APRIL 2005

NEWSLETTER 15

Work in Progress

I've now really got going on Made in Heaven and so far I'm enjoying it greatly. I hope the process continues to be this much fun through the next few months. Also during the last few weeks, I've gone over the copy-edited version of Ithaka for both the US and the UK editions. The book will be published in October in this country and next January in the USA. The long lead-in times for novels these days is something relatively recent, but marketing departments say it's essential. At the moment, I'm awaiting a cover image for the UK edition. I've seen about a dozen but none of them was thought right for the book, so it's back to the drawing-board. Literally.

Stop Press! It's been decided that both editions of ITHAKA will use the American cover image, and I'm very happy about that. It will be in the style of the US hardback edition of TROY and you can see how beautiful that is here.

click to see a larger version

Events

On February 23rd, I went down to Bath to do a Historical House event with Linda Newbery and Ann Turnbull at Prior Park College. Ann was unfortunately indisposed, but Linda and I had a great time. I was met at the station by Lara Price and her father, who was acting as a taxi driver on this occasion. They took me to the guesthouse where I met up with Linda and we went round to Lara's flat for a most delightful meal. The head of English from Prior Park College, Nigel, was there, and also Lara's husband, Steve. He is a teacher of circus skills and a terrific entertainer in his own right. He runs a firm called Pizzaz (click to email them) which provides fun for all ages. After dinner, he produced some chiffon-type scarves and Linda and I had our first juggling class. I can report that I was quite useless and Linda was very promising. It was a really super evening. Next morning, Linda and I went for a walk round Bath on a beautiful early spring day. We looked at all the lovely clothes we could have bought if we'd felt like it, went into Waterstone's where I signed some more copies of Hester's Story and bought a postcard to send to Ann. The events at the school went very well. First of all, both of us were interviewed by some girls from a school in the Forest of Dean for a radio station they themselves had set up. They asked very intelligent questions and the future of radio broadcasting is safe in their hands. Then Linda and I each spoke to a separate class which had been reading our books. My class had read Troy, and we had a good chat about it. A few days after I came home, I got a card from these pupils with a photograph on the front: a view of the spectacularly beautiful grounds. It's a splendid building altogether, and our last session was held in a very grand room indeed. The children were full of interest, tribute to the good work of the English department and the enthusiasm of Lara Price. There's nothing like a terrific librarian to get children eager to read books.

On March 3rd I spoke at the Greenwood Primary School in Northolt and that was a good day all round. I had a lot of nice letters after this event.

The King's Lynn Festival (March 12-13th) was brilliant. Orion very generously bought me a First Class ticket so that I could have a delicious breakfast on my (very early!) train, but wouldn't you know it, they don't serve breakfasts at the weekends. What a Giant Swizz! Still, I did get free coffee and biscuits and the whole carriage to myself. Stephanie Nettell came to meet me and we went to her house, where Alex Hamilton, her husband, was waiting. Their house and garden are lovely and Stephanie had prepared all sorts of delectable things for tea. Lunch was upstairs in a local pub and it was there I met the organizer of the Festival, Tony Ellis, and his wife, Lizzie, together with some of the other writers taking part: Beryl Bainbridge, Jane Gardam, and Maggie Gee among others.

After lunch, Jane Gardam and I spoke to about 80 people in a very impressive room. Stephanie chaired the event and I think people enjoyed it. I certainly did. Jane Gardam is one of my favourite writers, and she was also interesting and charming and wore (a bonus for me as a jewellery lover!) the most dazzling necklaces of turquoise and amber at various events through the weekend. After this, we went back to Stephanie and Alex's house and I ate a disgraceful number of cheese scones and too many slices of a cake called 'Stuffed Monkey'. I copied out the recipe and have made it at home, but mine wasn't a patch on Stephanie's. After the evening reading, we all went to a crowded party at Tony Ellis's house and retired to bed after midnight. The next day, before setting off on my long journey home, I heard Beryl Bainbridge being fascinating about her forthcoming novel, Christopher Bigsby speaking about Arthur Miller and took part in most of a discussion before I had to go off for my train. It was altogether a very good weekend and I'm grateful to Stephanie and Alex for their hospitality, to Tony Ellis for inviting me and to Orion for that First Class ticket.

On March 16th, I went to Chester and spoke during the lunch hour to some girls in the new library at Queen's School. I spoke and signed books and enjoyed being in a place where (again) the English staff and especially the librarian, Gillian Mayes, have created a climate where everyone seems to be keen on books and reading.

On March 23rd I spoke to a full house at Simply Books in Bramhall. This was mainly about Hester's Story but my children's books came in for some mention as well. There were, in the audience, several 'blasts from the past.' Sue Stern and I had our first babies within days of one another in the same hospital. A teacher from Rochdale whose school I visited in the early Eighties came bearing a copy of an out-of-print picture book of mine called A thousand yards of sea and Angela, to whom I'd taught French many many years ago now has a daughter who read my books. It was a smashing evening and I sold enough copies of Hester's Story to have it appear as Number Four in Simply Books' list of top ten bestsellers.

On April 11th, I travelled to Cobham in Surrey for Book Week at the American School. This is a most beautiful campus, which was looking its best on the day I was there, with landscaped gardens and a very well-appointed library looked after by yet another excellent librarian, Donna Lindo. Children speaking 26 different languages at home go to school here and they all seem to be having the best time. The pupils were keen and friendly, Donna was a kind and attentive hostess and lunch in the school canteen would have got gold stars from Jamie Oliver! I had a wonderful dish of pasta with olives and capers and the vegetables to go with it were oven-roasted courgettes and green beans. I had to have a chocolate brownie, as I was sort of on US territory and that was divine. My books were on sale, and I signed those before I went home.

On April 25, I was in the Lake District to speak to girls from my old school, Roedean. They were staying in a Youth Hostel on the shores of Derwentwater and the landscape all around was looking particularly beautiful on a perfect spring day. The lake was there in all its glory at the front; the waterfall created by the original owner of the property was visible from the dining-room and there were birds everywhere. Both pupils and teachers were enthusiastic and welcoming and the girls produced some very good work, too. I really enjoyed my visit. As I left for my train, they were all getting ready to visit the shops in Keswick before making their way back to Brighton the next day.

Forthcoming Events

On May 3rd and June 7th, I'm doing workshops with children at the Crystal Palace Museum as part of a series of events to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VE Day. More on these next time.

I have two Sunday events: on May 15th I'm appearing at a school in Hendon as part of Jewish Book Week on tour and on May 22nd, I'm talking to a Wizo lunch in Oxford.

Then later in May there's the very exciting Bollington Festival, which includes a novel written on line by a kind of relay-race method: one writer doing a chapter and then passing it on to the next. I'm appearing at the Festival on May 27th at 6.30 pm in the Dene Valley School for a talk and a book signing. Details from the Bollington Festival Website: www.bollingtonfestival.org.uk

More about all the above in the next newsletter.

Books

A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz (Chatto and Windus) is absolutely amazing. I can't recommend it highly enough. Last Christmas, it was one of the most chosen books in Books of the Year roundups and quite right too. It's an autobiography, but much more than that. A family history and a reflection on many things. For me, it had an extra resonance. Oz is five years older than I am, but he grew up much less than a stone's throw from my grandmother's house in Jerusalem. All the walks, the places, the roads, the landmarks he mentions in the first part of the book are known to me and made me feel very nostalgic. Also, just before I read the book, I was contacted for the first time in more than forty years by someone who used to live in the flat next door to my grandmother. I remembered her perfectly. She sent me a photograph of how she looks now, aged 65 and I can report that she's scarcely changed at all and I'd have recognized her anywhere. She remembers rocking my pram to stop me crying when I was a baby, at the behest of my mother! She is an exact contemporary of Oz's and was in the same class as he was at school. It is, as they say, a very small world.

Another treat is Anne Fine's Raking the Ashes (Doubleday) Too many people are unaware that this prize winning children's writer is also the author of several very good novels for adults. This particular book is funny, insightful, and nicely sharp which is what lovers of Anne Fine's work have learned to expect. Do try it and while you're in Anne Fine mode, try also another of her novels: Taking the Devil's Advice, which is one of my favourites.

Three outstanding thrillers have made several train journeys pass in a flash: The Spider's House by Sarah Diamond (Orion) is very good indeed, full of twists and turns and with a first person narrator in whom one can really believe. Falling off Air by Catherine Sampson (Pan) is also unputdownable and I liked The Suspect by Michael Robotham. (Time Warner)

By my bed are: We Need To Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver, The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst and The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates. More about all these next time, which will be at the end of June.

Goodbye for now.

Adèle Geras