Ali McNamara

The Diamond Jubilee won’t be the only celebration in our house this weekend, because Breakfast at Darcy’s has been optioned as a movie!

I have to admit I’ve actually known this for a couple of months, but I didn’t want to publicly announce it until I had the contract ready to sign in my hot little hands in case anything went wrong… but it finally arrived this morning, (the film industry seems to take even longer than the publishing industry!) so now for all those that kept telling me what a great movie it would make, there’s a chance it could finally be one!

That’s the fantastically good news.

Now the bad news (its not really bad news, just realistic news) I’m only signing an ‘option.’ This means the production company has the option to make it into a film for a set time, ie put the finance, script, and cast together. It may not actually happen.

But on the other hand it may just…

And as the great man Winston Churchill once said. ‘I’m an optimist. There doesn’t seem much point being anything else.’

A very very happy, Ali :-)

When I was ill recently, I was so fed up at being plagued by the same cold caller number constantly ringing several times a day on our home phone (never anyone there, just silence. Just as well or they’d have heard a few choice words…) that I decided to record the following greeting on our answer phone:

“Hi, this is the McNamara house. I’m sorry we’ve switched off our home phone because we’re fed-up of receiving unwanted callers. You can reach any of us on our mobiles. If you do not have our mobile number you’re probably an unwanted caller, if you’re a genuine caller then please leave us a message and we’ll call you back. We’ll be checking the phone daily. Thank you.”

Yes, we’re registered with The Telephone Preference Service, I dread to think how bad it would be if we weren’t! And luckily we don’t get too many genuine calls through our home phone these days, it’s all junk! Most people call and text us through the ‘allowances’ on their mobiles.

And the result…  Blissful silence all day now! Broken only by the sound of the dogs snoring ;-)

Huge apologies if you were due to come and see me in Swindon tomorrow evening. Due to illness I have had to cancel my event.

So very sorry, but I’m proper in bed poorly right now. :(

Ali x

Last night saw me heading over to the The Tharp Arms Pub near Ely in Cambridgeshire for the third of my “Evening’s With Ali” 

The owners Ali and Mark made us feel very welcome, and Ali had been very busy all day baking cakes!

A lovely group of people came along, and as always asked lots of interesting questions. My most popular question so far has been “Do you ever base any of your characters on real people?” If you follow this blog regularly you’ll already know the answer to that question… It’s here on this website ;-)

Two ladies even travelled over 90miles just for the talk! Ok, so one was Mark, the landlord’s Mum, but she still drove all that way and back just for my talk. So thank you, Joy!

Thank you again to Ali & Mark for putting on such a fab event, and for my flowers a lovely touch at the end of the night. :-)

As always a few photos for you:

Me propping up the bar - this is even before I’d begun! JD & Diet coke if you’re buying ;-)

Cakes on every table!

Guests arriving!

& seated!

Ali chatting with Ali! 

Me from the bar kindly taken by Mark!

I like this. Signing books at a bar!

Ali & Ali after it’s all over!

(Not sure why I look like I’ve been to the Bahamas for a fortnight here. I wish!)

Me with the lovely flowers Ali gave me!