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A little something extra...
Just like on a DVD, all those special features. How did they make this, and who thought up that? Well, here you can find out all those answers. Consider this page the Easter Egg...only one you can find. All it needs now is David Tennant warning you about some weeping angels, and we'll be set.
But since I don't have David Tennant (dammit), you'll have to make do with my ever-so-geeky shirt (click to enlarge):
Right. That said and out of the way (does anyone get that, by the way? Anyone know what that t-shirt is about? Go and find out, dammit!), here are the actual extras.
A free
read, my 2010 Elizabeth Goudge entry The Party Spirit, which
received an honourable mention for making Katie Fforde laugh. Yes, that
Katie Fforde.
FAQ on the
Sophieverse, including such posers as "What
are A Levels?" and "You do know they don't let women in the SBS, don't
you?"
Press cuttings, including interviews
and news articles
Glossary of
TV shows, cars, books and other things
namechecked in the Sophieverse.
SO17 agent
profiles
Have a question about me or my books? You only have to ask...
What exactly is chick-lit mystery?
Good question. The 'mystery' part is the content—crimes are committed, and have to be solved by Sophie and the SO17 team. The 'chick-lit' term is really the tone and style of the books: lighthearted and humorous, packed with pop-culture references. Chick-lit books tend to revolve around a young, modern heroine and the minutiae of her daily life, career and romances. So, basically, a chick-lit mystery has a central female sleuth trying to solve crimes and save the day at the same time as she's attempting to balance her family, love and work life. Oh, and trying to look fabulous, too.
Is Stansted a real place?
Yep. Most of the places in the books are. Stansted Mountfitchet is a medieval village about 30 miles north of London. During WWII an airfield was built nearby, named Stansted, and eventually converted to civilian use. It's now London's third airport and expanding rapidly (a little too rapidly). Ugley is also a real village, a couple of miles away, although Imade up Angel's church.
In I, Spy?
you have female characters who've been in the UK Special Forces in
divisions which only accept men.
Yeah, I know. I also have a Defender which doesn't ever break down. Here's some salt—take a pinch of it.
A is for Apple
has a load of stuff about the British school system in it, like A
levels and Sixth Form. What are they?
Well, actually it's the English school system (I know Scotland has its own model and I believe Wales and Northern Ireland do too). It's pretty simple: you go to primary school aged 5-11, then secondary school aged 11-16. That's compulsory. At 16, you take a set of about ten exams called GCSEs, then you're free to leave. However, you can stay on for another two years of free, full time education. These two years are usually known as Sixth Form (as you've already had five forms of compulsory secondary education. Don't ask me why the upper year isn't called Seventh Form. I didn't say it had to make sense). At the end of these two years, you take three or four exams called A levels, and they're the qualifications used to get into university. Unlike GCSEs, where about half your subjects are mandatory (English, maths, and three sciences), at A level you can choose your subjects.
There have been some changes to the system since I left—AS levels taken in the first year of Sixth Form, and new qualifications called GNVQs that have replaced A levels in some places, but the basic principle is the same.
Saffron Walden Reporter, Sept 07
Bishop's Stortford Citizen, Sept 07
The Romance Studio, March 07
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Oh God, please tell me you're joking about never having heard of it! Buffy began life as a movie which flopped at the box office. It was about an LA cheerleader who was chosen to receive an ancient gift: the strength and skill to slay vampires and other paranormal nasties. After the film failed, creator Joss Whedon (who also worked on the Toy Story movies) went on to turn it into a TV series for the WB network. Pretty much the only thing that remained was that Buffy was a Californian teen with this Slayer gift. In the TV series, Buffy is still a Californian teen but she now lives in the fictional town of Sunnydale, CA, with her mother, and in later seasons, her sister Dawn. She's helped in her endeavours by her Watcher, Giles, and her friends Xander, Willow, and Cordelia. In later seasons Xander and Willow's boyfriends and girlfriends also join the 'Scooby Gang'. At various times, Buffy is romantically involved with 'good vampire' Angel, super-soldier Riley, and cocky vamp Spike. BTVS became a huge cult hit and made stars of its main actors, running for seven seasons before Joss pulled the plug. A spin-off series, Angel, followed Angel and a few other characters to LA, but was never as well-received.
Top Gear
BBC motoring programme. Yeah, I know, it sounds terrible, doesn't it? TG has been going for years, but it was only in the last few, with a new format, that it really began to take off. Basically, it features three middle-aged men messing around with cars. They review them—everything from family runabouts to squillionaire's supercars—but they also have a huge amount of fun racing cars around their own test track with their secretive racing driver, The Stig, and taking part in silly challenges such as turning regular cars into stretch limos or convertibles; going on a caravan holiday to see why they're so popular; racing supercars against trains, planes, boats and even a husky sled at one point. It's presented by the old-fashioned James May, madly-opinionated Jeremy Clarkson, and housewife's favourite Richard Hammond, who are all old enough to know better but basically behave like nine-year-olds with driving licenses. There's a lot of criticism of the show for glamorising speed and anti-environmentalism, but I reckon the detractors are missing the point of the show: that cars are brilliant fun and we should enjoy them.
The Fast Show
Only a passing reference, but still. The Fast Show was a comedy sketch show of the 1990's starring, among others, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson. These two ran a sketch about a young arisocratic landowner who was inexplicably in love with his elderly gamekeeper, Ted. Okay, it doesn't sound funny, but Paul Whitehouse could make a joke out of a bent paperclip. Anyway. Johnny Depp was a huge fan of the show, and actually appeared in the last episode (which I think you can find on YouTube).
As you may have inferred from my love of Top Gear, I'm a minor petrolhead. Well, for a girl, anyway. I think cars in fiction have a terrible time of it: usually ignored and often misused. If I read about another Alpha male hero with a Lamborghini I'm going to scream, because Lambos are only ever driven by middle-aged men with receding hairlines (and probably tiny penises too although you didn't hear me say that). So...here are the cars in Sophie's world, and why I chose them.
Land Rover Defender
Ah, Ted. That's a
direct reference to the Fast Show character: battered, dependable,
rather ageing, doesn't complain. The Defender is a big solid off-roader
whose design has barely changed since it was used in WWII. It can climb
every mountain, ford every stream, and is never ever used to transport
yummy mummies around cities. Your basic Defender (and I mean basic)
looks really comfortable covered in mud or with a load of fishing nets
in the back. The best ones smell of wet dog. Because of their utter
lack of pretentiousness, and because every single feature on the
Defender is designed to be useful, not pretty, they're undeniably cool.
Vauxhall Vectra
The other end of
the car spectrum. Vectras are middle-range fleet cars. They're the
sorts of things travelling salesmen use. They usually come with a
silver-paintjob and a total lack of imagination. They are, in a word,
invisible. Which is why Luke drives one.
Aston Martin Vanquish
This is what Luke
should be driving. Sexy, powerful, expensive, brutal and
with a pedigree as long as your arm. Oh, and the car's pretty nice,
too.
Mini Cooper
I'm referring to the new
model here, not the tiny Sixties classic. Which is cool in its own way,
but barely able to carry more than two people unless they're very small
and like to be very cosy. The new Mini is engineered by BMW, it's fast
and responsive, it hasn't lost its looks and, apart from its
regrettable popularity with estate agents, it's still pretty cool.
Unlike the Defender, the Mini is designed to be attractive and
comfortable; a nice place to be. It's an undeniably girlie car, but
since Angel drives one and she is a girl, that's okay.
Peugeot 205/Vauxhall Corsa
Peugeots (left) are French, Vauxhalls (right)
are...well, I want to say British, but I'm reasonably sure they're
owned by someone American, Japanese or possibly German. Anyway, both of
these cars are small hatchbacks of the kind very common in Europe,
especially in cities. They're about Mini-sized. They're economical.
They're also reasonably invisible. In the case of Maria's 205 (an older
model, now replaced by the 207), it's been tuned up and goes like
stink. But from the outside, you can't tell that...
The Stephanie Plum series of books by Janet Evanovich. Here I am, pointing you to the competition!
More to follow...
