Welcome to another episode of Book Ends, the podcast for writers and book lovers. I am delighted to welcome Nicola Doherty as today's guest.

Nicola's debut novel The Out of Office Girl hit the shelves in Ireland and the UK this year. The out of office girl is Alice who, at the beginning of the story, has hit a bit of a slump in terms of both career and relationships. She isn't getting anywhere in her job in publishing and she's just been dumped via a text message. But all that changes when her boss is taken ill and Alice gets sent on the work trip of a lifetime to a villa in Sicily to edit the autobiography of Hollywood bad boy Luther Carson. But rather than living the plot of her favourite romantic movie, Alice needs to face some demons and find some confidence and gumption as the deadline for the celebrity book approaches and she battles to emerge with her dignity, and her job, in tact.

Nicola and I talked about the inspiration behind The Out of Office Girl, ghost writing and celebrity books, and the importance of incentive and support when writing a book. She has lots of tips for first timers!

You can listen to the podcast here:

Many thanks to Nicola for her time in giving the interview, and also to the staff at Fleet River Bakery in London who graciously turned off the background music in their cafe for an hour while I recorded our chat :)

You can find out more about Nicola, the writing life and her next book at her blog.

Guests

Nicola Doherty

Irish writer

Publications mentioned

The Out of Office Girl by Nicola Doherty (Headline)

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger (Harper Collins)

The Ghost by Robert Harris (Arrow)

Ghosting: A Double Life by Jennie Erdal (Canongate)

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Bloomsbury)

My Legendary Girlfriend by Mike Gayle (Flame)

Sliding Doors (film) directed by Peter Howitt (Paramount)

Credits

Presenter

Philippa Moore

Producer

Tom Schoon