:00:07. > :00:09.Sophie Kinsella's new novel is called my My Not So Perfect Life,
:00:10. > :00:14.It's about a woman in her 20s who leads an apparently
:00:15. > :00:16.glamorous life in London, although the truth is much more
:00:17. > :00:19.prosaic, and has to move back home to the country when she is sacked,
:00:20. > :00:25.But the life she finds there is not quite what she expected.
:00:26. > :00:27.Sophie Kinsella has written a string of worldwide bestsellers,
:00:28. > :00:30.including the Confessions of a Shopaholic series,
:00:31. > :00:36.And if you are wondering - well, she does not mind
:00:37. > :00:38.the term "chick-lit", but she much prefers what one book
:00:39. > :01:00.You are talking in the book, introducing us
:01:01. > :01:08.Do you think that that is the truth about the way that people live these
:01:09. > :01:17.I think that all of us are suckered into projecting the perfect life.
:01:18. > :01:19.I think that social media has not helped this tendency.
:01:20. > :01:24.You know, back in the day you would have your portrait
:01:25. > :01:32.But I think my forebears would have aimed to look as rich and prosperous
:01:33. > :01:37.and happy and wonderful as they possibly could.
:01:38. > :01:40.Then, the portrait would be hung on the wall and you could go
:01:41. > :01:45.I think now what we do is constantly throw out portraits of ourselves
:01:46. > :01:47.through social media, and also through our professional
:01:48. > :01:52.Although we know that it is invented, we sort
:01:53. > :01:59.This book seems very much of the moment, in that this
:02:00. > :02:01.picture which is built up, say, on Instagram,
:02:02. > :02:11.which really is a construction which is quite fake.
:02:12. > :02:14.She goes back and lives in a little one room place,
:02:15. > :02:16.although when she is out and about, she looks quite glamorous.
:02:17. > :02:20.This really is a bit of a problem for us, not for us all,
:02:21. > :02:26.I mean, social media has exploded, certainly in my lifetime,
:02:27. > :02:28.from not existing to almost being a planet that we have
:02:29. > :02:37.We have colonised it and had to make it work for us as humans and I think
:02:38. > :02:39.it brings out the best and the worst.
:02:40. > :02:45.I love the connection but this measuring and judging is not good.
:02:46. > :02:46.You write about women with particular feeling,
:02:47. > :02:48.not just women, but particularly for young girls, teenage
:02:49. > :02:56.The world that they are introduced to, you talk about measuring,
:02:57. > :03:00.Whether it is how you look, your sexual experience, whatever -
:03:01. > :03:03.it is the sort of thing where, in your young life and my young
:03:04. > :03:07.Absolutely didn't exist, you had your own teenage struggles.
:03:08. > :03:09.Perhaps you would tell your diary about them,
:03:10. > :03:12.We spent a lot of time with one person, whose
:03:13. > :03:14.voice you could hear, by the way.
:03:15. > :03:16.As humans, we respond to so many signals.
:03:17. > :03:22.And on social media, there is a barrier.
:03:23. > :03:25.There is a visual construct and this wretched "liking" which everyone
:03:26. > :03:27.becomes addicted to, and a validation that we have
:03:28. > :03:36.It can only lead to addictive reliance on it.
:03:37. > :03:39.We should not give the idea that the book is a meditation
:03:40. > :03:48.When you get an idea like that, does it gnaw
:03:49. > :03:51.away at you until you've written the book?
:03:52. > :03:55.Yeah, I think that I go around the world with a sort of radar.
:03:56. > :04:00.So, when I see people shopping too much, that goes in.
:04:01. > :04:02.And when I see people projecting lives and feeling anxious
:04:03. > :04:05.because they are not living up to some sort of measure of success,
:04:06. > :04:11.But what I try to do, as you say, I try to make people laugh,
:04:12. > :04:17.whip over the pages, see what is coming next.
:04:18. > :04:21.It's not a thesis, the thesis is sort of there between the jokes.
:04:22. > :04:26.What do you think you have got that makes you a good storyteller?
:04:27. > :04:29.I think from what my readers say, they relate to my characters.
:04:30. > :04:32.They sort of see themselves in the characters, they see
:04:33. > :04:42.But what I do is push it to the nth degree,
:04:43. > :04:44.whether it is getting into ridiculous situations.
:04:45. > :04:47.I love a bit of farce, silly situations, and
:04:48. > :04:57.But you start off with somebody that you relate to.
:04:58. > :05:04.It is the old story, isn't it, that if the reader doesn't care
:05:05. > :05:08.about the character, not necessarily total affection,
:05:09. > :05:11.but does not care in the sense that is not interested in...
:05:12. > :05:16.You can have an antiheroine, but you need someone
:05:17. > :05:23.All of my Sophie Kinsella novels I have written in the first person.
:05:24. > :05:28.What is the advantage of writing in the first person?
:05:29. > :05:34.I find an instant intimacy with the character.
:05:35. > :05:37.I know these characters so well, and I did used to write
:05:38. > :05:43.There was a slight level of detachment.
:05:44. > :05:50.I live these plots, and actually my husband can tell
:05:51. > :05:52.when things are going badly for my character,
:05:53. > :05:56.You know, it is quite an emotional journey.
:05:57. > :05:59.And when you're in the throes of a story, once you have got
:06:00. > :06:02.the idea, you think that you are there as a character who has
:06:03. > :06:14.I spend quite a lot of time working things out, turning points
:06:15. > :06:20.Also working out what I want to say, because you can have an idea
:06:21. > :06:22.for a story but you're not sure what you are trying
:06:23. > :06:29.What do you want to say about the world?
:06:30. > :06:33.I think all of my books want to say, look at us, we are human!
:06:34. > :06:36.Look at the pickles we get ourselves into...
:06:37. > :06:41.And, by the way, we are all like this, but never mind.
:06:42. > :06:46.Are you one of those writers who goes around either literally
:06:47. > :06:49.with a notebook in the pocket, where you scribble down things.
:06:50. > :06:53.Or, at least a notebook in your head, and you spot somebody
:06:54. > :06:56.in a coffee shop or somewhere and go right, I've got her...?
:06:57. > :06:59.I do, and I think I do it all the time.
:07:00. > :07:04.I never have the right person for the right chapter.
:07:05. > :07:07.If I could go to a coffee shop and find the right character
:07:08. > :07:10.and put them in now, that would be very handy.
:07:11. > :07:14.But you store them up, or store up a little facet
:07:15. > :07:17.of something you've heard, and it comes back to you later.
:07:18. > :07:20.Do you think about your readers when you are doing this?
:07:21. > :07:28.You have a vast army of readers out there,
:07:29. > :07:30.do you ever think about them and what they want?
:07:31. > :07:32.I connect with them, and when I meet them,
:07:33. > :07:34.interestingly it is the same wherever I go.
:07:35. > :07:38.What do they ask you, what kind of questions do they ask?
:07:39. > :07:41.They want to know what is happening next with my characters.
:07:42. > :07:44.I know that they love to laugh, but to be honest, I don't visualise
:07:45. > :07:50.So I write the book that would please me as a reader.
:07:51. > :07:54.I love a plot, some comedy and something to think about.
:07:55. > :07:59.Well, I sometimes think, you know what?
:08:00. > :08:05.No, I haven't, I haven't done the gut-wrenching tragedy
:08:06. > :08:10.So far I've not been ballsy enough to do it.
:08:11. > :08:15.Sophie Kinsella, thank you very much.
:08:16. > :08:35.The winds have caused a bit of a storm. There have been power outages
:08:36. > :08:37.on the West of the UK. Tomorrow's developing