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| Interview with Sophie Kinsella by Daneet Steffens SOPHIE KINSELLA is a born entertainer. Perpetually doing impressions for her family as a kid, she wanted to be in musicals so badly that she used to sing ‘performances’ walking down the road. At the tender age of ten she wrote to the producers of Annie and got herself on the audition list. ‘I got through just two rounds,’ she remembers, ‘but I was always one for writing letters. One time a company came to audition people at our school for a show, but you had to be small and I was tall, so this was no good. I actually wrote to the casting director to say, “This isn’t fair, why do you have to be small?” And on the strength of the letter she asked me in to see her! I mean, I never got anywhere, but looking back I think, “Oh, wow,”’ she exclaims, wide-eyed, impressed with her brazen younger self. ‘Obviously,’ she grins cheekily, ‘I was more skilled at the writing than at the acting.’ The adult Sophie, non-starter musical acting career aside, is no shrinking violet. On a drizzly day in her publisher’s West London offices, she’s tall, effervescent and chilled, like the evening’s first glass of champagne. Her easy chat punctuated by exclamations, an expressive face and a comfortable, confiding style, mirrors that of her bestselling heroine, shopaholic Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood, aka ‘Bex'). Becky – a financially-challenged financial guru and fashion muse, super-enthusiastically-supportive wife, friend, daughter, sister – sprang fully-formed from her creator’s head and heart: Bex is a dreamer whose imagination has the tendency to gallop off with her at the drop of a couture hat – or a Denny and George scarf – with amusingly messy consequences. Luckily, she’s got a top-notch supporting cast – BFF Suze; workaholic husband Luke; her adoring and adorably ditzy parents; and too-fabulous-for-you wacky sitcom neighbour Danny Kravitz. Even when Becky’s best-laid plans go awry in the best slapstick manner (see the Baby Talullah-Phoebe debacle in the latest tome), she always manages to make things come right, with an irrepressible mix of optimism, determination, good will, charm, gumption and romance. A great deal of this works because of Becky’s easygoing manner – she is your best buddy, talking tête-a-tête over a pink cocktail – part of it because, in the unevenly rendered yet formulaic world of chick-lit, the Shopaholic characters achieve a level of consistency that makes them fun, believable people you want to spend more time with. For the whole interview, read Issue 34 » Subscribe! |
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