Travel and foodie heaven at the inaugural Rooftop Book Club

Last night saw us ascend to the heady heights of 6th Story at Carmelite House for the very first Rooftop Book Club event – Holiday Reads on the Roof.  Refusing to be dampened by the rain, a brilliantly bookish crowd filled seats in anticipation of our globe-trotting  panel of authors – THE DISH author Stella Newman; Tasmina Perry, whose new book THE LAST KISS GOODBYE is published next month and author of THE OLIVE BRANCH, Jo Thomas. Our  compère for the event was the incomparable Isabelle Broom of heat magazine  fame.

Rooftop Book Club revelations…

Jo Thomas wrote her first novel THE OYSTER CATCHER in her car.

Donald Trump got in touch with Tasmina Perry’s agent to say he loved her work and really identified with Miles from KISS HEAVEN GOODBYE (incidentally, Miles is the character Tasmina would most like to kill off!)

Stella Newman is so dedicated to research, that she travelled all the way to Paris to eat croissants while writing THE DISH.

Our authors aren’t averse to a detox – Tasmina went cold turkey on digital, while Stella spent last week drinking just kale juice…

Jo takes cookery books with her on her travels but told us her packing mantra is to ‘Keep it black and wear big jewellery’.

Tasmina Perry is possibly one of the most well-travelled authors around – her dream destination to emigrate to is Savannah, Georgia, the setting for her new novel.

Stella always returns to a small town in Italy, which produces ‘the best pesto in the world’.

Rooftop Book Club in numbers…

80 guests

3 star-performing authors and 1 brilliant host

Over 600 tweets in 24 hours leading to #RooftopBookClub trending on Twitter!

1 giant chocolate birthday cake for Stella Newman

Thank you to everyone who showed their support for the first Rooftop Book Club. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and, thanks to our panel, left desperate to pack our bags and head for the airport for foodie hotspots. Here’s to the next one.

Follow Tasmina, Jo, Stella and Isabelle on Twitter.

Buy THE DISH here

Buy THE PROPOSAL here and pre-order THE LAST KISS GOODBYE here

Buy THE OLIVE BRANCH here

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