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 31^st! 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 90^th 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.

Will you be picking up Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Marianne Cronin, Author of ‘Eddie Winston Is Looking For Love’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

So much of the love that is captured in literature (and in all forms of art) is that of romantic love. Passion, adoration, and falling in love – that half-madness, that visceral ache – are all dazzling subject matters, and can change our lives. But there is another, arguably more prevalent kind of love that, I feel, deserves a little more attention: that of deep friendship. In my latest book, The Night in Question, I wanted to examine all the adventure, love and sorrow of a single human life. Florrie Butterfield is eighty-seven and, these days, easily overlooked; yet I wanted to show how rich in experience her life has been, for better or worse – how rich her life still is. Above all, I wanted to explore all the love that she’s felt, in her nine decades – and whilst yes, Florrie has had her love affairs and broken hearts, it is the lifelong love of her best friend, Pinky, which stands out.

Our dearest female friends are our confidantes, our partners-in-crime, our cheerleaders and saviours; they laugh and grieve with us; they forgive our clumsy mistakes. Unlike partners, there is no wedding ring with which a friend may announce their love, no public promise to love us all their lives. Yet, very often, friends will love us forever: they stay because they choose to and have no wish to go. Whilst such friendships may, sometimes, seem in the background of our lives, they are faithful, unchanging – and can be (as with Florrie and Pinky) one of our greatest gifts.

Below are five novels which all capture and explore all the messy, complicated, wondrousness of close female friendships. I loved them all.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin

There’s such sunshine and kindness in this luminous novel from the 1920s. Four women – strangers, and of differing age and circumstance – arrive to spend the summer at a castle on the Italian coast. The Mediterranean climate, the wisteria and each other’s company (and, too, the absence of their menfolk) all have a transformative effect on these four women’s lives. It’s a novel that celebrates nascent female empowerment, as well as the joy and support that women can bring each other.

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

1979 in Yorkshire, England – and a killer is on the loose. In an effort to identify the culprit, twelve-year-old Miv and her best friend Sharon decide to make a list of anything (or anyone) suspicious in their neighbourhood. What follows is a sharp-eyed, moving account of two friends on the cusp of adolescence with all its insecurities, paranoia, misunderstandings and fervent loyalty – as well as a crystallised depiction of northern England in the late 70s.

100 Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

This debut shines for its characterisation. Lenni (aged seventeen) and Margot (aged eighty-three) might make for an unlikely coupling – but they have similar personalities: indomitable, spirited, secretly lonely and frustrated by their circumstances. There’s a freshness to their story which never falls into mawkishness or sentimentality – and the effect that their friendship has on both of them is beautifully handled. The novel celebrates human connection and its importance in a happy, nourishing life.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

The term ‘friendship’ may not initially feel the right word for the relationship that forms between a scientist Marina and her former mentor, Dr Annick Swenson – who meet again, after many years, in the depths of the Amazon rainforest. The women’s exchanges are brittle, at first, and distrusting. Yet, as the plot of this extraordinary novel unfolds, the mutual respect, concern and tenderness that grows between Marina and Annick reminds us that close, platonic bonds can be wholly unexpected – and do not have to last a lifetime to have a lasting effect.

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

Edi is in terminally ill, dying in a hospice, and her best friend Ash is right by her side, bringing jokes, watermelon ice cubes, observations about hot doctors – all whilst managing her own immeasurable grief. It sounds like a humourless read; but, in fact, this astounding novel is witty, irreverent, riotous, gentle – and so full of love that it is, at times, hard to breathe for it. One dreads, as Ash does, the inevitable. But when it comes, the bond between Ash and Edi remains. It is a huge, reverberating love song to female friendship – and suggests that maybe no-one can ever truly know you as well as your closest friend.

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