WHEN VIV MET SADIE…

In the basement of High Road House on Chiswick High Road for breakfast with one of the smartest storytellers of recent times – Sadie Jones – hosted by one of the smartest and funniest journalists I know – Viv Groskop.

Viv (right) invites Sadie to be our guest at High Road House

Great to see regulars Sheena, Kirsty, Sharon and the brilliant Susie Pearl in our small but beautiful coterie. Joined also by members of the Girly Book Club and a delegation from the ultra cool boutique hotel service Mr and Mrs Smith in the flippin marvellous form of Sabine and Lindsay.

The intimate setting creates a warm, open atmosphere and we are soon hearing how Sadie sees her life before The Outcast (which won her the Costa First Novel Award) as a failure, how she reads all her reviews late at night and doesn’t trust any of them and how she was bullied at school – quite a lot to cover before 10am but we manage it.

Viv is brilliant, brainy and attentive in equal measure so if you get the chance to see her on stage in standup or read one of her many articles then do so – I hope we can persuade her to host another breakfast soon.

We don’t normally have fiction for breakfast but this exception proved well worth it and opened up discussion about how we often take what we have in life for granted and how one man’s paradise can be another man’s purgatory.

If you’re looking for something cool and a little bit spooky to take on your late summer holiday, you could do worse that sit by the pool with Sadie Jones (and The Uninvited Guests).

This book is cool and spooky

GOING FOR GOLD OR PACKING YOUR BAGS?

July is either a mouth-watering prospect of fun and games or, if you live in London, an impending, imperfect storm of traffic, tourists and delays on the tube.

Sadie Jones

This month, Books for Breakfast is embracing both sides of the Olympic coin, as it were; looking outwards to the holiday sun with Costa award-winning, best-selling novelist Sadie Jones and inwards, towards the track-star in all of us, with “performance specialist” Rasmus Ankersen.

Sadie will be joined by the erudite, witty woman of stage and page, Viv Groskop, at High Road House W4 on Friday 20th July. They’ll be talking about Sadie’s second novel The Uninvited Guests and discussing the best books to pack in your travel bag or take away on your Kindle/Kobo/iPad this summer.

Meanwhile, back in Soho, I’ll be meeting Danish dynamo Rasmus Ankersen, who has travelled the planet to find out why certain countries produce winners in sports such as tennis, running, golf and football.

Rasmus Ankersen

If you have any interest in making the most of talent, you’ll enjoy his book; The Gold Mine Effect, Crack the Secrets of High Performance, which despite having a cheesy title, contains very edible nuggets of experience and wisdom from the world’s best coached and athletes.

You can apply for places at both events by emailing reception@booksforbreakfast.com.

Everyone attending gets a nice breakfast and a signed copy of the book.