Reader Q&A – Picnics in Hyde Park
Dear Reader,
When the first in the #LoveLondon series - Skating at Somerset House – was released in December 2014, I had no idea of the wonderful, dizzying journey that lay ahead of me.
Writing a set of romances that could be read as stand-alone stories that were also linked was a challenge I was more than up for. Five novellas, one novel and a hundred and eighty thousand words later, here we are!
This series is my love letter to London. It’s a city I never get tired of with its varied architecture, amazing buzz, vibrant communities and diverse beauty. Even if I spent every day of the rest of my life exploring it, I don’t think I would discover all of its secrets.
During the writing of the series, every couple in every one of the stories became my friends and I was rooting for them to get their happy ever after. I hope you feel the same way.
I could never have predicted the way readers, bloggers and reviewers would take #LoveLondon to heart and I’ve been truly overwhelmed by the support, be it a tweet, a Facebook post or a lovely review. What’s been even more humbling has been readers contacting me to say a story touched them, or made them laugh, or how they wished they weren’t saying goodbye to the characters – and is there a follow up please? I have spent a lot of the last year with a smile on my face…
So now, as we’re approaching the end of the year, it feels only right to put the whole series together in one collection. I really hope you enjoy it, and I hope you grow to #LoveLondon as much as I do.
I would love to hear from you, so please do get in touch via Facebook or Twitter.
Love, Nikki x
Skating at Somerset House
New Year at the Ritz
Valentine’s on Primrose Hill
Cocktails in Chelsea
Strawberries at Wimbledon
Picnics in Hyde Park
Noel Summerford hated Christmas.
The intense, harried craziness drove him half nuts every year. The pressure to buy everyone presents they didn't want and would never use. Shoving, rippling crowds on the streets forgetting their manners, desperate to cross every item off their shopping lists. People parting with their hard earned cash at rip-off prices that would reduce to near zero as soon as it hit Boxing Day. Endless turkey dinners with dry overcooked white meat, lashings of sickly cranberry sauce and stodgy stuffing. Unwanted, twee greetings cards with their cutesy reindeer or Santa cartoons. Cheesy, artificial music piped into every shop for months, seasonal tunes playing on every radio station until he thought his ears would bleed, especially as the girls in the office insisted on turning the music up to near deafening volumes. His female colleagues wearing silver bauble earrings and pressuring the men to dress in novelty ties and festive knitted jumpers made him grind his teeth, but worse was how they clambered up on desks in ridiculously high heels to hang decorations from the beige walls and white-tiled ceiling. It was an annual health and safety nightmare, given that he was the Corporate H&S Officer for a high-street retail giant.
Yes, Christmas was definitely his least favourite time of the year, and his preference would be to hide in his man-cave for the whole of December. He therefore couldn't think of anything worse than ice skating – or in his case falling on his arse countless, humiliating times – at Somerset House. It was London's favourite outdoor ice rink according to The Evening Standard magazine, or so Matt had informed him. He could admit that the main sandstone neoclassical building, set in a square shape around the central courtyard, was quite impressive with its graceful columns, Victorian style black lampposts, mini white-encrusted trees in massive gold leaf pots and grand entrances on the Strand and the Embankment. Right now that was contrasted against the modern single-storey, white-framed, temporary buildings that housed Tom's Skate Lounge, the Cloakrooms/Box Office and main skate entrance. Mint green and teal SKATE posters were displayed prominently and matching Fortnum & Mason flags flapped in the winter breeze. You couldn't deny there was a great buzz to the place with all the noisy, excitable visitors chattering and skating, both locals and tourists from the sounds of it. But Noel was a disaster on the ice, and the giant Christmas tree in a huge wicker hamper was overdecorated and overdone… as well as a sharp reminder it was only a few days until the dreaded C-day. There was no escaping it.
Leaning up against the transparent waist-high wall guarding the rink, taking a much needed break from skating, he shivered and shifted from one foot to another. Cold vapour formed in a puffy cloud in front of his face as he exhaled. It was seriously bitter today. He checked the watch that'd belonged to his grandfather; rectangular face, brown leather strap, built to last. It was three in the afternoon, so it was only going to get colder and bleaker. Although, if he froze to death,