On Wednesday, 24th May, it was revealed that Il Portico (an Italian restaurant in Kensington, West London) is to appear in the next Strike novel, The Running Grave, due to be published later this year.
James Chiavarini, the owner of the restaurant, has held fundraising events for Jo’s charities at Il Portico. She described Il Portico as ‘one of the best Italian restaurants in London’ and said that it ‘features in the next Strike novel’. She also joked that ‘James didn’t know this; it was supposed to be a surprise, but hey ho’.
In the same tweet, Jo announced a competition to win an all expenses paid dinner for four at Il Portico. She asked for her followers’ ‘most entertaining (or accurate, or insightful, or amusingly bonkers) predictions for what happens in #TheRunningGrave’ and gave a deadline of 10 o’clock that evening.
Hundreds of people entered the competition, and Jo liked and replied to a lot of the tweets over the course of the evening.
Shortly after the 10 pm deadline, she shortlisted four tweets:
She then said that she couldn’t choose between them and announced that all four shortlisted winners would receive the prize.
Amazingly, one of the winning tweets was written by StrikeFans contributor @LudicrousMonica. She booked a table at Il Portico in the autumn and is looking forward to what is bound to be a fantastic meal. We’re very grateful to Jo for her generosity. We will report back and let you know how it goes. In the meantime, if you’re in London and fancy some authentic Italian food in a relaxed and friendly setting, then why not book a table at Il Portico?
Visit Il Portico’s website at www.famigliaportico.co.uk/