When Toby and Holly had troubled times, it was absolutely heartbreaking and so real to read her emails begging for him not to leave. You could feel the platonic love between Holly and her best friend, Jason. You could tell how cold Toby was sometimes by his short, uninterested emails. The format of the book, being entirely told through emails, made the 525 pages fly by! I wouldn't have thought that a book with a so-called gimmick would be so emotional! I really think that instead of being gimmicky, the author used the format to cut right to the chase, no beating around the bush. And the worst thing is that Toby hasn't even noticed she has a new job! When she unexpectedly gets a promotion, even more backstabbing starts. She has a few office nemeses, but her friendships with Jason and Aisha keep her afloat. Her love life is chugging along slowly with her boyfriend, Toby. Holly doesn't have the job her parents expect her to have, she's a receptionist. I hope they can't - it makes me happier that I've achieved something then - I loved writing it - I think my sense of humour is much more in line with women's and I totally stink at writing like a man (I've been trying to get something published my whole life as a man and failed miserably). Maybe they can't, or maybe Marian Keyes is a balding rugby player from Bath.

What would you say to people who claim that men can't write chick lit? So if any of your readers have read it and now want to comment - they'll be the first to let me know. Nothing yet, it's a fairly new revelation - the book is about to be launched on June 1 in the USA - and at the last minute they decided they didn't mind everyone knowing I'd written it. What has been the response to people finding out that Holly's creator is actually a man?

The life she was leading was so full of mystery, intrigue, romance (and many many lies) that it made me wonder what it would be like to read a story told in this way.Ģ. We discovered she was married with four children, and couldn't stand the sight of us.

The woman in question was single, extremely flirtatious and had always loved us to bits. The idea for the site came one day when we had to trawl through an ex-employee's work email account. The character Holly isn't based on anyone in particular, however I think a lot of her quirkiness has come from my wife - she's very quirky.

Holly Denham is a fictional author created by Bill Hutton-Surie.ġ.

Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham