Lisa Jewell was born and raised in north London, where she lives with her husband. She used to be a secretary until redundancy, a bet, and a book deal took her away from all that and she is now a full-time writer. Her first novel, Ralph's Party, was the bestselling debut of 1999. Lisa is also the bestselling author of A Friend of the Family, One Hit Wonder, ThirtyNothing and Ralph's Party.
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Five is never enough when it comes to favourites. There's always one more you'd like to add on. But then if you were asked to name six favourites you'd probably want to name seven. And so on. So here are five of my favourite things in a variety of categories, although in all cases (most particularly in the case of songs) there are loads more things that I love equally. I'm just not allowed to tell you about them on this occasion.
Gregory's Girl
I just have to hear the first few chords of the theme music and I'm fifteen again.
Titanic
I don't care if it's naff. Take away the first hour and it's the best disaster movie ever made.
After Hours
Every time I watch it I see something I forgot was there. I wish someone would make a film like this about London.
Groundhog Day
Oh, it's just great isn't it?
Human Traffic
It's like going out, taking loads of drugs, staying up all night and talking crap to strangers, all from the comfort of your own sofa.
Learning to Swim - Clare Chambers
Colour of Memory - Geoff Dyer
She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
Secret History - Donna Tartt
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
High and Dry - Radiohead
Native New Yorker - Odyssey
Time Will Pass You By - Tobi Legend
Live Forever - Oasis
Perfect - Lightning Seeds
Som Tam and Sticky Rice from Esarn Kheaw on the Uxbridge Road
Toro (tuna belly) sushi from any good Japanese restaurant
Chicken Jal Frezi from Khans in Bayswater
My sister's chocolate cake
My mum's curry
London
Lagos in Portugal
Anywhere on the Italian Riviera
Verona in Italy
Scottish Highlands
Kate Moss - for being cool, beautiful and British and never trying to be anything more than that.
People who can reverse huge lorries into tiny loading bays
Single mothers
Nick Hornby
Anyone who can play a musical instrument - especially the piano
Kate Beckinsale. Don't know why. She just looks like a bitch.
Anyone driving a car anywhere in the vicinity of me while I'm driving a car
Women who have flat stomachs after having babies
The miserable bastard who lived next door to us in Priory Terrace, London NW6.
People who phone up the Rant Line on Radio Five Live to shout about football.
1) All the pretty houses.
I am a property junkie. I love looking at houses. I live within walking distance of St Johns Wood and Hampstead and I spend hours pushing a pram round the backstreets just gawping at the houses, wondering who lives there, how the hell they can afford it, if they appreciate it and if I'll ever get to live somewhere so jaw-droppingly gorgeous. I also get dozens of glossy magazines dropped on to my doormat every month full of big pictures of pretty houses for sale for sums so gigantic that they don't even print them - you have to phone up to find out. I love these magazines because it means that I get to ogle the pretty houses in the comfort of my own home and see what they look like inside too
2) Buses.
I miss buses. Before Amelie was born I used to travel everywhere by bus. Unlike on tubes, you get a view, you get oxygen and you don't have to avoid staring at strangers for half an hour.
3) Restaurants.
Obviously. Whenever I think about selling my overpriced flat and buying a piece of sprawling countryside instead, two things always stop me in my tracks; firstly, missing my family and friends and secondly, not having access to 3000 different ethnic restaurants every night. I once had a curry in Norfolk. It still haunts me to this day.
4) My communal garden.
My flat backs onto a two and half acre communal garden. It stretches all the way from my street to the Finchley Road. It is full of weeping willows, cats and children. In the summer it looks like Regent's Park when everyone brings out rugs and chilled wine and invites their friends over for impromptu barbecues and games of softball. Three women who live on my garden had baby girls in the same month as I had Amelie and I have fantasies about them all growing up together in a gang, like the big girls who roam around the garden now on their bicycles and scooters. The children who live on my garden never seem to be indoors watching television. I hope we can stay here forever.
5) Secrets and surprises.
My garden is both a secret and a surprise. You would never know it was there from the outside. London is full of things like that. An alleyway tucked away between buildings that leads to an old church, or a tiny pub in a cobbled mews that only seats six people. At the bottom of my street there is a quirky little wine bar called the Arches which was originally housed in the Arches at Charing Cross. Fifty years ago it was dismantled and rebuilt in its new location, a bit of the West End tucked away down a side street in Swiss Cottage. The paving stones in the front garden of the house where I was brought up used to belong to Regent Street. My dad nicked them from the side of the road when it was being repaved. I love looking at the A-Z, at all the little fragments of green amongst the grey, at the tiny little roads that are so small they can only print three letters of the street name. I love the fact that there are over 10,000 pubs in London and I've only been to about a hundred of them. I love that there are over 2 million houses in London and I'll only ever live in about ten of them. I love that there are over 8 million people in London and I will only ever be friends with a few dozen of them. I love that I have never, for even a millisecond, been bored by London. And neither, coincidentally, have I ever been bored by life.
6) People.
Just looking out of my kitchen window I can see a dozen people every day who deserve to be characters in a book. A French man with a shaved head who walks three angry pug dogs up and down my street all day long. They all hate each other and growl and snap constantly. He shouts at them in French in a futile attempt at retaining some kind of order. There's the Ecuadorian in the stripy blanket coat who walks down the middle of the road with a long black stick shouting at someone I can't see. Next door there is an enigmatic Russian beauty, a Polish woman married to a Turk, a very tall German couple and a South African couple who are always hugging each other. On the other side there is a girl from up north with black hair who always seems to be wearing a negligee. The other day Jascha was rinsing a mug in the sink. 'Ha,' he said, 'Vanessa Feltz just drove past.' I don't like Vanessa Feltz particularly but I like living somewhere where she might just happen to drive past my kitchen window. I like everyone who lives in London (unless they're driving a car, in which case I hate them all with a burning passion. I am a very aggressive driver.) I try not to let anyone take away from my pleasure at living in the greatest city in the world. Even traffic wardens.
7) Heathrow Express.
London's infrastructure is basically crap. The tubes are decrepit, the roads are hell, everything seems to conspire against you getting from A to B in a timely fashion. Which is why the Heathrow Express is so amazing. It replaced a forty-five minute slog through the turgid bowels of the Piccadilly Line with a glossy ten minute cross-country sprint. It's shiny and slick and effective. It works. It's like something the Belgians would have in their country. It makes me happy to think of visitors to London getting on the Heathrow Express and thinking that so far this London place is quite cool.
8) Black cabs.
My favourite place to be, both physically and mentally, is alone and slightly drunk in the back of a black cab on a summer's night. I stare out of the window and drink in London. It's like watching a sleeping child. I get quite emotional.
9) Seasons.
Yes, I know other places have seasons, but nowhere else does them quite the same as London.
10) The river.
Actually this is both one of the best and worst things about London. When you're crossing the river, particularly on a sunny day or when it's getting dark, it is a glorious breathtaking spectacle that makes you feel all the majesty and wonder of living in a giant, sprawling city. It's when you fancy hanging out by the river on a summer's day that it lets you down. There are only about ten places where you can sit and have a pint and about half a dozen where you can get something to eat, most of which are out of most people's price range. And they always feel a bit off the beaten track rather than a natural extension of the surrounding city - you have to walk down slightly dodgy footpaths and across two lanes of traffic and through slimy subways to get to them. You have to make an effort to get there; you can't just stumble upon them happily and unexpectedly. But the minute you're in a cab or on top of a bus and you're trundling home, north or south, over Albert Bridge or Vauxhall Bridge or London Bridge, it's there beneath you, black and mysterious and full of reflections, and it takes your breath away.
Will the printed word endure?
Yes. it mite becum a bit trunc8ted tho.
Which newspaper do you read?
Well, I read the Standard every day, but I wouldn't call it a newspaper.
What books are you reading at the moment?
I'm reading Becoming Strangers by Louise Dean and the first four chapters of an unpublished book sent to me by one of my readers for an honest opinion (it's very good).
What books did you read as a child?
Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, the Narnia Chronicles and EE Nesbit.
Which authors do you most admire?
Nick Hornby. I would like to come back as Nick Hornby in my next life. I could live without the hair.
Where/When do you do most of your writing?
I do all my writing between 9.30 and 2.30 in a corner of my bedroom. When I'm finished for the day, I'm finished and don't go back to it until the next morning.
Who or what always puts a smile on your face?
My daughter Amelie, new e-mail in my in-box, sunshine and a pint of lager.
What's your earliest memory?
Being given an antique doll set by our next door neighbour and spending the afternoon systematically destroying it with my little sister. We were way too young for antiques.
What is your greatest fear?
Dying without my husband and daughter.
How would you like to be remembered?
As a good wife, good daughter, good mother, good friend, good writer and a good laugh.
Have you even done something you've really regretted?
Oh god yes.
How do you spoil yourself?
With alcohol mainly. And expensive holidays. And expensive meals. I'm not into pampering and treatments. I like having a good time.
What's your favourite word/book?
Favourite word is 'indeed'. It's so versatile and solid. Favourite book is the Colour of Memory by Geoff Dyer.
Who do you turn to in a crisis?
My husband. He's at his best in a crisis.
What makes you angry?
Other drivers.
Have you ever had any other jobs apart from writing?
Oh, yes, indeed. I worked for Warehouse for five years as a marketing assistant and then for Thomas Pink for three years as a receptionist and PA.
Are you in love?
I am, with Amelie. I know I should say Jascha, and I love him to bits, but my current love affair is definitely with my daughter.
What's your worst vice?
Reality TV. (Watching it, not appearing on it).
What are you proudest of?
My daughter, my career and my sisters.
Where's your favourite city?
London. I don't really have any favourite cities elsewhere - I prefer small towns and villages in other countries.
When was the last time you cried?
Last Thursday, at my mother's funeral.
One wish; what would it be?
A cure for cancer.
Did you enjoy school?
I was indifferent to school. I got zero pleasure from it and couldn't wait for it to end. I spent one day in the sixth form and left the same day. I feel really guilty that I have to send Amelie to school one day. I hope she enjoys it more than me.
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