From Notting Hill with Love…Actually by Author Ali McNamara
‘From Notting Hill with Love…Actually’ is about Scarlett, who absolutely adores the movies, but her family and friends think she’s a bit too obsessed by them. So when Scarlett gets the chance to house-sit in one of her favourite movie locations, Notting Hill, she see’s this as a chance to prove to them that you really can live your life as if it were a movie.
I was watching one of the music channels on TV one day. It was a countdown of the Top 50 best movie songs of all time. I just thought wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could feature as many of those movies as possible in one story, as that’s how the idea began to develop.
One of the best things about writing this book was the research; I had to watch lots of movies and could call it work! Some I’d never seen before, some I had, but it was a pleasure to revisit them again and make lots of notes of scenes I could possibly use in the book.
I’m usually a really organized person, but when it comes to my writing I’m awful at organizing my time. But I think it’s impossible to treat writing as a 9-5 job, as it is any creative profession. Otherwise the things you’re attempting to create would come across as forced and uninspired.
One of the best things about being an author is hearing from my readers. I’ve had so many messages and emails over the last couple of years from people not only telling me how much they’ve enjoyed both my books, but in particular how much they’ve identified with Scarlett from ‘From Notting Hill with Love…Actually’. Some of the best emails have come from people that say they don’t usually read, or they’ve lost their love of reading, and my books have encouraged them to start again!
It’s Halloween soon, and ‘From Notting Hill with Love…Actually’ is all about romantic movies, so my favourite choice of ghostly romantic movie would have to be…. Ghost! Because it was the first movie I went to see with my husband at the cinema when we were first dating, many, many years ago!
Ali McNamara
Twitter @alimcnamara
She was a girl, standing in front of a boy…
Movie fanatic Scarlett O’Brien dreams of a life as glamorous and romantic as all the big screen flicks she worships. When a chance house-sitting job in iconic Notting Hill comes along, she knows living in one of her favorite movie settings is an opportunity too good to pass up.
Leaving behind her skeptical friends, family, and fiance, Scarlett heads to London and finds herself thrust into the lead role of her very own romantic comedy. But can real life ever be just like the movies? Larger-than-life new friends, a handsome but irksome new neighbor, and a mystery from her past may prove to Scarlett that living her life like a RomCom is more complicated than she thought!
“Sparkly, fun, and endearing.”—Kate Fforde
“This romantic comedy is the perfect way to pass a winter afternoon should Johnny Depp be unavailable.”—Daily Record
October 15th, 2012 at 4:54 pm
It sounds like fun to watch movies and to be able to call it work! I loved the excerpt!