HOW I WRITE

Jo Thomas

‘Once you have the food and the setting, you add other ingredients’

As Jo Thomas celebrates 10 years of writing stories set in the most fabulous destinations, with food at their heart, we’ve also come to expect a happy ending – something Jo truly believes in. Her latest novel, Summer at the Ice Cream Café, is her 15th and sees Beca return to Pembrokeshire, only to find her grandparents’ ice cream parlour has changed beyond recognition. Determined to keep her family legacy alive, she sets up a pop-up cafe on the beach, and the adventures begin.

I really wanted to celebrate small food businesses in my new book. In Pembrokeshire, where I live, businesses work really hard diversifying and promoting fabulous local produce. Ice cream has played a big part in my life. My mother’s family were Italian ice cream sellers coming to live in London, and I wanted to weave them into a story. But really this is about a huge ice cream I had one day as a child, as big as my head. The memory of this amazing ice cream stays with me. My first job as a teenager was in an ice cream van, and I think the joy of handing out ice creams to happy smiling faces had a hand in this idea.

I’m happiest when I have a book on the go. I’m quite disciplined in my writing, working from early in the morning. But I think it’s the response you get from readers who love reading about food and friendship, love and fun that keeps me wanting to write more.

Writing a book is a bit like cooking dinner. You go to the fridge and see what you fancy. It starts with food, the main ingredient: oysters, olive oil,

Iberico ham. I believe once you find the food of a place, it takes you by the hand and introduces you to the people, the place, the community and the culture. Once you have the food and the setting, then you add other ingredients to get the flavour. The main character, the conflict and finally you have a dish to serve you hope people will enjoy.

I want to whisk people away – to go on a journey and know that there will be a happy ending. I want them to feel they’ve made friends along the way. But I also want readers to be able to relate to my characters. I want them to identify, whether it be emptynest syndrome or living with something like ADHD, or life after miscarriage. It’s not all sun hats and sangria. We all have stuff going on in our lives that we take on the journey through life. Life is hard, but it can also be happy, especially with laughter and love by our side.

Words on the page can be made into better words. You can’t improve a blank sheet of paper. Get something down – then make it better.

✢ Summer at the Ice Cream Café by Jo Thomas (£7.99, PB, Transworld) is out on 8 June.