Can a little Cornish village panto convince a troubled Hollywood heart throb to act again?
Oh no it won’t! At least that’s what Zach Broussard initially thinks when the eccentric Anna Teague tries to railroad him into helping out with her community pantomime production in the run-up to Christmas. Zach has his reasons for leaving Hollywood behind, and his retreat to the remote village of Polcarne in Cornwall signals the start of a new acting free life for him.
But when Zach meets Anna’s daughter, Rosey – an ex concert pianist who has swapped Mozart for panto tunes – he starts to wonder whether he could change his mind, and not just about acting.
If nothing else, will the residents of Polcarne ensure Zach has a Christmas he never forgets?
Oh yes they will!
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Guest Post
Hello again Els and thank you so much for joining in the lovely blog tour for my new book, A Little Christmas Panto. The story is set in a small Cornish village, similar to the one where I grew up and centres around a pantomime. In the dim, distant past I did indeed dance around the stage in the junior chorus for several years!
One of my main characters is Zach Broussard, a troubled Hollywood star who has come to Cornwall in an effort to restructure his life. I thought your readers might be interested in hearing a little about his very non-Hollywood family background. In this extract he’s answering Rosey’s question about how his family decorate their home for the holidays and she finds out a lot more than simply that :
‘Oh Lord, the Christmas decorations were always an ongoing battle back home until my folks came to a compromise.’ Zach’s rumbling laugh filled the room. ‘Now Mama gets to decorate the entrance hall and living room as she wants – we’re talkin’ tasteful and traditional – and Papa gets free rein on the rest of the house. His efforts are colourful to say the least. He totally goes back to his Cajun roots so everything is decked out in purple and gold for LSU – Louisiana State University. The Broussards are die-hard fans.’ Zach shook his head. ‘It about killed him when I went to college at Juilliard in New York. He was torn because he knew how prestigious a school it is and how few kids get in, but deep down he felt I’d betrayed my culture.’
She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten the power of Zach’s charismatic smile in the ten or so days since they’d broken up. Despite her best intentions, she melted. ‘Wasn’t he born and brought up in Tennessee the same as you?’
‘Yeah, but that’s irrelevant. According to him, if your heritage is Cajun, you’ll never be anythin’ else. The only saving grace was that I didn’t choose my mom’s alma mater, the University of Tennessee. See, the two schools are longstanding college football rivals and UT players tremble when the schedule sets them up to play at Death Valley – that’s the nickname for the LSU stadium in Baton Rouge.’
This was the most animated she’d seen him talking about anything that wasn’t connected with acting.
I suspect most of my non-American readers will be baffled by the idea of university sports’ teams inspiring such fierce loyalties. It’s something that my husband tried to explain when we first met but to a very non-sporting person like myself it was hard to get my head around. I somehow doubt any of you drive 8 hours each way to go to a football game but that’s what my husband and youngest son did a couple of weeks ago. As coincidence would have it they had already planned to go to a UT v LSU game so they were under instructions to take pictures so I could share them with you. Apparently if you play in Tiger Stadium then you need a tiger as your mascot:
Here are Richard and Mark outside the stadium gates
Believe it or not this stadium seats over 102,000 people and this photo gives you some idea of the size. And if you have an awesome stadium nickname why not intimidate the opposition by putting Welcome to Death Valley up in bright lights!
On this occasion let’s just say Zach’s father wouldn’t have been happy with the outcome of the game!
So there’s a little fun insight into American culture mixed with a touch of Christmas and I hope you enjoy reading Rosey and Zach’s story – Oh Yes I Do!
Thank you
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About the author
Angela grew up in Cornwall, England and returns frequently from her new home in Nashville, Tennessee to visit family and friends, drink tea and eat far too many Cornish pasties!
A lifelong love of reading turned into a passion for writing contemporary romance and her novels are usually set in the many places she’s visited or lived on her extensive travels. Thanks to over three decades of marriage to her wonderful American husband she’s a huge fan of transatlantic romance and always makes sure her characters get their own happy-ever-after.
She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Romance Writers of America and the Music City Romance Writers. Her first novel ‘Truth and Consequence’ was published in 2006 and she’s now had over 30 novels published internationally and several short stories in women’s magazines.
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Author Links
www.facebook.com/angelabritnell
www.twitter.com/angelabritnell
Instagram as Angela Golley Britnell
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Book Link
https://mybook.to/alittlechristmaspanto
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