Festive Fun: My Fantasy Christmas Dinner Party by Kim Nash

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Kim Nash back to the the blog, a woman of many talents, blogger, PR & Social Media Manager and now published author... over to you Kim.

I have decided that the five authors I would love to invite to my Christmas dinner party are: 

Martina Cole - I could listen to Martina talk all day. She has SUCH a way with words, not just on paper, but in person too and she’s such a captivating storyteller.  So lucky to have finally met her at Harrogate this year.  I think she’d be an amazing dinner party guest and would keep us all on our toes. 

Milly Johnson - Milly was the person who changed my life.  She didn’t know it at the time but reading her book A Spring Affair was a pivotal turning point in my life.  I contacted her by email, when I’d read her to tell her how much it resonated with me and we’ve kept in touch ever since.  She encouraged me every step of the way of my blogging life, my journey into the publishing world and more recently my journey as an author.  An absolute, all round bloody superstar.  And again another hilarious story teller, who I could never tire of listening to. 

Enid Blyton - I would bring Enid back from heaven and thank her for giving me my love of reading.  Her Famous Five stories were brilliant, I wanted to be The Naughtiest Girl and go away to boarding school and have a trunk of goodies sent to me and more than anything I wanted to play Lacrosse because it sounded so cool!  Her Magic Faraway Tree series and Magic Wishing Chair series were just wonderful.  

My Favourite Book is... from Joanne, Kim Nash & Louise Beech

Joanne from Portobello Book Blog

It’s always hard to pick a favourite book when you’re an avid reader but one that has made a big impression on me is Birdsong by Sabastian Faulks. It’s not a perfect book – I don’t particularly like the contemporary ending – but there is so much in it which spoke to me. I have since watched the TV adaptation which, much though I like Eddie Redmayne, I felt did not capture the passion between Stephen and Isobel. I saw a stage adaptation earlier this year which I thought was excellent. But it is the book which stays with me. I think I just read it at the right time. 

When I read it, I had been doing a lot of family history research including into relatives who had fought and died in WW1. As much of the book is set in northern France where I had holidayed and where I knew my ancestors had fought, I had a sense of familiarity with the settings. The way the horrors of the war were so vividly described made me feel I had a better understanding of what my ancestors and so many others had gone through. As the attraction between Stephen and Isobel grows in the first section of the book, Sebastian Faulks creates tension as the anticipation builds. When they eventually get together, it is beautifully and sensuously told. Stephen’s feelings throughout the book are movingly portrayed and I felt I could really understand the emotions he experienced.

There is a quote in the book which moved me a lot, so much that I noted down at the time. To me, it must sum up what so many of the men and women who fought in the war must have felt.

“When it is over, we will go quietly among the living and we will not tell them. We will talk and sleep and go about our business like human beings. We will seal what we have seen in the silence of our hearts and no words will reach us.”

A poetic and poignant novel, a modern classic which I love.

Kim Nash, Publicity Manager at Bookouture and reviewer at Kim the Bookworm

A book that changed my life and is therefore my favourite was A Spring Affair by Milly Johnson.  While reading it, around 5 years ago, I spent most of the book saying “OMG that’s me!”.  The main character really resonated with me.  She read an article about clutter and started to clear out her house, but then realised that it was her life she was unhappy with and not her house and she started to make some massive changes.   I too realised through reading this book, that at the time I was so similar to the main character and was desperately unhappy in a life where I did everything to please others and did nothing for me.