Summer Picnic with Jaffareadstoo ~ Jane Cable ☼

☼ Jaffareadstoo is delighted to welcome you all to our Summer Picnic ☼ 

Pull up a deck chair, tie knots in your hanky and roll up your trouser legs!

☼ Summer time is here ☼ 

☼ I'm delighted to welcome author, Jane Cable to our picnic ☼

What favourite foods are you bringing to our summer picnic?

I love a nibbly picnic with lots of dips and salads so I’d probably combine the two with potato salad made with tzatziki rather than mayo, and definitely tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. I love fishy things as well (but suspect I’d have to share with Jaffa); fresh crab, or smoked salmon and cream cheese with a generous twist of lemon.

Would you like chilled white wine, a flute of Prosecco, a tumbler of Pimms, or a tall glass of sparkling elderflower cordial?

Chilled white wine, please. But I’ll bring you a bottle of one of my favourites, a white burgundy we buy on our trips to France made by super-talented winemakers Michel Prunier and his daughter Estelle.

Where shall we sit, by the pool, in the garden, in the countryside, at the seaside? 

Much as I love the sea I don’t much like sand in my food, so how about the garden? But it would need to be your garden as ours is north facing and the size of a postage stamp.

Do we have a wicker hamper, tablecloth and cutlery, or is everything in a supermarket carrier bag ?

My mum and my godmother used to prepare the most fabulous picnics when I was small, with tablecloths, proper cutlery, even trifle in a crystal bowl. When my dad once complained they’d forgotten the mustard they fell about laughing and he was never allowed to live it down.

Do you have a favourite place to have a summer picnic?

There is the most amazing stretch of coastline near where we live in Cornwall with views out from the clifftops over a turquoise sea, dramatic mine ruins and clouds of thrift dotting the heathland. So there, definitely.

Which of your literary heroes are joining us on the picnic today?

Given the piece of coastline I’m talking about is near St Agnes, or Sawle as it’s known in the Poldark novels, it would have to be Winston Graham. His knowledge of the local history and the area in general was second to none and I’d love to have met him. I’ve just finished writing my first dual timeline and kept stumbling across his research sources for Poldark when I was doing mine.

Which summer read are you bringing with you today?

That is such a tough question. But for a fun picnic I would have to choose one of my friend Kitty Wilson’s Cornish Village School books. Probably Summer Love, not just because of the season, but because there are scenes that made me laugh until I cried.

Canelo
2019

What is your earliest summer memory?

It’s very hard to be sure but I do remember running through waist-high bluebells, carrying a loaf of bread in front of me, then sitting on a fallen tree to have a picnic with my parents. Given the relative height of the bluebells I must have been pretty small.

Do you have a favourite summer hideaway?

An amazing restaurant with rooms called Winteringham Fields. It’s in a village on the banks of the Humber and we first visited in 2014 when my husband won a stay there in a Facebook competition. It was the trip that inspired Endless Skies and we’ve been going back ever since.

Do you have a summer music playlist for reading / writing? And if so will you share with us a favourite song or piece of music that makes you feel summery?

Jack Johnson’s Better Together is the song that best sums up the summery vibe for me. But if we’re talking a playlist then it would need to be a whole album, either Al Stewart’s Year of the Cat (what else, for Jaffa and Timmy?) or Norah Jones’ Feels Like Home. Or maybe George Ezra’s Staying at Tamara’s…

Do you find that your reading tastes differ between winter and summer?

I don’t think so. I read mainly women’s fiction and romance and always have so many new titles on my Kindle I pick the one calling to me the loudest for my next read. 

Do you find it easier to write in the summer months or during the winter?

I try to be disciplined about my writing so I write most days, normally first thing in the morning before I’ve even been tempted to go outside.

Would you like to tell us a little about your latest novel, or your current work in progress?

My second book with Sapere, Endless Skies, came out last week. It tells the story of Rachel, a feisty archaeologist with a disastrous relationship history and a bad attitude to men. But when she starts digging a World War Two airfield and meets octogenarian Esther it seems a love story from the past could hold a lesson or two for her as well.

Sapere Books
July 2020

Jane, where can we follow you on social media?

Twitter  @JaneCable

Facebook Jane Cable, Author 

Website 

More about Jane

Jane Cable writes romance with a twist of mystery and a nod over the shoulder to the past. Although born in Cardiff she now lives in Cornwall with her husband of almost twenty-five years. Her fourth novel, Endless Skies, has just been published by Sapere Books.

☼ Thank you for coming to our picnic ☼ 

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