FEBRUARY 2003

NEWSLETTER 2

Just before Christmas, I had two pieces of good news. Barn Owl books are reissuing a book of mine in August that has been out of print for nearly twenty years. It's called APRICOTS AT MIDNIGHT and was first published in 1977. Jane Ray has agreed to do the cover (which means it will be most beautiful) but the book will retain the original illustrations by Doreen Caldwell, which pleases me too, because they're just right for it. APRICOTS is a collection of linked short stories, for readers of about eight. A young girl is staying with her elderly Aunt Pinny, who used to be a seamstress. There's a patchwork quilt on the bed, and each piece of fabric is the way into another tale about Pinny's childhood.

OTHER ECHOES came out in the USA in 1981 but has never been published in the UK before. David Fickling Books have taken it, and I'm delighted. It's one of my favourites among my own novels, because of the autobiographical element. It's set in Jesselton, North Borneo and also partly in a boarding school in England which bears more than a passing resemblance to Roedean. A girl of seventeen looks back at events that took place when she was eight, and it's the mixture of young protagonists and an almost adult narrative voice which I think has prevented it from being published till now. The question everyone asked was: what age group is it for? To which the answer was, and remains: anyone who would enjoy reading it, of whatever age…

BOOKS PUBLISHED IN FEBRUARY:

GOODBYE, TOMMY BLUE illustrated by David Wyatt (Macmillan) and REBECCA'S PASSOVER illustrated by Sheila Moxley (Frances Lincoln.)

BOOKS PUBLISHED IN MARCH:

THE FABULOUS FANTORA FILES/THE FABULOUS FANTORA PHOTOGRAPHS illustrated by Tony Ross.(OUP)

Progress on ITHAKA has been steady, if not exactly speedy. As I write, there is still a week to go before the end of January and it would be good to send it off before the first of next month. You can't rush these things, however and I shall just work every day and see what happens. What I can say is: the end is definitely in sight.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS:

Sophie Hannah, the poet, (who also happens to be our elder daughter) and I are doing a reading together on March 5^th 2003 at Waterstone's (Deansgate) Manchester at 7.00pm. I'll be reading from FACING THE LIGHT and Sophie from her new book, FIRST OF THE LAST CHANCES (Carcanet) both of which are published in March. You can find out more about Sophie on the Carcanet web site. I am told wine and nibbles will be provided. It should be a very enjoyable evening. Tickets from Waterstone's, Deansgate. [tel: 0161-832-1876]

I'm also reading from FACING THE LIGHT at Borders in Stockport on the evening of March 20^th, 2003. Time is still to be confirmed. Tickets from Borders, Stockport. [tel: 0161-476-3392]

I'm doing an event for an independent bookshop called Simply Books in Bramhall. I'll be going into Bramhall High School for them on February 28^th to speak to the pupils.

NEWS:

On January 15^th I went down to London for an event that Orion arranged for its women writers who have books coming out in the next few months. They invited some magazine journalists to meet us for tea in a hotel. It was a most imaginative publicity exercise and very enjoyable indeed. When I arrived, I met the other writers, (Erica James, Anne LeClaire, Donna Hay, Jane Moore, Louise Bagshawe) and was immediately asked whether I'd like a manicure and hand massage. Two ladies from a nearby salon had been asked to provide this service and once I'd overcome my embarrassment at the state of my nails, I sat down on the sofa and loved every minute of this pampering. Gillian Kemp, the fortune-teller was also in attendance and told our fortunes. The tea was delicious, the company interesting and we all went home carrying wonderful goody-bags, as though we'd been to a particularly excellent birthday party. Which it was in a way: it was Donna Hay's birthday and a chocolate cake of extraordinary richness and deliciousness appeared towards the end of the afternoon. I know Erica James and it was good to see her again and to meet the others, especially Anne LeClaire (see BOOKS below) who was visiting London from the USA. The magazine journalists all looked to me like sixth-formers. It's not just policemen who are getting younger.

Before the tea, I met my agent, Laura Cecil, for lunch at the Royal Opera House. I hadn't been to the new building before and it was fascinating to have a look around. There are a couple of costumes from past productions outside the ladies' loo and the tininess of the waist measurements was sobering and not what you want to see before tucking in to lovely food of one kind and another.

FACING THE LIGHT will be published on March 3^rd and last week I read the proofs of the insert which will be sent out with the Sunday Telegraph on March 9^th. It consists of the first fifteen or so pages of the novel and the little booklet looks very good.

In the next couple of weeks, a German photographer will be coming to take pictures for the German edition's publicity. The book is published there by Blanvalet on February 20^th and is called SOMMERLICHT.

THE SAS....

... no, not that one! The Scattered Authors Society, to which I belong, has produced a series of three posters called Authors' Choice. We've published these ourselves with every person choosing a single book to promote. We're all busily distributing the posters to schools and libraries and other places and there's a competition that children can go in for. Entry forms for that, and full details of the conditions, prizes, etc can be found on www.elizabethlindsay.co.uk

BOOKS:

I still haven't got to The Crimson Petal and the White. Our younger daughter read it over Christmas and loved it, but since then there's always been a shorter, lighter book that was easier to pick up. I think I will keep CP and W for when I've finished ITHAKA.

I have, however, read some very good books indeed. Some of them are by people I know or friends of mine and for a while I hesitated about whether to recommend them and then I thought: why not? If you have friends who are writers, some of their books will be good, and what's wrong with mentioning this? I don't think other professions have the same shyness about speaking approvingly about their colleagues.

So… I would recommend Anne LeClaire to readers who don't know her. Her first book published in this country by Orion is called Entering Normal and is very good indeed: a novel that goes straight to the heart, and takes you into the lives of characters who become as real as your own family. She's a stylish writer too, and though her books can in no way be called 'difficult' they're literary in the same way that Anne Tyler is literary. I've just finished her novel called Leaving Eden (published March 20^th by Orion) which is also terrific. It's a young girl's first person account of life in a small Virginia town which lets you share her heartbreak and the road she travels to understanding both herself and her dead mother. Do try LeClaire's novels.

A writer I've never met who has something of the same gift for pulling you right into her world is Sue Gee. I read Thin Air on the train to London and loved it. She's written all sorts of other good books (The Hours of the Night, for instance) and there's one called Earth and Heaven waiting on my bookshelf. She's a writer about whom more fuss ought to be made.

Linda Newbery is a friend of mine, and I'm now in the middle of reading her forthcoming novel in manuscript. It's called Sisterland (David Fickling Books. Sept 2003) and is a skilful braiding of two stories. One narrative strand concerns the lives of two sisters at the time of the Kindertransports and the other takes us into the present, where again, two sisters are caught up in events that bear an unpleasant resemblance to the atrocities of the past. It's unputdownable and I can't wait to see how it all comes together at the end. Which reminds me: a good book by Kevin Brooks (Lucas published by The Chicken House) has much in common with a novel of Linda's called The Damage Done (Scholastic) Whoever tries one will enjoy the other.

Other books I've liked over the last couple of months include: Marian Keyes' Last Chance Saloon, which is warm-hearted and funny too. Annie Proulx's That Old Ace in the Hole was not well received critically, with some people complaining that there was 'not enough story.' I think they were looking for the wrong kind of narrative. The book is in the picaresque tradition, where a main character wanders about meeting all sorts of eccentrics and listening to their individual tales. I adored this novel. By the time you get to the end, you know the Texas panhandle as well as your own street, you've heard stuff that will make your hair curl and yes, you've followed a real story to its conclusion. It's a very funny novel with its heart in the right place and written in prose that fairly zings off the page. Don't be put off by the cover.

I'll write the next newsletter at the end of March with news of FACING THE LIGHT's publication, and (fingers crossed!) the finishing of ITHAKA. Meanwhile, please email the site with any comments or news of books you've enjoyed.

Goodbye!

Adèle Geras

PS. I have now finished ITHAKA and I'm on tenterhooks while I wait to hear the reaction.