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• Synopsis
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• Interview

• Biography
• More titles by Jane Green

Synopsis

In Babyville nothing's ever simple . . .

Julia worries that her relationship with Mark has turned stale. She thinks a baby will put love back into their lives. But is a child really the answer?

Julia's best friend Samantha is besotted with her new baby. But what's her sudden obsession doing to her marriage? And does Samantha's infatuation hide something much darker?

Meanwhile career-girl Maeve is allergic to commitment - nothing's going to stop her getting to the top. Then a one-night stand results in an unwanted pregnancy - but just how unwanted is it?

Three young women are about to find out how Babyville can turn your world upside-down . . .

'Once you pick up Babyville, it's unlikely you'll be able to put it down' Daily Mirror

'You'll be hooked' Company

Best-selling author Jane Green has captured the imaginations of readers in the UK and the US with her frank and funny approach to those day-to-day issues that affect women everywhere. Other titles also published by Penguin include The Love Verb (published as Promises to Keep in the US), The Patchwork Marriage (Another Piece of My Heart), Girl Friday (Dune Road), Life Swap (Swapping Lives), Spellbound (To Have and to Hold), The Beach House, Second Chance, Straight Talking, Mr. Maybe, and Bookends.

For more information visit Jane's website, like her Facebook page or follow her on Twitter.

Reviews

Critic Review:

‘A warm, lively, wise and distinctly unputdownable novel’
Hello!

‘Once you pick up Babyville, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to put it down’
Mirror

‘Another sure-fire bestseller for Green … comes with a point and a purpose that do her undoubted skills as a storyteller a huge favour’
Times

Fans of the best-selling author Jane Green will be snapping up her latest book’
Daily Express

‘You’ll be hooked – even if babies are the last thing on your mind’
Company

Interview

The author of bestsellers such as Mr Maybe, Bookends, Jemima J and Straight Talking, Jane Green shot to fame as one of the leaders in women’s contemporary fiction. Now she has brought us Babyville, not a story about babies but about people. About their relationships and the effect children, or lack of them can have on a relationship. Jane Green talks exclusively to penguin.co.uk about motherhood, friendship and the newfound excitement of Pizza Express!

What made you switch from writing about slingbacks and cocktails to motherhood and babies?
I’ve always written about real places, real bars and real parties in my books, but my life has moved on: I'm not twenty-something any more and it's been a long time since I lived that lifestyle, I just didn't have the energy any more to start going out and researching where people were going and what people were wearing. When you're working from home and you've got children, a big night out is going to Pizza Express down the road.

Chick lit was amazing and I was thrilled to be part of it. It's really been the biggest phenomenon in publishing for years and years and has brought in so many new readers, but it's gone on for too long now.

Has the transition from party girl to motherhood been an easy one?
I always thought I'd be the quintessential Earth Mother, but when I had Harrison I really wasn't the natural mother that I always thought I would be. I adore children, but I was never that interested in newborn babies. It's a terrible thing to have to admit, and you're not supposed to think that way as a woman, but everyone promises it's different when you have your own. It wasn't for me though. I was handed this little screaming bundle, and I just didn't know what to do - with him, with myself.

What do you think now when you look back at Straight Talking, your brilliant study of relationship angst?
Straight Talking feels like a lifetime ago, as does my single life, although every now and then I do find it hard to believe that I'm actually married with a baby. And even though you're not supposed to say this, there are times when I'm desperately jealous of my single friends, living it up and going clubbing and drinking, and pulling gorgeous men, but then I remember the loneliness and the times when I was treated horrifically, and I thank my lucky stars I'm married to the perfect man with a gorgeous baby, and don't have to be 'out there' anymore.

Jemima J discovers love on the internet. Do you spend time in chat rooms? What's your favourite website at the moment?
I have spent many a night in an internet chat room, but not since I've been married. I don't do the chat rooms anymore, but I have become completely addicted to e-bay. I keep bidding outrageous amounts on luxury items that I suddenly decide I absolutely must have, and then feel completely sick in case I actually win and have to pay out, because of course as soon as I make the bid I realise that I don't actually need that diamond-studded pashmina lined with caviar after all.

Libby in Mr Maybe has to choose between love (gorgeous, messy Nick) and comfort (adoring investment banker Ed of the unfortunate moustache). Do you think every woman has an Ed?
I don't think every woman has an Ed at all…thank God. I, unfortunately, have had a couple of 'Eds' in my life, and I can very safely say that they're actually rather a dangerous breed. The real life Eds had all sorts of peculiar fetishes and habits, and really, I can't imagine what I was thinking ever getting involved with them in the first place.

Friendship plays a key part in all your books - the title of Bookends is about Cath and Si, and how old friends can be the best. Do you think friendship is as important as love?
I think friendship is more important than love, but that love that grows out of friendship is the very best of all. I've always been a real sucker for that 'When Harry Met Sally' idealised notion that best friends who become lovers make the greatest relationships. But everything I say in Bookends about friends becoming our 'family of choice', I absolutely believe. I am closer to my friends than my family, and my husband is my best friend of all, which is exactly what I always wished for.

You create such great characters. Do you feel really close to them when you're writing? And do you ever wonder what happens to them after the books end?
I'd like to think I'm not quite so pretentious as to think my characters go off and live their lives once I've written the final page and switched the computer off. Having said that… I do feel fantastically close to the characters in Bookends, more so than in any of the other books apart from perhaps Jemima. I think it must be because Bookends has an incredible amount of warmth. I wrote the second half while I was pregnant, and having the wonderful sensation of a new life growing inside of me undoubtedly contributed to the writing.

In the end, your heroine's dreams always come true - though not necessarily as they might have expected. It must be an amazing feeling to be able to give people happy endings.
Actually, they're not always supposed to have happy endings. When I wrote my first book, Straight Talking, Tash was supposed to end up on her own with a billion cats but happy with who she was. Unfortunately my friends ganged up on me and said they refused to countenance such a thing, and that she had to end up with a gorgeous man or they'd never buy another book again. I don't particularly like having very sugary endings, and Bookends definitely has a bittersweet ending, which is far more to my taste.

A little bird tells us you have a passion for handbags. What's your favourite bag at the moment?
Oh God. Bags. I have a ridiculous and irresistible passion for bags, and unfortunately, thanks to three bestsellers, I have far too much money to spend on them. My favourite bag right now, and probably until my death due to its unbelievable cost, is a classic Hermes Kelly bag in a beautiful indigo.

Back to work … Do you have a special routine around writing? I think we probably imagine novelists still sitting by open windows with fountain pens …
I sit by a closed window, facing the computer, silently pleading for the phone to ring to ease the pressure of having to finish the page. I'm also completely addicted to solitaire, and can quite happily spend hours playing. But I do have to be in the mood to write. No point sitting down every day and just writing. If I'm bored my readers will be bored, so I always wait for inspiration to strike.

Is it like going to the gym - can you treat yourself to a special new outfit as an incentive to write?
If only life were that easy…

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