We chat with author Marianne Cronin about Eddie Winston Is Looking For Love, which is a funny, uplifting story about the power of friendship and finding love in unexpected places.
Hi, Marianne! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! I’m Marianne Cronin, I’m a writer from the UK. I wrote my first novel, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot while I was studying for my MA and PhD in linguistics – it was published in 2021 by Harper Perennial and since then I’ve been working on my second novel, Eddie Winston is Looking for Love. It tells the story of 90 year old Eddie who has never been kissed. It’s coming out at the end of December and I’m so excited for readers to meet Eddie!
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I remember a lesson at school in Year One (ages 5-6) where we had to write a story and mine was about a rabbit and I wrote pages and pages. I didn’t want the lesson to end because I wanted to finish the story. It was probably a very bad rip-off of Peter Rabbit, butI was so proud of it! Growing up, creating stories was my favourite thing in the world. I attempted my first novel at 17, then finished a YA novel at 21 that lives in a box in my attic.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: The first book I remember reading independently is a Famous Five book – I think it was Five on a Treasure Island – my mum had bought me a big set of them. I loved the Famous Five as a child, I was absolutely desperate to have adventures like they did.
- The one that made you want to become an author: There’s no one particular book that made me want to write because in a way, every book I’ve ever read has made me want to write. The seed was planted in my head from such a young age that by the time I was a teenager, it was already something I wanted to do. Although, as a teenager I adored the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson diary series by Louise Rennison. They never failed to make me laugh and there’s so much joy in finding books that completely immerse you in a character’s head.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I absolutely loved The Divorcees by Rowan Beaird this year. It’s a book about women living at a ‘divorce ranch’ in 1950s Nevada and it’s got this wonderful creeping sense of trouble throughout.
Your latest novel, Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love, is out December 31st! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
A whole lot of fun!
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect a whimsical book about friendship, first kisses, second chances and lost love. The book tells the story of Eddie Winston who is ninety years old and has never been kissed. He works in a charity shop where he meets Bella who is 24 years old and is donating her late boyfriend’s clothes. They strike up an unlikely friendship and when Bella learns that Eddie has never been kissed, she becomes determined to help Eddie Winston find love. It also has a ginger peruvian guinea pig with incredible hair.
Where did the inspiration for Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love come from?
The idea for this book came from the lyrics in a Scottish folk song! It’s a song called The Ramblin’ Rover by the band Silly Wizard and I played it a lot when I was writing by debut novel. And when I say ‘a lot’, I mean easily in the hundreds of times.
In 2021, when I was listening to music and trying to figure out what book two would be, the lyrics of this song really stood out to me. I’d often imagined this 90 year old man when I’d listened to the song, but that day I thought, well what would happen if in his 90th summer, he decided to try again to find his first kiss? And I was off!
These are the lyrics that inspired the book:
Oh there’s sober men aplenty
And drunkards barely twenty
There are men of over ninety
That have never yet kissed a girl.
But give me a rambling rover
Frae Orkney down to Dover
We will roam the country over
And together we’ll face the world.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved writing from Eddie’s perspective! It’s some of the most fun I’ve had writing. It was a long road to get to the idea for the book but once I found Eddie’s voice, I relaxed into it and had so much fun. He’s the kind of person who’d use the phrase ‘old bean’ and he’s a true gentleman, he’s whimsical and he views the world with a sunny perspective that made writing scenes with the blunt and slightly gothically-minded Bella really fun.
Did you face any challenges? How did you overcome them?
Usually when I start writing a book, I have an idea of the final line. That happened with Eddie, except that even though I had final line I liked, I had no idea how he would get there! I tried so many different variations of paths Eddie could take to get to the ending that felt right for the book. It took about a year to work out how he got to where he needed to be.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on book three! I’m experimenting with a slight sidestep in genre to something a little spooky but I’m only 20,000 words in, so that might all change! It usually takes me to about 50,000 words to be completely sure of where a book is going.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up in 2025?
I love Jess Kidd’s writing and she has a new crime series – Murder at Gulls Nest coming out in 2025 which I’m very excited for. I adored Maz Evans’ adult debut Over My Dead Body and her next book That’ll Teach Her is very high on my list too. I also haven’t yet got around to reading Jacqueline Wilson’s Think Again and I can’t wait for it as I was a huge fan of her writing growing up. The Midnight Carousel by Fiza Saeed McLynn sounds deliciously gothic too.
