Tonight's Countdown to Christmas guests are authors Caroline McCall and Eileen Gormley, who collectively write erotic fiction under the pen name Evie Hunter, who have joined me for a festive fun Q&A.
What’s your earliest or favourite Christmas memory?
Eileen: Waiting up all night long, and sneaking down to the sitting room to see if Santa has come yet. Getting an old-fashioned rocking horse and refusing to get off it.
Caroline: Getting a rocking horse for Christmas when I was about four. I called him Neddy. It snowed that year too, which was great. I remember trying to catch the snowflakes on my tongue.
What are you looking forward to most this Christmas?
Eileen: A family Christmas in a new house. We’re going to be moving house in the next couple of weeks, so are hoping we’ll be there in time for Christmas.
Caroline: Catching up with family and friends. I have been the world’s worst sister/friend this year. Writing three books and three novellas in a year seriously messes with your social life.
Do you have any family traditions that you always follow?
Eileen: When I was younger, we always took the horses out on Christmas day to practise jumping double ditches and stone walls before the Stephen’s Day hunt. Now we watch the Doctor Who Christmas special before we start the hunt for passports.
Caroline: On Christmas Eve I cook a glazed ham using a recipe my mom gave me. After evening mass, we come back to the house, turn on all the Christmas lights and have ham sandwiches and mulled wine.
Do you do the whole traditional Christmas dinner or have alternative?
Eileen: A bit of both. We like the whole Christmas dinner, but adapt it to two coeliacs and some strange teenage tastes. So we don’t bother with cake, but have about seven different kinds of vegetables, and ridiculous amounts of smoked salmon.
Caroline: It depends on numbers. We have traditional Christmas dinner on Christmas day and then on St. Stephen’s day I usually have about twenty people over for a buffet.
What’s your favourite Christmas song or carol?
Eileen: Adeste Fideles. I’m the worst singer in the world, but I don’t care. I love singing all the dirty bits loudly
Caroline: Silent Night. It reminds me of my childhood
What film do you hope to curl up and watch on Christmas afternoon?
Eileen: The Doctor Who Christmas special. We’re all huge geeks in this family.
Caroline: It’s a Wonderful Life – it’s one of my favourite movies and of course I wouldn’t miss Doctor Who.
Do you have a favourite Christmas book that you read again and again?
Eileen: It’s a huge cliché, but I love A Christmas Carol.
Caroline: It’s not really Christmassy but I love A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Which singer/band would you like to turn up carol singing at your door?
Eileen: I’d love to hear how Guns ‘n Roses would do some of my favourite carols. Or Queen.
Caroline: Melody Gardot
Which celebrity would you like to snog under the mistletoe?
Eileen: David Tennant
Caroline: Alexander Skarsgård
If you could spend Christmas anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Eileen: Val Cenis in France, skiing all day and coming in to hot wine and a big meal.
Caroline: Edinburgh
What’s top of your wishlist this Christmas?
Eileen: A family Christmas where no one tries to kill anyone else. And where the cat doesn’t eat the turkey.
And where we find all the passports.
Caroline: To spend time with the people I love and not have a book deadline hanging over me. Oh and Santa, my laptop is seven years old (hint hint)
If you could do one good deed for someone less fortunate than yourself this Christmas, what would it be?
Eileen: Invite them for dinner. Of course, with my cooking, not sure that’s a good deed.
Caroline: A good meal and a warm place to stay.
Now a few quickfire questions to close..
Tree: real or artificial?
Eileen: Real
Caroline: Artificial – since the cats attacked the last real one…
Fairy Lights: White or Multi-Coloured?
Eileen: Multi-coloured
Caroline: White on the tree, red on the garland over the fireplace.
Drink: Mulled Wine or Bucks Fizz?
Eileen: Mulled wine
Caroline: Mulled wine
Food: Mince Pies or Xmas Pud?
Eileen: Coeliac, so both are difficult, but Christmas pud.
Caroline: Christmas pud – my sister Ann makes a fab one.
Games: Monolopy, Trivial Pursuit or something else?
Eileen: Risk. I want to take over the world.
Caroline: Charades
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