Imogen says 'Thank you and goodbye!!'

THANK YOU all so very much for the messages of congratulation you've posted both here and on other blogs. Reading them all has been so fabulous and touching and... well, I'd better stop myself right there before I come over all Gwyneth Paltrow. May I just say in a very British, stiff-upper-lip kind of way that it has made the whole event even more special and memorable, and I am truly grateful to everyone. And not just for the congratulations over the past few days, but the support and encouragement beforehand too. Thank you. (sniff. xxx.)

So now I've come to the bit when I have to say goodbye. Well, not me exactly, but Imogen.

The day after I got the call my lovely, lovely editor (eek-- will I ever get tired of saying that??!) rang again. Given that I was fully expecting her to apologise and say that they'd changed their minds about accepting the book it came as something of a relief to find that the only thing they wanted to reconsider was my name. Imogen was thought to be too difficult for non-English speakers to read and pronounce. Could I think of another one?

I wasn't going to say no. (I think she could have asked me to run down the M6 in my underwear and I would have agreed. Happily.) Besides, I've always found the whole idea of changing my name enormously appealing. When I was in the infants I remember yearning passionately to be called Rosebud, though by the time I had achieved the vast maturity and sophistication that comes with being about 7 I had swung more towards Cynthia... Anyway, sadly neither of those seemed quite right anymore. And I'd already decided I wanted to keep my own initials.

Did you know there are surprisingly few girls' names beginning with I? (apart from the obvious-- Isobel which is lovely, but has family connections.) In a way I suppose that made it easier to arrive at...

India.

India Grey.

So. What do you think?