Sincerely BookAngels: My Favourite Things by Carol Wyer, Author

My trouble is I have lots of favourite things. Much like a dog that’ll suddenly be distracted by a squirrel, the next favourite thing will distract me. There is so much choice!

Take food for example, I adore savoury food, like sausage rolls, crisps and cheese…mmm cheese. Now, you won’t know this but at that point in the interview I had to go downstairs and make a cheddar cheese sandwich with Lea and Perrins Sauce before I could continue because I was salivating too much. I adore pasta too. I have been addicted to pasta of any shape or size since I was able to eat solids. When I was young, my mother would make me pasta with butter and parsley and to this day I love it. Okay, you guessed it. I had to stop the interview to go cook pasta. At this rate I’ll never get finished.

Better move onto drink because that is easy. I am a champagne lover. Every time I hear a cork pop I get as excited as a child at Christmas. I have sampled some of the finest champagnes (thanks to a friend’s business expense account) and although I have drunk vintage champagnes, Bollinger and Louis Roederer Cristal along with other mightily priced champagnes, I prefer a glass of Veuve Cliquot. I only have to catch a glimpse of that orange-yellow label and I lurk near the stand/bar in the hope I’ll get a free sample. There’s something about the colour and the way the bubbles hypnotise me as they ascend in the shapely flute, keeps me mesmerised and that first taste…perfect. Being on an author’s budget, I tried to replicate the effect with a bottle of Highland Spring Sparkling water but it didn’t work.

Now films are another matter. I will basically watch anything but my all time favourite film that still brings tears to my eyes at the start of it is Disney/Pixar’s film ‘Up’. I really feel for poor old Carl Fredricksen when he looks longingly at the photographs of his deceased wife. My heart breaks for him and all the lonely older people in the world. Oh rats! Now, I’m hungry again. I want some champagne and I’ve started to snivel. This interview is going from bad to worse.

My favourite song will always cheer me. It is ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’ by Monty Python. I have a horrible habit of whistling or humming it when I go shopping in the supermarket to see how many people are singing, humming or whistling it by the time they get to the checkout. It’s good fun, so go on, try it yourself. Sidle up to someone at the vegetable counter and surreptitiously hum it. Bet they are doing the same by the time they get in the queue to leave.

I am very lucky in that I travel a huge amount. My husband and I produce a series of YouTube videos entitled The Grumpy Travel Show and I also write for Silver Travel Advisor and do regular slots on the Wireless Radio on destinations we have visited. My book Grumpies On Board is a light-hearted, useful and hilarious travel guide with stacks of ideas of what to do and where to go. I have tried many of them out from quad biking in South African mountains and racing 4X4 s down volcanoes and over glaciers in Iceland to scuba diving in the Bahamas Holiday

but we both love a quiet region in the South West of France called the Tarn and Garonne that we visit 2-3 times a year. It is so peaceful and charming. It is the only place where I can actually unwind. And, is the place I go to write my books.

I am an animal lover and was obsessed with elephants for a long time. It was my dream to see them in the wild and when I finally did, I cried. There is something very graceful about the way an elephant walks but more importantly, the way they all look after a little one and tenderly care for it and gently hold each other’s tails when they walk, and look out for each other. Pity humans aren’t more like that.

I am a Leo so in theory I ought to love Summer but I actually prefer springtime when the first colours are appearing on the trees and eager flowers push up to greet the world. It’s magical.

My favourite quote is, well, actually two quotes and they form the backbone of all my writing. The first is “Smile while you still have teeth” and the second, by which I live my life, is “Carpe Diem”.

So, there you have a few of my favourite things. Now, I’ll go and sing to my grumpy old man and see what his reaction is!

Bio
Carol E. Wyer is an award-winning author whose humorous books take a light-hearted look at getting older and encourage others to age disgracefully. More recently she has chosen to write for the "dark side" and embarked on a series of thrillers, starting with the gripping Little Girl Lost which will be out January 19th 2017.
Her book Grumpy Old Menopause won The People's Book Prize Award for non-fiction 2015.
Carol has been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing 'Irritable Male Syndrome' and 'Ageing Disgracefully' and on BBC Breakfast television. She has had articles published in national magazines 'Woman's Weekly' featured in 'Take A Break', 'Choice', 'Yours' and 'Woman's Own' magazines and writes regularly for The Huffington Post.
Carol is a signed author with Bookouture and Delancey Press.

To learn more about Carol, go to www.carolewyer.co.uk or follow Carol on Twitter: @carolewyer. Carol blogs at www.facing50withhumour.com and www.grumpyoldmenopause.com

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Carol's new book is out now