A very special day out…

Awards Day

Those of you who follow me on social media will not have missed that yesterday was a very special day when I was given a Outstanding Achievement Award by the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

My lovely daughter came with me and here we are on the training heading into London for lunch with the Mills and Boon editorial team and shortlisted authors, Jane Godman and Jenny Bourne who had been nominated in the Shorter Contemporary Romance category sponsored by Liberta.

First lunch…

Lunch was at the seriously lovely Corinthia Hotel in Whitehall. It recently featured in a television series where this vast chandelier was being cleaned.

Here we all are, replete after a luscious lunch.

For those with a serious interest in food, I had salmon with samphire, quail with tiny beans, fondant turnip and celeriac and then a dessert involving crisp hazelnut pastry with citrus fruit and a lime leaf sorbet. Oh, and champagne 🙂 Scrumptious.

The Gladstone Library

There was just time for a cup of tea and a make up refresh before we crossed the road to the Gladstone Library (not the one in Wales!) for photographs and another glass of fizz before the awards. Professional photographs will arrive in due course, but here I am in the dress that covers all dietary sins!

And here is a part of the room before it was mobbed with romance authors and publishing professionals!

The awards

The awards is always a joyous occasion with everyone celebrating the breadth and diversity of romantic fiction. My award was the last. The Chair of the RNA introduced it, remembering the first time we met, my editor said some lovely things and then Alison Weir (who I have a ticket to hear talking about Anne of Cleves at The Bookshop, East Grinstead, in May) handed me my award.