The Bookends Picnic 2020 | If you could go on holiday with one of your characters, who would it be and where would you go?

By Ellie Morley

This summer, we’ve got some of our favourite authors together to share their 2020 summer reading essentials – from what books they’ll be reading this summer to their dream holiday location.

Today we’re talking to Jill Mansell, V B Grey and Isabelle Broom about holidays with their characters.

Jill Mansell, author of It Started with a Secret

I’d love to go on holiday with Sir Richard, who’s a wicked old Hollywood actor and an outrageous reprobate who pours very large gins. He was never meant to take over It Started with a Secret in quite the way he did, but sometimes a character comes along and there’s just no stopping them. If we went away on holiday together, we’d probably end up getting arrested for committing some mad crime along the way, but at least he’d be great company while we were banged up.

Isabelle Broom, author of Hello, Again

I continue to harbour a serious crush on both Aiden (from My Map Of You) and Max (from One Thousand Stars and You), so they would definitely be high on the list, but if I had to pick a character from Hello, Again, this without a doubt it would be Josephine. I love her zest for adventure, her refusal to abide by the rules and her penchant for a tipple (or three). She’s also a fabulous wing woman. I would whisk her off to Hamburg so she could help me find my own version of Finn.

V B Grey, author of Tell Me How It Ends

Difficult question! It would have to be my police detective, Grace Fisher. She’s very observant and would make sure I didn’t miss anything. We’d go to Sicily and hope to bump into Inspector Montalbano – there’s a very good pizza place on his beach!