Going on Radio Solent

I can now say I have witnessed the beginning and end of the year's shortest night. Knowing that I had to get up at 5am to go to the BBC Radio Solent studios was enough to make me wake up every hour, but Wally barking at 2.30am to go out really did the trick. So I can tell you, at this time of year you can see the first shred of light coming across the Eastern skies at around 3.05am. At 4.15 I took the dogs for a walk and only saw a man talking on his mobile - the sun still hadn't risen. It comes over the horizon at 4.52am.

So...Radio Solent?
It all started last week when Emily Hudson, one of the producers at the Radio station rang me to ask if I'd like to review the newspapers on Sasha Twining's Saturday morning show. How exciting!! I listen to the show most weeks, so I knew what to expect. At 6am I was waiting outside the newsagent in Cowes to buy a few papers and get a head start. 

The BBC Studio in Southampton

The other guests were Fran, a lady from Southampton City Council's Fostering and Adoption Unit and Bobby, a lawyer. Emily had bought croissants and gave us tea/coffee but I was much to nervous to eat anything. We whizzed through the papers and chose 3 front pages to talk about and some inside stories and before we knew it, 8 o'clock had come and we were on air.

One of the radio studios

Of course, I had to have the squeaky chair, so I was really conscious of keeping still so it didn't sound like someone was re-creating Frankenstein's monster on the mixing desk; then my throat went dry, which made me want to cough!! but after a few minutes it just felt like sitting in a room with 3 other people, chatting. Sasha was absolutely lovely and made us all feel at ease and I was glad to be sitting next to Bobby, who really sounded like he knew what he was talking about when the subject of the Middle East came up.

It was really useful to have highlighted some quotes from the pages and stuck big pink post-its on the side of the newspapers to find the pages quickly. 

Before we knew it, 9am had come and I was off to do some shopping in Southampton before heading back to the Island.

I'm delighted to find that this morning that I have sold some more books over the weekend; this I must put down to the lovely article that the Isle of Wight County Press had in this week's edition or my appearance on the radio. It's very exciting when things move fast!

From the Isle of Wight County Press, 21 June 2014

If you want to order a copy of The House on Hare Hill, you can HERE. It comes straight from me, so I can sign it for you, if you'd like to let me know who it is for.

Have a groovy week!!
Jules
xx