Fictional Characters in Panto: Where's a Fairy Godmother When you Need One?

The Fictional Characters in Panto features are certainly proving very popular so today I'm pleased to welcome Margaret James with her casting.

It’s Christmas and that means pantomimes, doesn’t it? Well, here in the UK it means pantomimes, stage shows in which traditional fairy tales are loosely – sometimes very loosely – reinterpreted as opportunities for famous and not-so-famous celebrities to do their party pieces, excuses for the loud and out-of-tune community singing of current pop songs, and chances for the smaller children in the audience to get up on stage and be acutely embarrassed in exchange for a lollipop or one of the celebrity’s latest CDs.

My novel The Wedding Diary features the tag line where’s a fairy godmother when you need one. The fairy godmother is a key character in the pantomime of Cinderella, and my version of Cinderella was certainly lots of fun to write. 

My heroine Cat doesn’t exactly sit at home in the kitchen while her ugly sisters (in Cat’s case her friends Tess and Bex) go off to the ball. But at the start of the story poor Cat has just been dumped by a heartless rascal and she’s feeling very sorry for herself. As for Prince Charming – in this case he’s a builder who specialises in restoring stately homes and he’s not remotely rich or famous, but he is very gorgeous and you can’t have everything – my Prince Adam needs a lady in his life. But he’s already had his heart broken by one daddy’s little princess and he hasn’t much inclination to look around for another one. 

Guest Book Review: Margaret James - Magic Sometimes Happens

Reviewed by Tanya Phillips

Passport to love London-based PR and promotions consultant Rosie Denham has just spent a year in Paris where she's tried but failed to fall in love. She's also made a big mistake and can't forgive herself. 

American IT professor Patrick Riley 's wife has left him for a Mr. Wonderful with a cute British accent and a house with a real yard. So Patrick's not exactly thrilled to meet another Brit who's visiting Minnesota, even if she's hot. 

Pat and Rosie couldn't be more different. She's had a privileged English upbringing. He was raised in poverty in Missouri. Pat has two kids, a job that means the world to him and a wife who might decide she wants her husband back. 

So when Pat and Rosie fall in love, the prospects don't seem bright for them. But magic sometimes happens - right?

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Countdown to Christmas Day 7: Festive Fun Q&A with Margaret James

Today it's the turn of author Margaret James to answer a few festive fun questions in the Countdown to Christmas feature.

What’s your earliest or favourite Christmas memory?
When I was five or six, coming downstairs on Christmas morning and finding the doll I’d been hoping to get since September sitting under the Christmas tree.

What are you looking forward to most this Christmas?
Seeing the closest members of my family again.

Do you have any family traditions that you always follow? 
I always bake, ice and decorate the family Christmas cake. 

Do you do the whole traditional Christmas dinner or have alternative? 
We do the whole traditional Christmas dinner thing, using as much home-grown and home-made stuff as possible, including a Christmas pudding which is always made the previous year. So this year we’ll be eating the one I made back in October 2012. Apparently the Queen does this – has year-old Christmas pudding for her Christmas dinner. My mother read it in a magazine, so it must be true. 

What’s good enough for Her Majesty…

Books Read: Margaret James - The Wedding Diary

Where's a Fairy Godmother when you need one?

If you won a fairy-tale wedding in a luxury hotel, you d be delighted right? But what if you didn't have anyone to marry? Cat Aston did have a fiancé, but now it looks like her Prince Charming has done a runner.

Adam Lawley was left devastated when his girlfriend turned down his heartfelt proposal. He's made a vow never to fall in love again.

So when Cat and Adam meet, they shouldn't even consider falling in love. After all, they're both broken hearted. But for some reason they can't stop thinking about each other. Is this their second chance for happiness, or are some things just too good to be true?

Christmas Shorts with... Margaret James

Today's Christmas Shorts guest is Margaret James, author of thirteen novels to date including The Silver Locket, The Golden Chain and The Penny Bangle, a saga about the Denham family.

The Denham's story will be brought up to date in 2013 with the publication of a new novel, The Wedding Diary, which will feature some of the family we've met before.  This new novel is a romantic comedy, so in many ways is completely different from Margaret's previous books.    

Margaret has chosen her favourite Christmas moment from one of her own stories...

The Silver Locket is set during the First World War, so the events in it took place nearly a hundred years ago. It's about a nurse (Rose Courtenay) and a soldier (Alex Denham) who fall in love when they really shouldn't because he's already married and she's as good as engaged. The Christmas of 1915 is special for both of them because they manage to meet up against all the odds, they spend the day together, and Alex gives Rose a present she'll treasure until the end of her life: the Victorian silver locket of the title.

What is your earliest Christmas memory?  

Being four or five, going downstairs in the dark and finding the doll I'd been admiring in a shop for weeks lying under the tree.