Awards and Remembrance

.

On Monday, a huge press of people gathered in St John's, Smith Square to celebrate and say farewell to Carole Blake. The memorial service had been organised to perfection by her colleagues at Blake Friedmann Agency and was both achingly sad and very beautiful at the same time. I didn't realise it was possible to laugh with tears in my eyes for that long.

I miss Carole every day, but it was a fitting occasion and - as was said by many people - she's still with us, pushing us on. And she would SO have approved of the drinks.

RoNAs reception in the Reading and Writing Room

From one celebration to another - in true Carole fashion - a lot of us then took a brisk twenty-minute walk up the road to One Whitehall Place for the Romantic Novel of the Year awards.

Awards presentation in the Gladstone Library

It was another well-organised event, full of writers talking books, glammed up for our special day.






I cleverly managed not to take a usable photo of the displays of shortlisted books for the various categories, but this is the Paranormal/Speculative Fiction shortlisted group (taken by the mega-talented and very patient Marte of MLR_Photos). I am delighted beyond measure that our award went to my pal Kate Johnson for MAX SEVENTEEN, especially as I nagged her into publishing the book in the first place.

.

Christina Courtenay, Jan Jones, Kate Johnson, Hywela Lyn

Other category winners were Janet Gover LITTLE GIRL LOST (Epic), Penny Parkes OUT OF PRACTICE (Romantic Comedy), Kate Kerrigan IT WAS ONLY EVER YOU (Historical), Debbie Johnson SUMMER AT THE COMFORT FOOD CAFE (Contemporary), Scarlet Wilson CHRISTMAS IN THE BOSS'S CASTLE (RoNA Rose). The supreme Goldsboro Books Romantic Novel of the Year award went to the Young Adult category winner, Sophia Bennett for LOVE SONG.