Well, it’s not every day you go and see your debut novel
being printed and bound.
So come with me to the book printers to watch my little cosy,
witchy baby, rewitched,
come to life for the very first time.
Had a very sweaty journey across a very muggy London.
By the time I found my agent and my editor at the station,
I needed an iced latte stack.
And we got the train to CPI Books in Chatham,
where I was given my very own extremely chic high vis author jacket.
So I guess that makes it official.
I’ve never worn anything cooler in my life.
You will have to bury me in this high vis.
I’m gonna start a petition for more school trip days in your 30s.
Because now I actually care about learning this cool stuff
like these giant wheels of paper.
Get through one of those every 15 minutes
and they print about 400,000 books a day.
I cannot express how magical it felt
to see bewitched go from book block
with all the pages bound together,
to getting its bright blue hardback cover
and then finally putting on its beautiful foil jacket.
I will never forget that moment of picking it off the conveyor belt,
the final copy for the very first time
and holding that in my hands.
That moment right there, to me,
that was real life magic.
And I was doing okay at holding it together until I.
I saw all The copies coming around the bend on that conveyor belt.
The minute I imagined them heading out to readers
to be held and read on sofas
and on trains and in beds and on holidays,
I had a small cry. Rewitched is a comforting story
about rediscovering your spark of potential as you get older.
And writing
it has kind of become a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy for me.
Because the whole thing is just honestly
been the absolute joy of my life.
And it’s healed me in ways that I’ll never be able to explain.
This really was the most magical day.
And I can’t wait for you to be able to read rewitched
on September the nineteenth.