Middle-aged men in Lycra

At 9 every Saturday morning a posse of cyclists speed down the street, clad in sleek (and very chic) black and white biking gear.

They’re all part of the local cycling club, heading for the steepest hills in the district. When he’s home, my teenage son is out with the peloton like a shot – and now my husband’s caught the cycling bug and signed up too. He’s had his 20-year-old bike overhauled (“where on earth did this come from?” said the man at the bike shop, marvelling at its retro yellow and pink paintwork), bought a ton of Lycra and begun stockpiling energy bars and flapjacks.

The first weekend he returned four hours (and 80 kilometres) later, ashen-faced and stunned by how tough the ride had been. He hadn’t taken any food, got caught in a downpour with no wet weather gear and suffered a puncture. But his fellow cyclists were kindness personified. They shared their food, lent him a jacket and patiently waited for him to sort his tyre out.  

My husband’s clearly not the only one to have turned into a cycling fanatic. Fired up by Bradley Wiggins’s triumphs, middle-aged men all over the country seem to be getting on their bikes. In the FT’s Life & Arts section at the weekend, editor Lionel Barber wrote about his gruelling weekend bike trip across the Pyrenees – wittily titled “Blood, sweat and gears.” And thanks to his article, I have now discovered I’m married to a “MAMIL” – a “middle-aged man in Lycra.”

But friends down under have coined a different term for middle-aged cycling enthusiasts. My friend Virginia emailed from Brisbane to tell me: “We call them VOMITS - very old men in tights!”

Two films for half term - Madagascar 3 and Private Peaceful

For the first time in 18 years I haven’t got a clue when half term actually is. It might be this week but then again it could be next. In the past I’d be rushing out to get Halloween pumpkins and planning what to do on Bonfire Night – but now my son and daughter are at university I don’t have to do any of it (sob).

But ironically I was invited to two film previews recently – both for new children’s movies being released in time for half term. Actually, when I pitched up for the screening of Madagascar 3 - Europe's Most Wanted at the Empire in London's Leicester Square I nearly made my excuses and left. The vast auditorium was filled with harassed looking parents and small children clutching balloons, Chupa Chip lollies (they were being handed out for free) and geeky 3D glasses. I felt a bit like a spare part.

But I stayed – and I’m so glad I did. With its stunning animation and madcap characters, Madagascar 3 is 80 minutes well spent. Children will love the crazy tale of New York zoo escapees Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), while adults will chuckle at the in-jokes and witty script.

The plot is silly to say the least, but it doesn’t matter a jot. I hadn’t seen the two earlier Madagascar films but the latest instalment takes up where the previous ones left off. The four animals are living in Africa but they’re bored stiff with their natural habitat and are desperate to head home to the hustle and bustle of New York. So that’s what they do, except along the way there’s a manic car chase through Monte Carlo, a train ride across Europe (where they join a travelling circus) and a dazzling circus performance in London. Best of all, it’s got the best movie villain I’ve seen in a long time –  the utterly terrifying Chantel Du Bois (voiced by Frances McDormand), a French cop who looks like Cruella de Vil and sounds like something out of  ‘Allo, ‘Allo.

But if your children are older and you’re after a more serious movie, then Private Peaceful is just the thing.

Private Peaceful is apparently Michael Morpurgo’s favourite of all the books he has written. It's a shame that the film adaptation has been released so soon after War Horse because it covers – with far less fanfare - much of the same First World War territory. In many ways it reminded me of the Sunday afternoon dramas I used to watch on TV as a child. The story of two brothers who fall in love with the same girl and then both sign up, a decision that ultimately leads to tragedy, it’s moving, thought-provoking and beautifully done. Oh, and any film that stars the brilliant Maxine Peake (as the boys' mum) is fine by me.

Madagascar 3, certificate PG, and Private Peaceful, certificate 12A, are showing in UK cinemas now.

My Next Big Thing

I’ve been a fan of Karen Wheeler’s books about her life in France for ages so it was a pleasure to meet her on Twitter. I loved her latest book, Tout Soul, and I’m an avid reader of her blog, Tout Sweet, too. Her stories of how she hung up her fashion editor’s high heels and left chic west London to start a new life in rural France make me want to abandon grey, wet Oxford and cross the Channel right this minute.

This week Karen (@mimipompom1) invited me to take part in a web event called My Next Big Thing, where authors answer a series of questions about their latest project.

So I took a deep breath and here are my answers:

What is the working title of your book?

I am completely hopeless at titles but the working title is Three in the Morning.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

That’s such a hard question! My second novel, Moving On, was inspired by a newspaper cutting about two sisters who took over their family business. But for this one I had loads of ideas floating through my head, all of which became intertwined – family, bereavement, Fleet Street, Pendle Hill in Lancashire, teenagers, teachers… I’ve somehow blended all of them into the first full-length novel I've written since Taking Sides.

What genre does your book fall under?

Contemporary drama. It covers a multitude of sins but that’s the genre, I reckon.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

The main characters are three sisters. So my choice would be Vanessa Kirby (she was Estella in BBC One’s recent adaptation of Great Expectations) for Jess, the youngest sister. Helen McCrory could play the eldest sister, Flo, and Claire Danes for the middle sister, Finn. They'd make a very starry line-up...

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

The three Barker sisters never spend any time in the same country, let alone the same house – so how do they cope when a family crisis flings them together for the first time in years?

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Three years – in between novellas and journalistic work!

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I love Marian Keyes’s books because they combine heart and humour. I only wish I could write like her…

What else about your blog post might pique the reader’s interest?

My first three books, Hard Copy, Moving On and Taking Sides, were published in quick succession. They’ve never been available electronically before but Piatkus is publishing them as ebooks in January, February and March next year (2013), which I’m thrilled about. Also, Endeavour Press has just published my second romantic novella, School Ties. 

And now I’m going to nominate four fantastic writers to tell us about their next big thing:

Kate Lace (@LaceKate) has written 15 novels, including The Chalet Girl and Moonlighting, and two non-fiction books. Cox, her latest novel, is the unputdownable tale of two rival hotshot rowers and has been dubbed “Jilly Cooper in a boat.”

Liz Harris (@lizharrisauthor) is the author of The Road Back. Her debut novel is a love story set in a remote region north of the Himalayas. Liz writes contemporary and historical fiction and her blog is called Welcome to My World.

Jenny Smith (@jennysmithbooks) writes humorous fiction for children and teenagers. I adore Jenny’s titles. Her first book is Diary of a Parent Trainer and her latest is the hilarious My Big Fat Teen Crisis, both out now.

Kate Morris (@KateMorris1) is the author of three novels, The Single Girl's Diary, The Seven Year Itch and Seven Days One Summer. I love Kate's description of a writer's life on her blog - "I sit at my desk all day," she says, "trying not to get distracted by emails, Facebook, Twitter and what's going on outside my study window." Y

Friday book review - The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

I do love Marian Keyes’s books. Her latest, The Mystery of Mercy Close, proves yet again that Keyes is in a league of her own. Even when she’s writing about hard-hitting subjects like depression and bankruptcy, as she is here, she’s perceptive and funny, moving and wise.

The novel’s heroine is Helen Walsh, the youngest and stroppiest of Mammy Walsh’s five daughters. Older sisters Claire, Rachel, Maggie and Anna have all starred in earlier Keyes novels, so this time round it’s Helen’s turn in the spotlight.

After spells as a make-up artist and the “world’s worst waitress,” Helen has now trained as a private investigator and set up her own business. But with the credit crunch at its height, her work has dried up, her flat has been repossessed and she’s had to move back in with her parents. Most worrying of all, she’s sinking into the depression that has plagued her on and off throughout her life.

Helen explains her situation in her own inimitable way: “…when the crash hit, I was one of the first things to go,” she says. “Private investigators are luxury items and the It bags and I came out of things very badly.”

But out of the blue her conman ex-boyfriend asks her to track down a missing musician. Wayne Diffney, the “wacky one” from boyband Laddz, has gone missing just five days before the group’s sell-out comeback show.

Helen isn’t keen on getting involved with her shady ex-lover a second time, especially as she’s got charismatic copper Artie Devlin in her life, but she reluctantly agrees.

The sharp-tongued Helen, with her “shovel list” of things she hates - dogs, doctors’ receptionists and the smell of fried eggs (I’m with her there) - and her love of Scandinavian box sets and cheese and coleslaw sandwiches, is one of Keyes’s most memorable creations. I hope she gets to star in another novel. And soon…

The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes (Michael Joseph, £18.99)

The Tour de Trigs is back

My husband’s face went pale when I told him the news. Stunned at the revelation, he hurriedly started making plans to be “otherwise engaged” over the weekend of December 1 and 2.

The cause of his horror? After a gap of two years, the Tour de Trigs is back. And back in 44 days time. In fact one of the Tour de Trigs organisers helpfully left a comment at House With No Name, asking me to spread the word.

For anyone who hasn’t come across it, the Tour de Trigs challenge is a gruelling 24-hour orienteering hike through the wilds of the Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire countryside. Competitors (lots of them walk for charity) are given a set of map references and have to be checked off at each one.

If that wasn’t tough enough, the event is always held in December – when the days are short, the temperatures are freezing and the fields are clogged in mud. Worst of all, at least half the trek is done in the dark.

I’ve never done it (and never intend to) but my husband has. A crazy five times – and usually in lashing rain. Each time he says he’s never going to do it again but then his doctor friend Tim rings and he always ends up saying “great idea - count me in.”

The walkers compete in teams of three and have to carry rucksacks equipped with everything from blister plasters, maps and sleeping bags to head torches and reflective armbands. My husband takes a flask of strong black coffee, flapjacks and hot cheese and tomato rolls (wrapped in tin foil to keep them warm). A couple of hours in, he can’t face any of it and has to force himself to eat.

They set off on Saturday morning and the rot always sets in as dusk falls. One year my husband felt so sick he had to quit halfway. The next, one of his team-mates fell ill. Another time he trudged on through wind and rain, unable to speak or map-read, and fainted on the kitchen floor when he got home.

So, the big question in our house is – will he sign up or will he flee the country? Somehow I suspect the latter…

Who will win the Man Booker Prize 2012?

One thing struck me as I watched the 2012 Man Booker Prize readings at the wonderful Phoenix Picturehouse in Oxford last night.

If the prize was judged on the best reading alone, then gravelly-voiced Will Self would win hands down for his shortlisted book, Umbrella. And I reckon he’d be closely followed by Indian performance poet Jeet Thayil.

The readings took place at London’s Royal Festival Hall but were also beamed live to 36 cinemas across the country – and I’d snapped up a ticket the moment they went on sale.

The evening, chaired by the redoubtable James Naughtie, was a treat. The six contenders on the 2012 shortlist sat patiently in sleek, black leather armchairs, awaiting their turn to read short extracts from their novels and then be quizzed by Naughtie.

Like most book reviewers, my track record at choosing winners of literary prizes is patchy to say the least.

After reading the six novels, my favourite is definitely Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies. No question. The sequel to Wolf Hall (winner of the Man Booker in 2009), it continues the story of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s chief minister, in the heady months leading up to Anne Boleyn’s beheading in 1536. As I wrote in my Daily Express review last week, it’s an “outstanding” novel – a book that really will stand the test of time.

I loved Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden of Evening Mists and Alison Moore’s The Lighthouse too – and they must stand an outside chance. Tan Twan Eng’s novel is the story of the sole survivor of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp and her determination to create a garden in memory of her dead sister while Moore relates how a newly-separated man sets out on a solo walking holiday in Germany.

The other books battling it out for the prize are Swimming Home by Deborah Levy and Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil.

But back to Will Self. Umbrella is his ninth novel and has completely divided critics. A 400-page book without chapters and barely any paragraph breaks at all, it spans nearly a century and tells the story of a young munitions worker wrongly admitted to a mental hospital after the First World War. It’s the most difficult book on the shortlist and even the judges have called it “moving, but draining.”

I much prefer Mantel’s novel (and loved her description of writing as “you sit down every morning and don’t know where your craft will carry you by the end of that day”) but hearing Will Self read the first pages of Umbrella last night was a revelation. A gaunt figure in a bright pink shirt, tweed jacket and jeans, he told the audience that “everything is too easy in this society” and that when he finished writing Umbrella he thought he had “really blown it this time.” He said that it’s important to him as a writer to be “sonorous” and that being read aloud to as a child was “tremendously important to me.” It shows. Read aloud, Umbrella was utterly brilliant.

The judges of the 2012 Man Booker – chair Peter Stothard, historian Amanda Foreman, Downton Abbey actor Dan Stevens and critics Dinah Birch and Bharat Tandon – met this afternoon to decide the winner. All will be revealed at a dinner at London’s Guildhall tonight...