Blog Tour, Guest Post & Book Review: A View to a Kilt by Wendy Holden

View To A Kilt is my tribute to Scotland, a land I have always loved. It’s beautiful, romantic and dramatic; the perfect setting for a romantic comic drama! I go there every year; I even married a Scotsman, which is probably taking things to extremes. But even Scotland has its funny side and in A View To A Kilt I explore the castle culture; those remote fortresses in far-flung locations with relics such as Bonnie Prince Charlie’s waistcoat and Mary Queen of Scots’ shoe on display in dusty glass cases. MSQ and BPS clearly scattered their clothes freely all over the Highlands; they are of wildly-varying sizes, too!

Apart from Laura, my funny, resourceful magazine-editor heroine, my favourite character VTAK is called Sandy McRavish. She is lady laird of a Scottish estate but due to her remote situation and the machinations of greedy relatives, she has been kept in a 1980s time warp. She wears white heart-attack lipstick, thinks Princess Di is still alive, has no idea that Duran Duran have split up and has never heard of Meghan Markle.

I wrote her as an unlikely comic character but now I am wondering if she is actually me. I too look back at the 1980s as a wonderful time. The music, the clothes, the freedom of university, then afterwards hitting a London in the grip of Sloane fever. I plunged straight in and worked first for a publishing house full of Camillas and Selinas, then on a posh magazine where I met Princess Di practically every week. Looking back, it all seems like a golden time. 

A lot of people ask me how I write; I’ve written sixteen so far, ten of which were consecutive top ten bestsellers. I’m Northern, from Yorkshire, which is probably where the work ethic comes from. It definitely explains the humour. My family always laughed at everything, especially me. I was a very pretentious child, but it was my version of punk. My parents, who rode motorbikes and loved loud music, would not have batted an eyelid if I had had a safety pin through my nose. But they were scandalised when I pronounced ‘bath’ with a long ‘a’!

I also enjoy writing, which helps with the output, although my favourite part of the day is when I’ve finished and am celebrating with a large drink. I’m not the sort who can write all night in a frenzy of creativity. I work a normal office day as this was my pattern for many years in my former job as a journalist. The hours between 8am and 11am go the fastest and those between 2pm and 4pm the slowest!