Happy New Year! Hope you had a good one. Personally, I just managed to keep my vertical hold on New Year's Day after a night carousing with friends in Paris.
I don't want to think about the number of New Year's Days I have spent groaning in various Parisian bedrooms (not as exciting as it sounds). But this one, I am happy to report saw me up on my feet and walking the dog before 11am.
We had a wonderful holiday and even managed to visit the Louvre, which I haven't been in since it was built, practically, owing to the truly vast queues you see waiting outside to go in, Turns out that if you buy something called a Museum Pass and go in a certain side door you can dodge the lines. We were at the Mona Lisa almost before anyone else as a result and so got a great view of all the Louvre staff laughing at the tourists herding in. The view of the ML not so great – she's behind more bulletproof plastic than Barack Obama. But I can recommend the Angelina hot chocolate served at the Café de Richelieu. Rich was the word; I could feel my arteries seizing up just looking at it.
Read on…'One of the country's greatest comic authors' ★★★★ The Mirror
'Tapping into the nation's joyous embrace of April's royal wedding, the witty, wonderful Wendy Holden has assembled a dazzling cast of bronze-legged socialities, highly cheek-boned princes and Cinderella lookalikes to entertain her army of fans this summer.'
DAILY MAIL
MARRYING UP
is getting rave reviews
★★★★ No 1 Entry 'a brilliant juicy Cinderella tale' HEAT
★★★★★ 'This fabulously witty story of love, social-climbing and downright snobbery is a riot of a read.' CLOSER
'Pin-sharp social-climbing comedy' GRAZIA
'Social snobbery and barefaced ambition... a modern fairytale that chimes perfectly with our post-Wills-and-Kate world' GLAMOUR
★★★★ 'Love moves in mysterious ways…' STAR MAGAZINE
'Light as a feather royal romp' Bella
Radio Interviews
Hear me on BBC Radio Leeds One on One - me, my music and Rupert Murdoch's sword!
I also appeared on Radio 4's Women's Hour – Sea Shanties, Social Climbing and Birth Control
Hear me talk to Radio Derby's Andy Potter – Wendy Holden, waterways and open gardens.
Recent Cakes
Summer's a paradise if, like me, you love nothing better than sinking your teeth in inches of buttercream. All those fetes and garden parties! My first stop is always the cake stall. Find additions to my collection of confections in Recent Cakes.
Galleries
My Glorious Autumn Garden
Have a wander in our Derbyshire paradise in My Garden
What I'm Reading
Venice by Jan Morris
A travel classic which I'm reading to feed my Serenissima addiction. I'm currently obsessed with the idea of living in the celebrated lagooned city – call it Venice envy. Jan's majestic ramble through history, culture was also really useful on our holiday – she boils down the sights to about five essentials, which is why I went up two belltowers.
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Heidi is an adorable moppet who is kind to old people and likes nothing better than romping around on the pastures marvelling at the sunsets and wild flowers. Her best friend is nice but dim goatherd Peter and she lives with the original grumpy grandfather in a mountain hut where she has a bed made of straw in an attic. I adored this book as a child (and still do) and am trying to get my own children interested; the idea of a child who sleeps in old sacks and gets excited about goats is proving a challenge, however…
See what I have been recently reading