From teenage love in an eighties holiday park to flatshares, relationships, career crises and children, Vince & Joy is the unforgettable story of two lives lived separately but forever entwined; and asks the question: how do you know when something is really meant to be?
The starting point for Vince and Joy was a what if. What if I'd first met my husband when I was seventeen and lost my virginity to him and then we'd lost touch and gone our separate ways? Would the magnetic pull of destiny have been so strong that we'd have found each other again?
The moment I first set eyes on Jascha, back in 1995, it was like seeing a road sign on a wide open road. I don't know if that's people mean by 'love at first sight', but that's how it was for me. It sounds flaky, but I saw him and I just knew that we should be travelling together. I was married to somebody else at the time and he had a girlfriend, so I left it to fate. 'If he's seated next to me at the office party, then I'll pursue this feeling.' 'If he's the last person left in the pub tonight, then I'll pursue this feeling.' 'If the next phone call through this switchboard is for him, then I'll pursue this feeling.' I'd never really thought about fate or destiny before I started playing (and winning) this game but it was so overwhelming that it stayed with me to this day. All my books have been, in one way or another, about people following or failing to follow road signs.
Writing Vince & Joy was also an interesting opportunity to explore the 'bad' relationships the two protagonists have with the 'wrong' people before they finally get together. So often love stories portray the male protagonist racing against the clock to prevent their true love from marrying someone else - as if a wedding is the end of the road. I wanted to show how in the age of the 'Starter Marriage' there's still plenty of opportunity to follow your destiny even after you say 'I do'. I was married in my twenties, foolishly and very quickly. It was a disaster and to this day I'm not sure how or why it happened. It was like an anti-destiny thing. Every bone in my body was telling me I was doing the wrong thing, but I went ahead and did it anyway. Take that fate, up yours destiny.
My friend Jenny thinks destiny is a load of old cobblers. She gets angry whenever I mention it. I sometimes think maybe it's a load of old cobblers too. Maybe it's just another name for 'everything working out OK in the end'. What would I have called it if Jascha and I had got together, had a big row, split up and never seen each other again? But then, but then … we didn't. We've been together for ten years. We're still travelling in the same direction. He is, no matter how annoying he's being, my soul mate. It might be destiny. It might be luck. It might be a big, fat nothing. But to me, it feels like magic.
© 1995 - 2008 PENGUIN BOOKS LTD
Registered Number 861590 England,
Registered Office: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
TERMS AND CONDITIONS - PRIVACY POLICY
The moment I first set eyes on Jascha, back in 1995, it was like seeing a road sign on a wide open road. I don't know if that's people mean by 'love at first sight', but that's how it was for me. It sounds flaky, but I saw him and I just knew that we should be travelling together. I was married to somebody else at the time and he had a girlfriend, so I left it to fate. 'If he's seated next to me at the office party, then I'll pursue this feeling.' 'If he's the last person left in the pub tonight, then I'll pursue this feeling.' 'If the next phone call through this switchboard is for him, then I'll pursue this feeling.' I'd never really thought about fate or destiny before I started playing (and winning) this game but it was so overwhelming that it stayed with me to this day. All my books have been, in one way or another, about people following or failing to follow road signs.
Writing Vince & Joy was also an interesting opportunity to explore the 'bad' relationships the two protagonists have with the 'wrong' people before they finally get together. So often love stories portray the male protagonist racing against the clock to prevent their true love from marrying someone else - as if a wedding is the end of the road. I wanted to show how in the age of the 'Starter Marriage' there's still plenty of opportunity to follow your destiny even after you say 'I do'. I was married in my twenties, foolishly and very quickly. It was a disaster and to this day I'm not sure how or why it happened. It was like an anti-destiny thing. Every bone in my body was telling me I was doing the wrong thing, but I went ahead and did it anyway. Take that fate, up yours destiny.
My friend Jenny thinks destiny is a load of old cobblers. She gets angry whenever I mention it. I sometimes think maybe it's a load of old cobblers too. Maybe it's just another name for 'everything working out OK in the end'. What would I have called it if Jascha and I had got together, had a big row, split up and never seen each other again? But then, but then … we didn't. We've been together for ten years. We're still travelling in the same direction. He is, no matter how annoying he's being, my soul mate. It might be destiny. It might be luck. It might be a big, fat nothing. But to me, it feels like magic.
© 1995 - 2008 PENGUIN BOOKS LTD
Registered Number 861590 England,
Registered Office: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
TERMS AND CONDITIONS - PRIVACY POLICY
