Favourite food, savoury and sweet
I prefer savoury things to sweet, and
I especially love a Middle Eastern dip called babaghanouj (also spelled baba
ghanoush). It’s made of aubergine, garlic and lemons, among other things. Like
my character Laure from my novels, I am half Lebanese, and this is my favourite
food, eaten with proper Lebanese bread which is like pitta but more papery. If
I had to choose a sweet, it would be dark chocolate, ideally Swiss.
Drink
Bloody Mary, please, and not too much
Tabasco. Oh, is it too early? Well, just a tomato juice then. My father used to
make the best Bloody Marys and they remind me of happy times. Plus I like to
think they’re healthy.
Film
Love, Actually,
for its mix of wit and sparkling dialogue. The plot is a little unlikely in
places, but the film is also poignant and full of great characters. I happen to
love multi-stranded stories, as you’d guess from reading my novels.
Book
That’s a tough one, as I’m sure many
authors tell you, but I’m going to choose Cocktails
and Camels by my late mother. It was her first book and she wrote it while
I was a child. She kept telling me to keep quiet because she was writing. It
was annoying at the time, but now I can totally understand it. Cocktails and Camels was about growing
up in Alexandria, Egypt, around the time of WW2, and it’s still one of the
funniest books I have ever read. I have one cherished signed copy, which is
just as well as it’s out of print.
Author
My all-time favourite has to be Kate
Atkinson. She writes books that are consistently intelligent and entertaining,
yet she never fails to surprise. What’s not to love?
Character
Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Although
she’s just a child, she’s a natural leader, and she grows in strength and
wisdom during the book as she learns what’s really important in life. And the
ruby slippers are irresistible.
Song
Summer in the City by the Lovin’ Spoonful. Or Nights
in White Satin. Or maybe Purple Haze?
Damn, sixties music is just so good.
Animal
My ginger cat Mishmish. The name
means ‘apricot’ in Arabic and in Hebrew. Ginger female cats are uncommon, but
not that rare. Mishmish is the third one
I’ve had. She’s very affectionate, and I think she’s quite clever too. She now
has her own column in an online publication called The Property Owner, which
she writes under the pen name of Lady Marmalade.
Place to write
In a notebook, with a pencil. It
doesn’t really matter where, but I do need some quiet. Later on, I transfer my
scribblings to the computer. If I can read them.
Season
I’ve always loved summer. You don’t need a coat, tights, or a jumper,
and the long evenings make everything seem possible.
Inspirational quote
“You cannot predict the future,” as
Stephen Hawking said.
Thing in the whole world
Am I allowed to say my family? It’s
absolutely my favourite thing in the whole world.
Author Bio:
Carol Cooper
a doctor, journalist, and author. After a string of parenting books and an
award-winning medical textbook, she turned to writing novels. She lives in
North London and Cambridge, and has three grown-up sons who haven’t turned out
too badly.
Published in
July 2016, Hampstead Fever is Carol’s second novel. It follows the intertwined lives of
six Londoners as emotions rise to the boil one hot summer. One Night at the Jacaranda is her first novel.
Twitter
@DrCarolCooper
Thanks so much for joining us today Carol.
Sincerely
Book Angel x
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