PENNY Smith's first novel – Coming Up Next – tells the tale

of an attractive 40-something breakfast TV presenter with a

quirky line in jokes, a loving family and a sweet tooth.

Sure, she also happens to have slept her way to the top and

has just been shafted by her bosses in favour of a younger

model, but other than that, Katie Fisher cuts a startlingly

realistic figure.

In fact, she brings to mind a certain other 40-something

breakfast TV presenter with a quirky line in jokes...

"It is a NOVEL!" protests Penny Smith, fiercely, cutting

through my train of thought.

I get the impression she's had to say this to a lot of

people.

"It's based on 20 years in the business. It's not based on

GMTV.

"It's true, I am vaguely like her. But she likes cakes; I

like puddings. They're completely different things."

And there's Katie's sense of humour, I point out... and her

obsessive neatness...

"Yes, we both like bad jokes," admits Penny. "And I am very

tidy."

"But on screen, she's the consummate professional," I add

(Penny's been GMTV's newsreader for 15 years, her

easy-going/easy-on-the-eye presence having proved hugely

successful at easing Britons into their day).

"Yes, she's very good at her job," says Penny.

"... despite having slept her way to the top," I add.

"Well that's why I say she's not really me," she

concludes.

Since Penny never strikes you as anything but a lady, you

would have to concur with her view that this is the major

difference between herself and her heroine.

But despite Katie's bed-hopping, their backgrounds and

career paths are remarkably similar.

They both have a stable, middle-class family background

(Katie in Yorkshire, Penny in Eastwood, before moving to

Rutland aged six). Both trod the journalistic path of local

papers (Penny was on the Peterborough Evening Telegraph) and

radio (she also did a stint on Trent FM) before moving into

TV.

In the book, Katie is the "female half" of a cosy sofa

partnership on Hello Britain! before being ousted for a

frighteningly ambitious Keera.

So why focus on this world in her new novel? Wasn't it

asking for trouble?

"There was a point, about five months ago, when I thought,

'What on earth have I done? Is this a mistake?'" she

admits.

"But I think TV is a world that excites a lot of people. I

asked myself, 'Why shouldn't I write about it when I know more

than most other people do about that world?'"

She must have been aware, though, that parallels would be

drawn between her fictional characters and the household names

among whom she works.

Already, several articles have dared to venture the idea

that "Mike", Katie's preening, sharp-tempered sofa sidekick is

Penny's take on Eamonn Holmes, something she has wholeheartedly

denied.

"It's not GMTV," she insists. "We all get on really well,

despite what you read.

"I had a launch party for the book and even those who

couldn't make it sent me congratulatory text messages. Fiona

[Phillips] said she felt like a proud parent and Lorraine

[Kelly] said congratulations."

Was she hoping to make a point, then, about the

style-over-substance world of broadcasting?

Not really, she says, seeming to consider this

self-evident.

"Let's face it, we would be extraordinarily stupid if we

thought presenters were employed because of their brains.

"It's based on all sorts of other things, including

looks."

For women, more than men?

"I think it's about the same," she ponders. "Name me a male

presenter who would frighten the horses."

I name her one who might startle them a little, despite

being a very watchable presenter, but she's having none of

it.

"Oh – I think he's rather sweet," she says. "Anyway, there

are some women around who aren't traditionally gorgeous...

although that makes me sound as if I think I am. Let's just say

you have to be OK-looking."

So does Penny think she's set to be shafted?

"Of course I worry I'm going to be replaced but it's the

same fear I've had in every job I've ever had," she

confides.

"Ever since I was 14 and working in a petrol station in

Rutland, I've had this fear I was going to get the sack."

At least she's got an alternative career as a writer now, I

say, trying to look on the bright side.

Indeed, Coming Up Next is part of a two-book deal and will

have a sequel which Penny's currently working on. It has a

working title of What Katie Did Next.

She wrote Coming Up Next's first draft in three weeks last

year.

"My theory was, I'd sit down every day and write 5,000 words

on the basis they could always be changed," she says.

She'd wanted to write novels since the age of seven and her

days as an Enid Blyton addict.

"That's why the dedication is to my Year Two teacher Mrs

Winsor," she says. "I used to write reams of stories for her at

school and she told me to dedicate my first novel to her – so I

did!"

Her journalistic background helped her work to her

self-imposed deadlines on the novel. This career includes two

years as a roving reporter at Radio Trent, during which she

lived in the Embankment area.

One of her novel's characters, Katie's nemesis, the vile but

beautiful Keera, was born in Nottingham.

"I was desperate to mention the word Nottingham because I

love the city," Penny says, simply. "I had a lovely time there.

My mum's from West Bridgford anyway and I just wanted to name

the city somewhere in the book."

So Keera isn't reminiscent of any unpleasant characters she

encountered while living here?

"Absolutely not!"

She doesn't get back to Nottingham much nowadays but she

does get updates on the city from her colleague, Priya

Kaur-Jones, also from Nottingham, who joined GMTV 18 months

ago.

"She says there are about 500,000 more flats than when I

lived there!" she says.

Penny now lives in West London with her partner of seven

years ("I don't talk about him, though").

Coming Up Next would not, she says, win the Booker Prize.

"But it's the sort of book I like to read and I hope other

people are enjoying it too."

It seems they are; it currently lies at number seven in the

Sunday Times bestseller list.

Typically, Penny is wary of blowing her own trumpet too

much.

"Lots of people are buying it, which is good," she says,

cautiously. She has been careful about what reviews she reads.

"I find it quite difficult when people say horrid things."

All of my friends have been lovely about it – but if they

didn't like it, they probably wouldn't tell me!"

Coming Up Next by Penny Smith is published by Harper

Perennial, priced £6.99.