Quick-fire Q&A with Jo Thomas

If I had to go back in time and choose another career…

I want to change career every week. Usually I want to be a different type of farmer. Right now I want to be an olive farmer.

My most memorable meal…

My 20th birthday on a beach in the South of France in a thunderstorm. The tarpaulin sides billowing. Special for so many reasons.

My guilty pleasure…

Watching rom coms. I love Love Actually and The Holiday. Can’t see them enough!

The thing I could never give up…

My camper van Dorothy! I love her. It’s my car, my office, my space. That and gin. Everything looks better after a good G&T!

The one piece of advice I would give my teenage self…

You get back what you put in, in life. The harder you work, the luckier you’ll become.

If I had to choose between appearing on Strictly Come Dancing or X Factor…

Definitely X Factor. I love it when people reach for their dreams.

When I was 5 years old I wanted to be…

A zoologist studying monkeys. Really, I just wanted a monkey.

If I had to eat the same meal for dinner every day for the rest of my life…

Casanova started his day by eating 50 oysters for breakfast. I love oysters but not 50 a day. I’d have lobster, homemade chips and garlic mayo, what could be better? Or maybe a great bacon sandwich…

If I could play the starring role in any film…

Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind…. ‘Afterall, tomorrow is another day.’

My favourite cookbook…

It’s a tough one between Nigella, Jamie and Hugh F-W but it would have to be Nigel Slater’s Real Cooking. I love him! (That and my Hamlyn)

If I could play the starring role in any film…

I want to be Baby, of course, from Dirty Dancing. I want to do the lift in the water and I want Patrick Swayze to say ‘Nobody puts Baby in the corner’ or rather ‘Nobody puts Jo in the corner!’ Oh yes!

Jo Thomas’ latest novel THE OLIVE BRANCH is out in Paperback on July 2nd. Can’t wait? Buy it for your e-reader now!