Readers Place

An exclusive interview with Alison Kervin, author of Celebrity Bride:

What was the inspiration for Celebrity Bride?

I am quite fascinated by the issue of ‘celebrity’ and the change that becoming a celebrity imposes on a personality. But I thought … what if a sweet, normal girl found herself hoisted into the world of celebrity, and carried on being her usual, bright and normal self? I also wanted it to be an out and out romance and a tale about real people in a make believe world.

Dream-casting time: who would play Rufus and Kelly in the movie of Celebrity Bride?

Oooo … I love this game. My friends and I spend a lot of time working out who will play each role. The debates get quite heated and I end up listening to them arguing about why Julia Roberts is wrong and Catherine Zeta-Jones in her younger days would have been perfect (I think they’re right there, but in the absence of a time machine, that’s not going to work). I’m thinking of Hugh Jackman for Rufus, Obviously George Clooney’s a contender but I wonder whether he might be a bit old for it by the time they make the film (Sorry George. I know you’ll be devastated!) Maybe Brad Pitt? Might be nice to have Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie acting together as Rufus and Kelly, but she’d have to put on a bit (a lot!) of weight first, and I’m not sure she’s much of a pie and chips eater. For Kelly (assuming Angelina doesn’t want to go down the pie route and assuming we go for Hugh Jackman as Rufus), I’m thinking Anna Friel? She’s a good comic actress, isn’t she? Again, she’s very slim, but I bet she’d be more likely to fill up on jam donuts than Angelina.

Which celebrity wedding would you have liked to have gone to and why?

I suppose it would have been good to have gone to Charles and Diana’s wedding because Diana ended up becoming such an incredibly influential woman, and their wedding and her entry into the royal family became such a hugely significant moment.

Who are your favourite authors?

This isn’t the sort of question you can give a one word answer to, so here’s a selection. Graham Greene is a genius (read the first few pages of End of The Affair and look at the beauty of the language, the rhythms and simplicity of the images he creates). I’m slightly obsessed with GK Chesterton at the moment (more his journalism than his fiction). Margaret Attwood is blindingly good.

Confession time: which classic novel have you always meant to read and never got round to it?

Ulysses. I’m ashamed to admit it, and I recognise that it’s a work of sheer genius but I can’t ‘do’ it. I’m quite good at reading highly dense, plot-thick novels, and have a huge crush on Russian literature, but Ulysses – sorry but I’ve tried and failed and I’d rather sit and eat my hair than try again.

Which fictional character would you most like to have met?

I’d quite like to meet Rufus George, to be honest … I think he sounds lovely. I like writing female characters. In terms of women who would I like to meet? Maybe Cathy in Wuthering Heights because she’s such an incredibly forceful and clever character.

Who, in your opinion, is the greatest writer of all time?

It’s very hard not to pick Shakespeare here. He has such a dominating influence over literature that it’s almost as if you have to mount a defence for not picking him! But it’s easy to over-write and over-embellish and overtell stories as a writer, and then you read: ‘To be or not to be …’ and realise that the most famous statement in the whole of literature is just six words that are so basic they’d be known to the average three-year-old. It’s extraordinarily clever, and difficult, to take a vastly complicated subject and reduce it to six simple little words like that.

Other than writing, what other jobs have you undertaken or considered?

I was a journalist for a long time, before writing books, and I did a brief stint at the Rugby Football Union as match-day PR officer for the England team (a lot of the time I was ‘looking after’ the wives and girlfriends of the players who were a great bunch of women and many of them have become great friends), but it’s pretty much been writing all the way since I left college.

What are you working on at the moment?

The follow-up book to Celebrity Bride, in which we follow Kelly on her adventures with Rufus as his wife. I’m drafting out loads of ideas for that at the moment, and it should be a fun book.

What question have you never been asked in an interview, but think you should have been?

I’ve never been asked why I write … yet I think ‘why?’ is at the centre of most good literature. Understanding character’s motivations and why they behave the way they do, and building into all the stories you write a sensible assessment of ‘why’ is crucial. So, odd that people never ask why . . .