I’m delighted today to be joining the blog tour for You Are Loved by Jo Platt, published for kindle (and in other e-formats) by Canelo on 14th August. Another book I just couldn’t squeeze into my reading list, no matter how hard I tried – but it does look thoroughly lovely.
Sometimes, life needs a rewrite…
Author Grace Waterhouse has hit rock bottom. Her ex-husband has just had a baby with his new partner and her latest novel is… well, the less said the better.
Desperate for distraction, Grace impulsively takes on a friend’s cleaning job, parachuting herself into a new social circle including an eccentric OAP, a heartbroken twenty-something and one James Brooke, an enigmatic lawyer with an unblinking stare.
Add to this mix an anxious literary agent, a hairdresser who doesn’t mince words and a newly repentant ex-husband, and Grace’s career break proves to be more breathless than breather.
They say that all you need is love – but what if that’s the one thing you haven’t got?
The heart-warming, funny and unputdownable new novel from bestseller Jo Platt is perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Anna Bell and Joanna Bolouri.
It’s a real pleasure to welcome Jo as my guest on Being Anne – telling us about her five favourite hunkless romcoms…
It’s been said by more than one reviewer that my books are ‘all about the dialogue’, and I agree. In fact, I suspect I’m actually a frustrated scriptwriter.
So with this preoccupation with speech in mind, I’m going to indulge myself and, rather than listing my favourite romcom novels, I’d instead like to share five of my favourite romcom movies. And just to prove that you can make your hero accessible and down to earth and still have a hugely popular romcom on your hands, I have chosen movies in which the hunk, if there is one, does not get the girl.
When Harry Met Sally (Nora Ephron – 1977)
Billy Crystal is many things, but a hunk he is not. And in this intelligent, brilliantly funny, Nora Ephron-penned movie, it is his character’s brain, not biceps, which wins over Meg Ryan’s Sally.
Everett Collection
You’ve got Mail (Nora Ephron/Delia Ephron 1999)
At risk of making this list all about Nora, I have to include You’ve Got Mail, although I will group it with The Shop Around the Corner (Samson Raphaelson 1940) and the 1937 Hungarian play, Parfumerie (Miklós Lásló), which were Ephron’s inspiration. In both the 1940 version and the rewrite, the heroes were physical lightweights (played by James Stewart and Tom Hanks respectively), but romantic heavyweights.
Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson 1995)
OK, OK, so this is first and foremost a novel and all hail Jane Austen, obviously. But a round of applause also (not to mention an Oscar) for Emma Thompson, for such a wonderful screenplay, and for Alan Rickman for making Colonel Brandon utterly irresistible, even when pitted against Greg Wise’s more typically handsome Willoughby.
While You Were Sleeping (Daniel G. Sullivan and Frederic Lebow 1995)
There is, of course, an archetypal hunk in this movie in the form of actor Peter Gallagher. However, it is his character’s softly spoken and unfailingly diffident brother, played by Bill Pullman, who ultimately captures the heroine’s heart.
Green Card (Peter Weir 1990)
With an Oscar nominated screenplay, Green Card is a movie in which Gérard Depardieu plays the ultimate anti-hunk, George Fauré, who somehow, within ninety minutes, has every woman in the cinema wanting to wrestle him to the ground for a snog. Genius casting, performance and script and confirmation that for most of us, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
Every one of those a personal favourite of mine too, Jo… thanks for the lovely post, and wishing you every success with You Are Loved. Thanks too to Ellie Pilcher at Canelo for her support and for being so lovely to deal with.
About the author
Jo Platt was born in Liverpool in 1968 and, via the extremely winding route of rural Wiltshire, London, Seattle and St Albans, she is now happily settled in Bristol with her husband and two daughters. She studied English at King’s College London before going on to work in the City for ten years. In 2000 she escaped into motherhood and part-time employment, first as an assistant teacher in a Seattle pre-school and then was a Bristol-based secretary to her husband. You Are Loved is Jo’s third novel.
A fantastic list of films here! I would also have to agree, these are all fantastic films 🙂