As a former English Lit student, how proud was I to get this email?!

Dear Carmen,

I chose English literature as my subject, and my topic is a bit complicated: How has the portrayal of London changed in English Literature from the 19th till the 21st century, especially in the eye of Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist, Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway and Carmen Reid: The Personal Shopper?

I am honoured!

Many of you lovely people have been dropping me a line to say how much you’re enjoying catching up with Annie again in How Not To Shop. Here are just a couple of messages.

Carmen…….just finished reading “Did the Earth Move?”, I have read all your others as well…..I must say, they are brilliant. The characters seem to weave their way into my psyche all day long until I can pick up the book again and see what is actually happening. I hate for them to end, like losing a friend. Write faster! I will be going through withdrawal! Mary R.S.

I have just come back from a week’s holiday in Scotland and although the weather was wet and windy I loved it. mainly because i spent the week reading first “the personal shopper” and then I rushed to Aberdeen to buy “late night shopping” i finished them both and am now a HUGE fan and can’t wait to read more. Thank you for making my holiday so fantastic i literally couldn’t put the books down. Thank you Heather x

(Heather, trust me, I felt your rain pain. I always tell people to holiday in Scotland in May, June or September. That’s when we get our good weather. July/ August is monsoon season on the west coast!)

Loads of things going on this month as the third Annie Valentine is released: How Not To Shop comes with the chance to win an Egyptian holiday (and if like me you’ve spent much of the summer in Glasgow – you might be needing something like that).

Rush to your nearest branch of Faith and they will give you a special edition of The Personal Shopper for free if you spend over £30 (easily done, I have been on their website and checked those shoes out… and they do big sizes. Gone are the days when you went to any shoe shop, asked for a size 8 and the shop assistant’s eyes popped from her head in astonishment – I’m still slightly scarred though.)

The lovely people at ultra-stylish Scottish Woman magazine have put me on their shortlist for witty Scottish Woman of the Year. I still can’t believe that… anyway, you can find out more if you follow this link. Hey, you can even vote and yes I will understand if you think Ronni Ancona is much more worthy!

Also, give this link a whirl if you’d like to read an interview with me from the Sunday Herald magazine. It’s incredibly nice, Susan Swarbrick was totally charming and no, I don’t have anything on her, she wrote this all of her own accord, honest! ‘Poster girl for yummy mummy chic’ oooh how my husband fell about laughing at that. He knows the grim reading glasses and ratty jeans reality!

Now, which photos can I use to enliven the August blog… I’m still missing New York, so here are another two from the holiday. The big plastic roach key-ring which was the gag of the fortnight: it ended up in everyone’s shoes, everyone’s bed, even Sam’s salad and my birthday presents. Eeek!

Then there are the family birthday cards… obviously cute dogs feature highly as we were all totally missing Jimmy by then!

If you’re in the mood for some retail therapy, what better way to treat yourself than with a new pair of shoes and a free book?

From 10th August, selected Faith stores will be giving away free copies of The Personal Shopper to customers who spend over £30 (while stocks last).

This week I have not just one, but two new books out. For a start, this has meant answering the door to the florist burdened with an enormous bunch of flowers from my publishers, not just once, daaaahlings, but twice!

Two bouquets on different days! How diva-ish is that?! I feel as if I should be reclining in a pink ball gown eating chocolates to do my flowers full justice.

But as always, real life gets in the way and I actually spent one publication morning rushing to the doctor’s with Sam because he’s had a strangely sore tummy for several days. Although the word appendicitis was flashing in my mind, our very nice GP assured us that it almost certainly wasn’t and now in my handbag I have a plastic sample bottle with a little plastic spoon attached to the lid. I think all the Mummies reading this know what that’s going to involve. Oh joy.

No, in fact there was some lounging on a velvet sofa in a pink dress for a photo shoot with The Sunday Times Scotland. We did the pictures in this highly glamorous boutique called Cruise and it just seemed rude not to try their beautiful clothes on.

So before you could say Prada, I was on the couch in a clingy Vivienne Westwood frock and fantasy shoes: the only pair that could be found in my size were Dior, gold, six inch, python, peep toes. Fortunately the photo doesn’t show the hideously un-pedicured state of my feet nor the rhino hide I seem to have developed on my knees. Phew!

Anyway, it is very exciting to see piles of Late Night Shopping in so many places… Woolworths, Waterstones, Borders. I just hope YOU, my lovely, lovely readers, like it. A lot of people grew very fond of Annie as they read The Personal Shopper and I really hope you’re going to enjoy her second book of adventures just as much.

Now get out there and buy a copy or two… or three!