MY DEBUT YEAR: A REVIEW
It’s been a year, to say the least, and I wanted to share a record of some of my favourite moments so that one day I can look back and revel in it all over again.
A cover story.
I know what they say: don’t judge a book by its cover. However, in my case, please, please judge my book by its cover, because it is really rather beautiful and designed by the incredibly talented Andrew Davis.
I get asked quite a bit about its eye-catching design — the jigsaw die-cut, the glistening gold foil, and, of course, the incredible spredges (meaning “sprayed edges” – I know, I know, it’s a portmanteau Pippa herself would be proud of) on the exclusive Goldsboro edition.
The truth is, the story behind my debut cover is almost as good as the one written in its pages. I guess you could call it Serendipity.
Let me explain.
Back in 2020, I signed up for a 6-month creative writing course at the Faber Academy. On the first day, I sat next to another student and got chatting about books, what we hoped to get from the course. It turned out he worked as a cover designer for a publisher.
'NO WAY!' I replied. ‘What a cool job.’
We brainstormed what our dream covers would look like, sketched ideas in our notebooks for a laugh.
‘What’s your name again?’ I asked.
‘Andrew,’ he replied. ‘Andrew Davis.’
At the end of the course, Andrew and I teamed up to edit each other's submissions for the Faber anthology. Eighteen months later, I was lucky enough to secure an agent, then a book deal…
6 months later, my phone pings in my pocket.
I think you can guess what I replied. Take a bow, Andrew Davis.
You have smashed it! A perfect full-circle moment if ever there was.
It was the cut-out I loved immediately, of course, and my favourite of all the editions is the hardback proof with its simple, stripped-back look. No title on the front, just the pink house poking through the hole on the front. Classy!
A silly promise was made to my friend in the weeks leading up to publication, that if the book became a Sunday Times Bestseller, I’d have the jigsaw stamp tattooed on my arm. A scenario that was unlikely to come to pass, I thought.
Inside the Book Factory.
In April, along with my editor Charlotte Mursell, and the MD of Goldsboro Books, David Headley, I had the pleasure of visiting Clays — a two-hundred-year-old, family-run business in Suffolk that prints 165 million books every single year. It was time to see the ‘casing in’ of our special edition – ie. when the cover meets the pages. I felt like Lynda Baron in Come Outside (one for the 90’s kids) traipsing around the factory, poking my nose in all the machines, making oooh and ahhhh sounds.
A few months later, I was off to the Goldsboro warehouse in Brighton to sign all 1500 editions. I got through 7 Sharpie Pens, 3 packets of Hula Hoops and an entire packet of blister plasters. But please, don’t call me a hero.
An appointment with a Dame (and Russell Tovey)
‘So let me get this straight. . . ’ I said, during a meeting with my publisher at the start of the year. ‘For the audiobook, Pippa is being played by Dame Penelope Keith and Russell Tovey is doing Clayton?’
‘That’s right,’ said my editor.
As I’m writing this, I’m STILL not sure it wasn’t all a fever dream. Even the photos from the day it was being recorded don’t count as evidence because I look like a cardboard cut-out of myself, or if AI had generated a ‘panicked hostage’ version of myself that had then been crudely photoshopped in.
If you want the real evidence that this happened, you can listen to Dame P’s (as I like to call her) and Russell’s extraordinary efforts by downloading the audiobook here.
With thanks to Paul Stark and Strathmore Publishing for all their work on it.
Pub(LICATION) day. . . at the pub.
‘I wouldn’t mind. . . ‘ I said, sometime in April, ‘but I’m not one for parties.’
At this point, I had already volunteered to plan the launch night event. It would distract me from everything else that was going on.
I’d already decided that the small, intimate soiree wouldn’t be complete unless it could take place in the actual pub where the Puzzlemakers meet in the book — The Old Queen’s Head in Islington — with teal helium balloons bursting from hat boxes, Fellowship beer mats on every surface, and a specially constructed tombola that my partner Tom would have to make for me, for guests to win exclusive prizes on the night (though only if they purchased a hardback for £16.99 — I’m no fool)
‘It just feels right,’ I said, when questioned if I was taking it all a step too far. ‘It’s what Pippa would have wanted.’
To be honest, because of the cocktail of nerves and adrenaline coursing through me that day, I remember little of the night itself, only that my nose started to run in the middle of my speech (so everything thought I was sobbing at my own words), that the sound of the bloody tombola drowned out the playlist I’d spent two years compiling, and that, by the time we were being kicked out at 1 am, I must have had at least sixteen glasses of white wine and didn’t feel even the slightest bit drunk. It was a good job really, I had an event at Hillingdon Library at 11am.
A grand tour.
From Hillingdon to Harrogate, Helsinki to Hemel Hempstead. I wouldn’t exactly say Taylor Swift’s got anything to worry about, but I’ve covered a decent bit of ground this year, and loved every single second.
From speaking at an LGBT+ retirement community in London, to taking part in Instagram Lives with some of my favourite authors, and eventually seeing my book on the tables of Waterstones, in windows of indie bookshops, in the stacks at the London Library, and on the shelves of Sainsbury’s. This is the part that dreams are made of. I just hope it’s something that will never feel normal as it’s such an enormous privilege.
My first (and only) international trip was to beautiful Finland in August, where my brilliant publisher Otava invited me to their unbelievably Nordic offices to be interviewed by a local journalist and take part in some truly mortifying TikTok videos. This one has done particularly well, I hear. I can’t guess why.
I’d love to thank every single person who’s hosted an event, booked a ticket, asked a question, queued for a signed copy and genuinely been the highlight of my debut year. You’ve all been such a joy and seeing how you’ve taken the Fellowship to your hearts has been incredibly humbling, immensely moving and genuinely surprising.
Thank you all so much.
