I left her in Paris with her children and Roux, once more reconciled to herself, at peace with her past and half-convinced that she has managed to find a way to settle down –īut with Vianne, things are never that easy. But thanks to Zozie de l’Alba, a malignant free spirit with an appetite for other peoples’ lives, Vianne was finally forced to confront both her enemy and her fears. Living in Paris under an alias, with her daughter Anouk and another, four-year-old daughter, Rosette, Vianne seemed to have lost both her direction and her identity. In The Lollipop Shoes, we found Vianne four years on from the events described in Chocolat. I’m connected to all my characters, of course, but somehow Vianne Rocher is the one who keeps dropping in unexpectedly, embroiling me in her affairs (often against my better judgement) and demanding my time and attention. Even now, I’m not convinced that Vianne has entirely finished with me – there may be more about her some day (or indeed, about Anouk and Rosette) we are linked, she and I, in ways that I don’t always fully understand. But as I finished the book, I knew that what I’d done was worse than that I’d written the second instalment of what would be a trilogy. It isn’t always easy for a writer to revisit the characters they have created – time changes all of us, and sometimes it’s easier not to look back. As I was writing The Lollipop Shoes, I realized that I was creating a dangerous precedent.
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