Magic

I learnt a trick once. If you put something that you really wanted and then lost in an imaginary bubble and let it go, it will come back if it's the right thing to do.

I did it with the Nigella book. I had been offered the job when a biographer dropped out at the last minute and I was seconded to meet the pressing deadline. But, as my pen was poised to sign the contract, the editor's boss dashed my dreams and put his own favourite writer in place. I was gutted. I had dreams of dining with Nige and Charles, plates of her mother's roast chicken balanced on our knees in Tracy Emin's bed as we watched reruns of The West Wing. So when the phone rang and my would-have-been- editor told me I'd lost the gig, I dragged the kids out into the garden and told them to imagine me and Nigella arm in arm. We adjusted the view until we were both fondly smiling at each other, chatting happily about our mothers' favourite recipes and then I ordered them to put the vision in a bubble, close their eyes and repeat the mantra.

Refusing to let the rejection get me down, I decided to email the would-have-been-editor and ask her to meet me to discuss other projects. If she had liked my writing enough to give me the job in the first place, she should like me enough for another. She invited me for a coffee.

When I arrived, she was smiling almost the same smile as Nigella had done in my bubble. She told me that she was taking me to lunch, that the other writer didn't feel she could cope with the deadline and a small child and that if I wanted it, the job was mine.

I can't say, but I've just put something else I really, really wanted and lost in a bubble. I'll let you know if it comes back.