THE LAUNCH OF MARY HOOPER’S VELVET

As you may well know Mary Hooper’s new historical YA book Velvet came out earlier this month. Yesterdays launch of this fabulous book at Bloomsbury Publishing was my first ever book launch at a publishers, and I was really excited and nervous to attend! First of all I have to say the Bloomsbury offices are just fab! Nestled in one of London’s most prestigious and prettiest areas, they feature stunning Georgian architecture and yes, the rooms have huge floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with wonderful books!

Having read and loved Fallen Grace, the story of a young girl who becomes involved in the funeral business during the Victorian period, I was really excited to find out more about Mary and the books she has written. I’m amazingly impressed that she has written over 100 books of varying sizes, the most recent of which are historical YA fiction. Researching the historical aspects for her books sounds like a fascinating process and insight into London’s past, which for the poor was overwhelming sad and shocking by our standards. Mary read out little snippets that she found out about people living in the 18th and 19th century, and I could instantly see why the time period interests her and why her stories and characters just jump out at you.

I was also very lucky to steal Mary’s attention for a while and have the opportunity to pepper her with plenty of questions which she answered very honestly and passionately. As I really enjoy learning about the writing process it was interesting to hear that she spends about a year researching and writing a book and really enjoys the whole process. There were also lots of familiar book blogger faces at the launch, as well as some new ones (for me at least!), but sadly I didn't have my camera to take pics of everyone.

I can’t wait to read and review Velvet, which is about séances and mediums in Victorian England, and if you haven’t gone out and grabbed yourself a copy, go now!

• Mary Hooper’s webpage
• Velvet on Goodreads