The RNA Honours its Best

It’s Thursday as I write this and I’ve just received news of the death of Terry Pratchett. While this piece is not dedicated to him I couldn’t let his passing go unacknowledged. Others far more qualified than I am have written dedications to this prolific writer who gave so much pleasure to so many millions. May he rest in peace.

Hard to change moods but if anything can lift the spirits it’s a Romantic Novelists Association’s event and I am looking forward immensely to the next one which will take place on the evening of Monday, 16^th March (the day this piece will be posted). The RONA awards will be presented, as they were last year, in the Gladstone Library at the National Liberal Club. One needs only to step into the building to know it’s a special place and it’s going to be a very special occasion. I can say this with assurance as I attended the event last year so I have a very good idea of what’s in store.

From left to right
Natalie Kleinman, Elaine Roberts, Elaine Everest, Vivien Hampshire & Francesca Capaldi-Burgess
at the 2014 Romantic Novel of the Year Awards Evening

As the world of romantic fiction prepares to gather to acknowledge its own I will not pick out any individual names. There are five categories with six short-listed in each, plus the Rona Rose for a shorter novel. Each contender has gone through a rigorous assessment by readers to be chosen initially in their own group and finally one will be chosen as the best of the best from all six groups as winner of the Romantic Novel of the Year. But already all are winners. The rest of us will be nourished by delicious wine and canapes, entertained by presenters and speakers and enjoy again an evening of glitz and glamour such as only the RNA can do.

I hope to see many of you there later this evening. In the meantime…what on earth shall I wear?