A Q & A with Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan is one of Scotland’s most prolific novelists. BooksfromScotland caught up with her to chat about her latest release, The Summer Skies.

The Summer Skies
By Jenny Colgan
Published by Sphere

• Congratulations on the publication of your latest novel,The Summer Skies. How do you greet each new publication day? Does the writing life still give you butterflies?

Actually for me it’s usually a day before, if someone gets one delivered early or they’re early out on the shelves- there’s always one somewhere- and I’ll hear from people and that’s exciting/ terrifying! But it’s always lovely to have a shiny new book out there. They never quite feel like mine. Normally I also look at the acknowledgements to see if I’ve missed anyone out. I have always missed someone out. Then the publishers send me a box of them, and half of it I leave outside the door so people from the village can come and help themselves, and half go to the cleaners at the local hospital. Nurses get lots of presents, cleaners not so much and they work so hard.

• Can you tell readers what to expect fromThe Summer Skies? What prompted you to write a stand alone novel rather than carrying on with your various series of books?

Well I always like to have a new story to come to. I was in the Museum of Flight in East Lothian with my son and saw information about the women who flew tiny planes between the Northern islands of Scotland and I was instantly very very interested in that, it seemed interesting to me. We took a plane to Barra, where you land on the beach, and that was very exciting.

• You have a foreword in your book where you warn readers that the flying information inThe Summer Skies is flawed. What are your thoughts on balancing research and keeping a story roaring along?

Oh I know, piloting is SO difficult to understand, I didn’t realise how complicated it is before i got into it! I did have lovely pilots helping me out but yeah, I constantly sacrificed good flying technique. The story and the characters are far more important! What happens in the novel is more or less possible given the laws of physics, just highly unlikely. I don’t know why I’m apologising, I took my kids to the last Fast and Furious film and they flew a car to the moon.

• Your books are usually described as comedy romance novels, and, in the last year, romance has really rocketed in attention and sales. What do you love about the genre? And why do think it’s having a particular resonance at the moment? Why do you think it works so well on social media platforms too?

Love stories are incredibly important stories we tell about who we are and what made us. Choosing who you’re going to spend the rest of your life with is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. And I think post lockdown was really interesting because if you had a partner you spent so much time with them and either thought, yup, this is cool, or no, this isn’t enough, and if you didn’t, quite a few people decided they wanted one. SO I think that’s why it’s particularly popular at the moment, but it’s always been popular. Romance outsells crime 2:1. It doesn’t get half the attention though! Also I write kind of feelgood novels and I think they’re popular for obvious reasons. The real world is quite scary enough. But also I think the news focuses so obsessively on the terrifying and the worst case scenarios whereas I think loads of people are like the people in my books- decent people doing their best. The news is worse than real life and my books are maybe slightly nicer in that they always have happy endings, but they’re both valid ways of looking at the world!

• There has been such a groundswell that there are now going to be two romance festivals in Edinburgh this year, and you’re involved in them both. Do you think festivals that welcome romance readers and writers are a long time coming?

OH I hope so, and I hope we manage to reach out to readers that maybe feel snooty literary festivals aren’t for them, because this really is for all kinds of reader.

• The first festival coming up is First Dates, in conjunction with Lighthouse,on the 25^th June, where you will be headlining. Are you looking forward to it? What are your thoughts on their tagline, taken from Adrienne Maree Brown, ‘Feeling good is not frivolous, it is freedom’?

That is a brilliant line. I am very excited about the First Dates festival and I am so thrilled we are partnering with Lighthouse, who as well as being a brilliant bookshop, are about love in all its forms; diverse, queer and inclusive, and there is that side to romance too. It is absolutely not just boy meets girl, we want to welcome absolutely everyone.

• Later in the year there will be another women’s fiction festival run in conjunction with The Edinburgh Bookshop in October. Do you have any clues yet on those festivities? Anything that you’re allowed to share?

Only that it is going to be fun, informal, lighthearted and you should definitely come.

• It was also really lovely to see how booksellers reacted to The Christmas Bookshop novel, particularly John Kay’s in Victoria Street renaming themselves for the festive period. How do you feel when bookshops get behind your work in that way?

It was one of the most amazing things of my life. Loads of people I know would go up for a look or people would send me pictures. I walk my dogs down that street every morning and I would go and look at it more times than you can imagine. I have about 1000 pictures of the dogs posing in front of it! I don’t normally write about ‘real’ places, so to actually see it there was a huge highlight in my career.

• And I expect there is no resting up for you. What’s next for you writing-wise?

I am writing a book about knitting, even though I am very bad at it and can’t heel a sock properly. Althought to be fair I am better at knitting than I am at flying planes, so it’s definitely worth a go.

The Summer Skies by Jenny Colgan is published by Sphere, priced £14.99.