JULY/AUGUST 2004

NEWSLETTER 11

Work in Progress

Well, rather like Odysseus himself, I've taken a very long time to get to the harbour at Ithaka! My novel Ithaka is very nearly finished and within the next couple of weeks, I think I will be able to send it off at last. It's somehow a little difficult to write during the summer holidays when everyone is sunning themselves and taking time off, but there's no earthly reason why I shouldn't buckle down and do it all except for my natural laziness. I am determined to overcome this because even more pleasurable than doing nothing is the feeling of having done something...once you've actually done it! Then it will be back to thinking about my third adult novel, which is no more at the moment than a few very vague thoughts at the back of my mind.

Stop Press!

Here's the cover of HESTER'S STORY, which will be published in December 2004..

Events

There are only two events to write about this time. The afternoon at Sale Library in June was very enjoyable for me, but mainly because it was a chance to see the magnificent waterside site of the library and to catch up with some friends (Sherry Ashworth and Melvin Burgess) and to meet Paul Magrs, the author of Strange Boy who is coming to work up here in Manchester at the Metropolitan University. He will be a really good addition to the roster of Manchester Writers. We are not an official group but like to get together for lunch now and then...the best sort of association. The numbers for the event were very disappointing but we all had fun and so, I think, did those people who did come. The organization by Manchester Libraries was very good and the buffet they laid on for us before the event was delicious.

At the end of June, I travelled down to Gloucester at the invitation of Ottakar's in Gloucester (together with the Stroke Association) to speak at a literary dinner at the Stonehouse Lodge Hotel alongside Katie Fforde. Ann Waller of Ottakar's met me and drove me to the venue, which is a beautiful listed building near Stroud. I had about half an hour to iron my dress and get down to the bar to meet Katie and her husband Desmond. We managed a gin and tonic before the event started and I knew from the very first that this was going to be a really delightful evening. We were introduced to Michael Macmahon of the Stroke Association and also to other guests and then went in to eat a great meal which ended up with sticky toffee pudding...lovely! Katie spoke first and told us all about how she started out as a writer. She's a warm and friendly person and a very accomplished speaker: funny, engaging and sensible with it. I agreed with so much of what she said that it was hard not to shout out 'hear hear' from time to time. It was a hard act to follow but I regaled the diners with stories of how much better the food became when you swapped school lunches for literary dinners. I also spoke about some other differences between life as a children's writer and as someone on the adult list. Katie and I signed books afterwards and altogether it was a super evening and I'm very grateful to Ann and everyone at Ottakar's and also to the Stroke Association for inviting me to take part in it. Something Ottakar's did which I really appreciated was this: they gave us books as a thank you present instead of, say, a bunch of flowers, which would have been very cumbersome to take back on the train. Books also, of course, last longer than flowers.

I went down to London to discuss the Guardian Children's Book Prize shortlist with my fellow judges, Mark Haddon and Marcus Sedgwick and the chair, Julia Eccleshare. The books we chose to be on the longlist may be found on the Guardian's web site and as for the shortlist and the winner, well, you will have to wait for news of those for a little while longer.

News and Forthcoming Events

It's a quiet time of year for events but I will mention a couple of things that are in the pipeline.

On September 17th, as part of the Youth Libraries Group G conference at New Hall, Cambridge, Linda Newbery, Ann Turnbull and I will be talking about the Historical House books.

On September 27th, I'm at Ottakar's in Truro as part of the Cornwall festival called Wonderful Words. This event is at 7.00 pm. I will visit a local school the next morning before coming home.

In October I'm at the Cheltenham Festival. On Sunday October 10th, I'm appearing with Rachel Billington in a late afternoon event. On Monday 11th, I'm doing a creative writing workshop and then a school event with Linda Newbery and Ann Turnbull for Usborne, who are the publishers of the Historical House books. Check the web site for details of times etc. nearer to the date. www.cheltenhamfestivals.co.uk

On October 17th, I am appearing on a panel with other writers, including Kate Long, the author of the Bad Mother's Handbook, at the Chester Festival. Again, have a look at their web site for details nearer the time. www.chesterfestivals.co.uk

Books

Apart from all the books I've been reading for review and for the Guardian Prize (see above) there has been no shortage of wonderful stuff. My Australian email buddy, Sophie Masson, sent me a wonderful book called Snow, Fire, Sword, which is set in a mythical version of Indonesia. Much of the description of the landscape reminded me of Borneo. This book is published by Random House Australia but I'm sure will soon be available to young readers over here too. And of course, there's always Amazon! Another Aussie book I'm reading and enjoying at this very moment is a thriller called The Brush-off by Shane Maloney. It's published here by Canongate. If you like Carl Hiassen, you'll like this. It's told in a very funny first person voice and there were several times when I nearly fell out of bed laughing. Another novel of his, called The Big Ask, is on the shelf and waiting.

There was a bit of attention given to Mailman by J Richard Lennon when it came out here but not nearly enough. It's a fantastic book, by an American writer, all about a Mailman...postman... and his life. Sounds thrilling? Don't knock it till you've tried it. Mailman isn't like any postie you've ever met...or maybe he is, which is even more worrying. It's unusual and gripping stuff which I heartily recommend.

A prize-winning French thriller called Holy Smoke by Tonino Benacquista was very unusual and well-written and I liked it a lot. I've devoured more British and US thrillers than I'd care to count and this makes a very interesting change. It won three prestigious prizes in France and it's good to see it in translation and available here.

Katie Fforde sent my daughter, whom she knows, her book Restoring Grace after the event we did together, but I read it first. It's delightful and will please particularly lovers of fine wine and happy endings. She has such a light touch and her characters are believable and rounded.

Elizabeth Buchan can also always be relied upon for a good story and interesting characters. That Certain Age is her latest book and won't disappoint her many fans. This one is a sort of dual carriageway of a novel, with two lives unfolding: one in the Forties and Fifties and one in the present day. One thing links them, right at the very end of the novel: an intriguing idea well executed. A mention in the book of Fuller's Walnut cake sent me straight back to my own childhood in a very Proustian way.

An American writer I like very much is Patricia Gaffney. Her Circle of Three and Flying Lessons are both marvellous and her new book is called The Goodbye Summer. It's perhaps not quite as terrific as those two but still most enjoyable.

A novel set in the world of movie agents in Hollywood by two friends, Mimi Hare and Clare Naylor, called The Second Assistant, is huge fun. Full of sharp, sassy lines and with a good pacey plot, it is just the thing for anyone who's movie struck in any way.

One of the books I was given by Ottakar's (see above) was Daughters of Jerusalem by Charlotte Mandelson, who is a fiction editor as well as being a very good novelist. The story is set in Oxford and it's about a family which is dysfunctional in ways particular to academic families. We grow to love and understand every one of the characters we meet and the book's depiction of the various kinds of love which can afflict us is both moving and shrewd. It's a very different sort of book from any other Oxford novel I've ever read and I will try and read more by this fascinating writer. In the blurb it's called a 'black comedy' but I have to confess I found it almost unbearably sad in many ways. Marvellous stuff.

I have recently discovered Amanda Brookfield. Her latest novel is called Relative Love and I couldn't put it down. It's about a family and by the end of the novel you feel as though you know every one of them as well as you know your own relations. Super stuff and just the thing to pack in your suitcase if you are still pre-holiday. It's long enough to be truly satisfying but not too heavy to put in your handbag. I wish Amanda Brookfield had a web site so that I could write and tell her that I really admired this book... perhaps she might see this. I hope so. I have now bought a book of hers called A Family man and I'm delighted to see from the back that there are lots more of her novels still to be enjoyed.

I am about to read Sea Music by Sara Macdonald. It looks as though it is exactly my cup of tea. The author lives in Cornwall and I hope very much to meet her when I go down there in September.

There will be another newsletter at the end of October.

Till then,

Goodbye!

Adèle Geras

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