Christmas has gone, but Santa is still delivering. CHRIS TITLEY talks to a romantic novelist with royal friends...

IT is fair to say Santa Montefiore has connections. The author is not, she is at pains to point out, the goddaughter of Prince Charles, as some in the press have suggested. But he is a close family friend. How close can be seen in Santa's presence at some of the Prince's key engagements in recent years.

Her own wedding to the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore in October 1998 was the most high profile event Charles attended with Camilla Parker-Bowles after the death of Princess Diana.

And Santa was there again in June 2001 when the Prince first publicly played a supporting role for Mrs Parker-Bowles, at a London charity event.

Santa's parents, Charles and Patti, met the Prince in Klosters when she was about six, and on family visits she would use the Highgrove gardens as a playground.

But despite this closeness, Santa the novelist is not one to play on her relationship with Prince Charles.

"I give him a copy of all my books," she admits. "But I would never expect him to read them."

One connection she does not mind trading on (with tongue in cheek) is the fact her sister is Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (it is a jaw-aching thought, but if she had kept her maiden name, she would be Santa Palmer-Tomkinson-Sebag-Montefiore: not great for your dust jacket).

Tara, self-styled "It-girl" and darling of both tabloid and broadsheet national newspaper editors, made a splash towards the end of last year in ITV1's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

Santa, a former PR assistant, realised this was opportunity for some wonderful publicity for The Butterfly Box, her latest book.

"She took Butterfly Box on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! I was longing for her to hold it up and say 'go and buy this book, I can't put it down'."

Instead, Santa was taken aback by what Tara told fellow contestant Tony Blackburn: "She said, 'My sister and brother, they're so respectable. I have always felt inadequate with them.

"And he said, 'Tara, look at you. Who knows who they are?'

"I was thinking, oh god, I hope some people do know so they can read my books."

There are two books so far, and another on the way in March. And she can truthfully say they have been published on merit, and not because of those connections.

She submitted the manuscript of the first, Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree, to publishers under the pseudonym Miss X.

Why?

"Because of my name and sister Tara, I was very worried if it wasn't good enough they'd say, no problem, we can sell it because of your sister.

"If it wasn't good enough, it would have appeared in the gossip columns: poor Santa, trying to join her sister in the limelight and failing miserably."

In fact, the book set off a bidding war, and she was given a two-book advance of £150,000. When the Ombu Tree was published, one critic declared Santa to be "the new Rosamunde Pilcher".

The book, an epic, multi-generational romantic saga, drew heavily on her time spent in Argentina with extended family.

"I knew that people would be expecting a shopping-type novel, an It-Girl around London novel. I was excited that people would see it and think, gosh, that's unexpected."

She followed that quickly with The Butterfly Box, published at the end of last year in paperback. It is another sweeping narrative, which takes the reader from Chile to Cornwall.

Six-year-old Frederica adores her adventurer father. But her mother Helena, disenchanted by her husband's long absences, returns to Cornwall with her children. Frederica's only connection with her father is the box containing crystals in the shape of a butterfly.

Years later, when Frederica falls in love and marries the dominating Torquil Jensen, she begins a painful journey of self-discovery, and finally learns the lesson of the butterfly box.

It is a story told across continents, with grand themes and strong emotions. So does Santa feel annoyed to be called a romantic novelist, a genre looked down upon by some in the literary establishment?

"People love to pigeonhole people. This is different because it doesn't fall into conventional women's fiction.

"I would like to think it's more than that. I don't mind being pigeonholed as long as people buy it and enjoy it."

The family as both heartbreaker and rock is key to her books. It is clear her own family is very important to Santa; they needed to be strong when Tara's hit much-publicised problems with drugs and men.

"The family comes into its own," said Santa. "You take the rough with the smooth."

As a novelist she is prolific. The girl who began by writing "love stories at school for really spotty boyfriends" will see her third book, The Forget-Me-Not Sonata, published in March (£14.99). And the fourth's in the bag.

Her London flat must be a hive of activity. Husband Simon is stuck into his biography of Stalin, due out in July.

"I have a small flat with a toddler and another baby on the way," explains Santa. "There's one sitting room and a dining room. We work in the dining room. He works at the desk and I work at the dining room table."

Sounds idyllic. Simon even helps her overcome plot obstacles. But it is not all plain sailing: he likes to listen to David Bowie.

"I can't work to David Bowie, I need something unobtrusive. He loves Sixties music: that's where we disagree."

The Butterfly Box by Santa Montefiore is published by Coronet, price £6.99

Updated: 10:32 Wednesday, January 08, 2003