this week, so here is our interview with Ali! You’re welcome!

1. Tell us about your debut novel From Notting Hill With Love… Actually?

It’s about Scarlett who adores the movies, but her fiancé and family think she’s a bit too obsessed by them. So when she gets the chance to get away from them all and house-sit a grand mansion in Notting Hill, the setting of one of her all time favourite movies she grabs the opportunity to try and live out her film fantasies one last time.

2. Are you currently working on a second book? Can you tell us anything about it?

Yes, it’s about a girl called Darcy who finds out at her aunt’s funeral she’s the sole beneficiary of her very wealthy estate. But before Darcy can claim one penny of the money the will stipulates she must go and live on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland for a year and set up a new community of people to live there with her. Darcy’s used to living in London where all she has to worry about is buying the latest designer handbag and popping down to Starbuck’s for a ‘Caramel Macchiato’ so island living doesn’t exactly come easily. But if Darcy thinks her only challenge over the year will be how she’s going to match her shoes to her rain jacket, or survive without Eastenders for 12months, she hasn’t banked on what the island of Tara has in store in for her…

3. What is it about the movies featured in the novel that helped to inspire From Notting Hill With Love.. Actually? Why those particular movies?

I’ve always been a huge fan of Richard Curtis and his writing so his films were always going to feature in the book. But there are also films by another writer/director called Nora Ephron who created wonderful films such as When Harry Met Sally & Sleepless in Seattle she’s a big favourite of mine too. Then the others are just classics that everyone knows, such as Pretty Woman and Bridget Jones’ Diary and I have to say in my research (and I did a lot of Rom Com movie watching in the name of research!) the old ones are the best!

4. How did you decide which movie scenes to include in the book that Scarlett re-enacted, either by accident or by design?

This is a difficult one to answer. They just seemed to spring to mind as I was writing it! I don’t think I wrote any of the novel to fit around a particular movie scene, apart from the ending maybe… but I can’t give that away now can I?!

5. Your biography tells me that you began writing in part thanks to Ronan Keating, can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Even now when I tell this story it all sounds a bit mad, but it’s completely true.

I’ve been a fan of Ronan’s for some years. One day in 2002 I had been away on a training course with my work, and I posted a message on his website’s forum about playing Ronan’s music while I’d been staying on my own in a hotel. Another girl responded – Karen, who had also just come back from a training course for her own job and had done exactly the same, and we began a silly late night conversation on the forum. Over time this little chat between ourselves began to develop into a story, to which we kept adding new instalments every night, until we began to realise that more and more people were logging on to the message board simply to find out what happened next in our tale. It sounds incredibly bizarre I know, but its true – the website often used to crash because there were so many people waiting for their nightly fix! Fans from around the world would wait impatiently until I got in from work late at night (because I worked in fitness, I often worked evenings.) demanding the next part of the story. This went on for some months until eventually we’d run out of adventures for Ronan to have, and so we had to bring the story to an end.

We then had so many requests to make the story into a proper book that we decided to do it for charity. I collated, with the help of some friends, all the many instalments that were on the forum, edited them into a novel, and then sold email & disc copies of the story to anyone who wanted one.

I then had further requests for more stories, so on my own this time I went on to write two more novel length stories along the same lines – posting them on the message board in instalments every night – then selling them at the end as a complete novel on disc or email attachment with the proceeds going to charity.

So something that started out as a bit of silly late night banter between two strangers, in total raised over £1000 for Ronan’s cancer charity – The Marie Keating Foundation, gave me a new friend in Karen, and made me realise that writing was not only something that I really enjoyed doing, but something that other people seemed to enjoy reading too.

I then decided it was time to have a go at writing a ‘proper’ novel, and it was my third attempt at this From Notting Hill with Love…Actually which is going to be my first published book. Oddly it has a Ronan Keating link – in that Ronan sang the theme tune to the movie Notting Hill, a song which features in the story.

6. You mentioned that you had to go through years of rejection before finally landing a book deal with Little Brown. Was that with From Notting Hill With Love… Actually? or another book? How did your deal with Little Brown come around?

As I mentioned before From Notting Hill with Love…Actually was the third full length novel I wrote after the stories on Ronan’s website. So I’ve had my fair share of rejections like most other authors, on all my novels including this one! But for some reason I just kept going with this book even though like the other two the pile of rejection letters was starting to get higher and higher, but I just had faith in my story and knew that one day someone would love it just as much as me and want to publish it. And luckily I was right! First my fantastic agent, Hannah Ferguson from the Marsh Agency picked my manuscript up off the infamous slush pile at their offices, and then eventually my editor, Caroline Hogg at Little Brown saw that same spark in the story and ‘Team Notting Hill’ as we like to call ourselves was born.

7. Despite the fact From Notting Hill With Love… Actually takes inspiration from numerous films, I would still love to see it as a film. Who would you choose to play Scarlett and Sean?

Scarlett is easy; I’ve always thought Anne Hathaway could play her very well. Sean is a bit harder to place. When I was writing it, I always imagined the actor that plays Sean Slater (Robert Kazinsky) in Eastenders as my Sean. Although that’s not why he’s called Sean, there’s much more of a movie link to his name…

But Scarlett imagines Sean looking like many hunky Hollywood movie stars during the novel including Brad Pitt, so if Brad happened to be free I wouldn’t say no to him being in the film obviously! (Ed note: I totally agree with Anne Hathaway and Rob Kazinsky as Sean and Scarlett)

8. How long did it take you to write From Notting Hill With Love… Actually? Did you have to plan it all out before writing it, or did the story just flow out of you?

Considering how long it took me to get it published, it only took me about six months to write. I’m a part planner, part let’s see where the characters take me writer. It really is surprising what they persuade you to do with them sometimes!

9. Did you always intend for From Notting Hill With Love… Actually to end the way it does? (Ed note: Which, by the way, ranks number one on my all-time favourite book endings. It does not come better than that and it had me grinning like a loon!)

That is such a compliment! Thank you.

I knew it had to have a really big romantic, Hollywood style ending to go with the rest of the book. I had a few ideas to begin with, but as soon as I hit on that one it was one of those ‘light-bulb’ moments. My ‘light-bulb moments’ – when I hit upon the perfect idea or solve a problem that’s been troubling me with a plot etc, are my favourite part of being a writer.

10. Who came up with the title of From Notting Hill With Love… Actually?

Me. I’m very proud to say.

11. What books do you like reading yourself when not busy writing your novels?

I’d love to sit here and list all sorts of meaningful sounding novel titles and high brow authors, the sort that I see other writers quote in interviews. But I read what I write. I love chick-lit, (not all chick-lit, but the good stuff.) and I’m proud of it. I also read a lot on non-fiction too.

12. Do you have a particular writing routine every day? Or do you just wing it and take it as it comes?

I think it would be very difficult to treat writing as a clock-in clock-off type of job. Your story and your characters become such a part of you when you’re working on a novel that you carry them with you all the time whether you’re ‘officially’ in writing mode or not. So no two days are ever the same.

13. What would you say to those wishing to write their own novel?

Never give up! If this is what you really want to do and you genuinely believe your novel is as good as or even better than what’s already out there on the bookshelves, then keep going. Listen to the feedback to get along the way, take it on board, be brutally honest with yourself and then alter your manuscript if you think it’s valid (they’re not always right.) Then just keep trying…because one day it might just happen.

It did to me.

Thank you SO much Ali!

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