edwina currie

Hello, Edwina?

Hello, Graeme.

Where are you now and what are you doing?

I'm sitting in a rocking chair in my study in Clapham, waiting to be collected to go and open a collection of political cartoons.

Your new novel, Chasing Men, has been called a reaction to Bridget Jones' Diary.

That's not unfair. My daughter Debbie gave me Bridget Jones' Diary, and she wrote on the flyleaf, "I'm so glad you're not like Bridget Jones's mother". When I read it, I said to her, "But I am Bridget Jones's mother, not least because you're just like Bridget Jones".

In the novel, Hetty is a recently-divorced 50-year old who finds herself back "in the game". Where did you get the idea?

Hetty came out of my own indignation after being told by a great many people that I must find another husband. My husband and I had separated amicably and we stayed friends, there wasn't anyone else involved. And the thought that I couldn't possibly manage without some bloke to wash socks for really didn't seem a very attractive proposition. Managing on one's own is a much more intriguing and challenging idea, and it's been huge fun these past three years. I wouldn't change a minute.

So is it based on your own experiences? There's some pretty crazy stuff going on.

I needed wider experience than my own, so I convened a couple of dinner parties of various successful singles that I know, plied them with much wine and pleaded with them to tell me their secrets. How did my friend, a very successful businesswoman in her forties, always manage to appear with a different man on her arm? She put adverts in the newspapers, and she would typically get around 50 replies. I couldn't believe it.

You've developed a reputation for being quite a racy writer.

The first couple of books were very lively indeed, but that's because the subject matter was all about sex and lies in the House of Commons. But my readers seem to appreciate it. My books are borrowed about 120,000 times a year from public libraries. I checked a couple out and there are some well-thumbed pages, there's no doubt about that.

But in Chasing Men, were you never worried that the idea of old people having sex might put people off?

I don't think so. They're very tasteful, or very tasty, depending on your preference. And they were a lot of fun to write. What I did do this time was to take a deep breath and try and write some bad sex. In romantic novels, it always works. You fall in love and the guy is wonderful and everything works perfectly first time. In real life, it ain't like that, and, as you get older it doesn't work like that more often than it does work. You have to be patient with older men, but on the other hand, it can be very rewarding when it does work. But I'm appalled to discover that the novel is being put forward for the Bad Sex Award by The Literary Review. Three pages with a banana is the bit they've taken exception to.

But you meant it to be bad.

That scene was deliberately written to be a disaster, but Hetty does rather enjoy herself if I remember rightly. I'm not sure if the banana does, though.

Are the women in your own family currently attached?

In our family, there are four women: my two daughters, who are 22 and 25, myself, and my mother, who is 88. And the two older ladies have both got boyfriends.

And your daughters?

My daughters have got careers, they haven't got boyfriends. My mum has a boyfriend of 85, who I'm told is very charming and very shy, and my boyfriend is 58, so we're doing alright, thank you very much!

You're up in Scotland pretty soon, aren't you?

I'll be coming up to Waterstone's in Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow on Shrove Tuesday, so we'll be tossing some pancakes and signing a few books.

At the same time? That would be impressive.

(laughs) I might do that. And then the following day, I'm going to the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh to sign some more books. That'll be Ash Wednesday.

The ending of the novel is very open.

We juggled around with the ending. I had intended to leave it open anyway but the way we've done it is Hetty has her own website, and I would be very pleased if people who were on the net would like to put forward their ideas as to what she ought to do next. In novels sometimes, there is a satisfying clunk at the end, but even though Hetty changed a great deal, had some fun and some adventures along the way, like learning how to snort vodka, I have the feeling that it hasn't quite finished yet.

Chasing Men (Little, Brown #14.99) is out now

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