Do an interpretive dance at a bus stop (and don’t laugh …)
Hold hands from the moment we wake till the moment we go to bed.
Stay up all night watching Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy films.
Spend a day quoting as many song lyrics as we can.
Hand out lollipops to random strangers.
Fill the house with fairy lights and candles – no standard lights allowed.
Read the box messages – all of them.
Visit Paris, stand on the second tier of the Eiffel Tower, kiss and shout ‘C’est magnifique’ over the city.
Reading Group Questions
Did you feel the author’s own experience influenced the themes in this book?
Most romantic fiction suggests that there is only one true love for each of us. How does When I Fall in Love conform to or challenge that idea?
The unpredictability of life is a key theme in When I Fall in Love. How does the book present the idea of overcoming situations?
How has Elsie’s early life experience of being abandoned by her mother affected her view of life? Do you think she might have approached the situations in the story differently if Moira had still been part of her life?
How do think Jim’s commitment to his daughters has influenced the lives of Elsie, Daisy and Guin?
How do the worldviews of the people in Elsie’s life support or challenge her own?
What part do you think The Sundaes play in helping Elsie to step into her ‘unexpected life’?
How does Woody influence Elsie?
How have Woody’s outlandish music suggestions and flamboyant philosophies on life been influenced by his experience of brief stardom, the death of his bandmate and the acrimonious break-up of Hellfinger?
How do Olly and Torin reflect different sides to Elsie’s character?
‘I don’t want that kind of memorial.’ How does the representation of loss differ in this book from others you have read?
How important is it for Elsie to follow – and complete – The List?
What does Paris represent in Elsie’s life, and why is it so important for her to do what she does at the Eiffel Tower?
What do the box messages mentioned throughout the story reveal about the person who wrote them?
Do you think the Eiffel Tower is an allegory for the importance Elsie has placed on the fifty-first item of The List? If so, why?
What are the key lessons Elsie learns during the course of the story?
Miranda’s Top 5 films set in Paris
An American in Paris (1951) – Gene Kelly romancing Leslie Caron in the City of Light. What’s not to love?!
French Kiss (1995) – Meg Ryan and the wonderful Kevin Kline in a great rom-com
Midnight in Paris (2011) – Owen Wilson is fabulous and Paris dazzles
Gigi (1958) – just a perfect musical
Love in the Afternoon (1957) – Audrey Hepburn, Gary Cooper and Maurice Chevalier in a perfect Billy Wilder classic.
Miranda’s Top 5 books set in Paris
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
Pure – Andrew Miller
Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs – Jeremy Mercer
I Heart Paris – Lindsey Kelk
No and Me – Delphine de Vigan
Brighton must-sees
Brighton Beach – it’s iconic, much bigger than you imagine and a great place for people-watching. Look out for The Fortune of War pub with its boat-like interior and OhSo – the boardwalk café I set Elsie’s unwitting flashmob scene in.
Brighton Pier – A real, old-fashioned British pier that instantly makes you feel like a kid. The stained glass windows and ceiling in the first amusement building you come to on it are gorgeous. I love sitting on the benches and watching the sea through the gaps in the boards – it’s surprising how much the pier moves as people walk past!
Brighton Royal Pavilion and Gardens – I love the ostentatiousness of the Royal Pavilion and it’s a really special place to visit. There’s a fab café there and in good weather it’s lovely to sit with a cup of tea gazing at the very English gardens with an Aladdin’s palace in the middle.
North Laine and Gardner Street – there are lots of little streets in this area of Brighton with an eclectic selection of shops, café’s, bars and restaurants. Gardner Street, where Sundae & Cher is set, is a real street in Brighton and I fell in love with it because of its wonderfully bohemian selection of shops and businesses. Where else would you find a Vegetarian Shoes Shop, an Alice in Wonderland emporium, a comedy club, a tattoo and piercing parlour and a comic book-themed sweet shop all in one street? For me, Gardner Street characterises everything that Brighton is: kooky, artistic, fun and shamelessly original.
Interview with Miranda Dickinson
What inspired you to write When I Fall in Love?
I wanted to write about someone who is starting again after a major event in her life, but I wanted her to be positive and strong from the beginning of the story. I’m a big believer in finding the positive in any circumstance and have had to work this through in my own life, so I know how challenging it can be. Elsie views the ‘unexpected life’ she now has as something to grasp with both hands and she is not the type of person to sit and wallow in what went wrong.
Loss is a major theme in When I Fall in Love. What made you want to write about this?
As humans loss is a universal thing for us. At some point we all face it. I have wanted to write about someone who has lost the love of her life for a few years now, but I knew I wanted to say something different about it. There are many books about young widows, but most of these begin at the point of the main character’s loss, when the phone call comes or the police arrive at the door to bring the dreadful news. As so many writers before me have eloquently investigated this aspect of bereavment, I didn’t feel I had anything to add to it. Instead, I wanted to write about death from a positive angle – characterised by the courage and selflessness of the person who has died. In When I Fall in Love, Lucas is an extraordinary young man who, in the face of the worst possible news, thinks first of his wife and of ensuring that she moves on with her life after his death. His final year, as well as being a year of fun thanks to The List, is also preparation for Elsie’s life once he has gone. This is testament to the power of love in the face of the unthinkable. Because of what Lucas does in his last year, when Elsie starts again she is doing it as much as an act of love for him as she is for herself. Lucas leaves a mandate for Elsie to carry on, and this is the memorial he seeks from her. I also wanted to explore the question of what you would do if you found out you only had twelve months to live. Would you hide away or wring every last drop out of the time you had left?
Was it difficult to write a major character in the novel who was already dead when the story takes place?
Without really realising it, most of my novels have had characters whose memory informs the story. In Fairytale of New York it is Mr Kowalski, who has died a few years before the action begins, and in Welcome to My World Harri’s recollections of her late parents help her to make decisions in the story. When I began to write Lucas, his voice was very different and I liked his irreverence, imperfection and merciless sense of humour. He clearly isn’t a saint and Elsie makes a point of remembering his not-so-flattering characteristics alongside all the amazing stuff. I was very careful not to make him overly sentimental or overplay the tragic side of his illness and death, because I wanted his love for Elsie and his defiance to the end to speak loudest.
Is Lucas inspired by a real person?
I have lost several friends and family members to cancer over the last few years and each time I have been struck by their spirit and defiance in the face of it. A lovely friend of mine told her husband to wait no longer than six months after she had gone before taking his wedding ring off, which was such a heartbreaking, selfless thing to do. Another friend left messages for her husband all around their house, each one saying he should move on with hi
s life. The strength, peace and morbid sense of humour I’ve seen develop in people with little time left had always amazed me, and I wanted to show this in Lucas. If I found out I only had twelve months left to live, I don’t know if I could be as strong, as bloody-minded and as willing to joke about it as I’ve seen them being, but their extraordinary attitude is something I would hope I could achieve.
Your previous novels have been set in New York, The Black Country and Birmingham. What made you decide to set most of When I Fall in Love in Brighton?
I adore Brighton and its eccentric Britishness. I knew that Elsie was a creative, fun person and that her father was a free spirit, too, so I needed a location that reflected this. Also having a seaside setting was important for me because of the idea of having the wild, untamed beauty of the sea set against the quaint British architecture of an iconic seaside town. Maybe it’s because I come from the land-locked Black Country that I always yearn for the sea! While real people live and work in the town, there is something about the constant presence of tourists and the amusements laid on for them that gives Brighton an inherent sense of fun. I don’t know if characters like Cher or Woody, for example, would have worked quite so well in an inland location – they need to live in a suitably quirky place to really be themselves in all their eccentric brilliance!
What made you decide to set part of When I Fall in Love in Paris?
Paris is an incredible city and so synonymous with love that it made sense that Lucas would want to take Elsie there. He knows it is the last place they will visit together so it had to be somewhere impressive enough, emotional enough and unashamedly defiant enough to characterise everything that their love is. I also wanted to write about a famous city from the viewpoint of someone who doesn’t want to go there. In Fairytale of New York, Rosie wants to be in the city; in Welcome to My World, Harri has dreamed of Venice all her life; and in It Started With a Kiss, Romily and her bandmates are thrilled to visit London for the ‘millionaire gig’. I love writing about amazing places in the world, but I wanted to see how a character who has dreaded visiting a city finds something about herself there. Paris represents Elsie’s last tangible link with Lucas, and since his death it has also come to represent everything she has lost. By visiting the city he talked about so much during their last year together, Elsie discovers her own strength and she returns ready to fully embrace whatever life holds for her next.
You don’t reveal Elsie’s widowhood at the beginning of the novel. Was this a conscious decision and if so, why?
I felt from the beginning of writing When I Fall in Love that I wanted readers to love Elsie for who she was, rather than feeling sorry for her. Lucas didn’t want her to live her life as someone who had been subdued by his death – he wanted the world to see the incredible woman he saw in her – so to begin the story by labelling her as a widow would have diminished her character, I think. It was a scary thing to do once I’d made that decision, and for quite a long time I battled doubts about withholding Lucas for so long. But I love how it came together and I can just imagine Torin’s face when Elsie drops the bombshell on him during their blind date – the thrill of that scene for me was too much to resort to revealing Lucas earlier!
You have written about cancer twice in your novels – first in Welcome to My World and now in When I Fall in Love. Why is this a recurring theme in your books?
I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been affected by cancer in some way or other. It’s a terrible, cruel disease and has claimed too many people I love. I was shocked to discover that every two minutes in the UK someone is told they have cancer. Writing about it is my small act of defiance: raising awareness of the disease and celebrating the people who have battled it – whether they have ultimately won the fight or not. I have supported Cancer Research UK since I lost my beloved Grandpa nine years ago because I truly believe that it’s possible to find a cure. The work they do is phenomenal, and by supporting them I hope their work succeeds in my lifetime so that no more families and friendships have to be ripped apart by cancer.
To find out more and support the work of Cancer Research UK, visit: www.cancerresearchuk.org
What a difference a day makes …
Buy Take a Look at Me Now.
About the Author
Miranda Dickinson has always had a head full of stories. From an early age she dreamed of writing a book that would make the heady heights of Kingswinford Library. Following a Performance Art degree, she began to write in earnest when a friend gave her The World’s Slowest PC. She is also a singer-songwriter. Her first three novels,Fairytale of New York, Welcome to My World and It Started with a Kiss, have all been Sunday Times bestselling titles.
To find out more about Miranda visit www.miranda-dickinson.com
By the same author:
Fairytale of New York
Welcome to My World
It Started with a Kiss
Copyright
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright © Miranda Dickinson 2012
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