MARCH 2007

NEWSLETTER 24

WORK IN PROGRESS

My fourth adult novel, A HIDDEN LIFE, is now ready to go to press and in a couple of weeks, there will be a bound proof and I will put up an image of the cover. I’m now going on an extended lazy period and don’t intend to write a word of anything till at least July. Someone once described this sort of mooching about as ‘the cistern filling up.’ That sounds just right. Four adult novels have appeared in four years….as I write, it’s the exact anniversary of the publication of FACING THE LIGHT…and I feel I need a bit of a rest. I am going to be writing a teenage novel (a short one!) about Dido until about the end of this year, by which time I trust that a brilliant idea for another adult novel will have come into my mind.

CECILY’S PORTRAIT has now not exactly come out (the real publication date is April 27th) but as we’ve had some events at which it has been available for sale, this is by way of advertising its availability later on.

I have to write a very short story for a Christmas anthology in the next couple of weeks, but that is the only work I’m envisaging until at least the next newsletter. I am going to, as they say, CHILL!

EVENTS

The judging of the Costa Book Awards on February 7th was the first exciting event of the New Year. Here’s an account of the judging from the Guardian books blog and here is my essay about the clothes everyone was wearing for a blog I visit daily called Dove Grey Reader Scribbles.

The Orion Author’s Party on February 15th was the next party I went to and again, Dove Grey asked me to write about the clothes. You’ll get a good idea of the party from this post.

World Book Day on March 1st was the occasion for yet another party! And yes, another fashion report! And also the occasion of an interview with Dove Grey reader. I also did a bit of more serious work on that day, to promote LILY: a ghost story. I went to Colindale and spoke to childen in the library and they seemed very enthusiastic about World Book Day. An article I wrote about Quick Reads for the Guardian appeared that morning as well, so there was quite a bit of media coverage.

On February 20th, I went to speak to Year Six at the delightful Lady Lane School in Bingley. The head, Gill Wilson, had prepared lunch for me and two of my readers, Georgia and Rachel, who had been the ones to propose the visit and make sure it took place. Sonia Benster, of the superb Children’s Bookshop in Huddersfield, came in to sell books and a great many were sold, I’m happy to say. I’m very grateful to her and to Mrs. Wilson for making it such an enjoyable occasion. Greetings to Georgia, Rachel and all their friends.

On March 5th, I was at Gateways School, near Leeds to speak to the pupils. The day had been arranged by Marlene Sharrock, the librarian, and all the sessions went very well. The library is splendid and one of the things Marlene has organised is a Mothers and Daughters Reading Group. This meets once a month and on this occasion I joined them for a discussion of Sharon Creech’s RUBY HOLLER. It was a very enjoyable day and thanks to all the people I met there, especially Marlene and also Rachel Hicks, who came in on her day off to see me. Her mother, Sylvia White, was a Maths teacher at Fairfield High School For Girls, where I used to teach French. Rachel looks just like her mother.

From March 13th toMarch 15th, I was on a three-day outing. I started out at Ickneild Community College, in Watlington, taken there fromOxford Station by Jacky Holderness to whom I’m most grateful. I spoke to two groups of Year Eight and sold some books and even managed to fit in a lovely lunch at the pub next door to the school in a matter of forty minutes.

After school, Jacky drove me to my friend Linda Sargent’s cottage. There, another friend, Elisabeth Balkwill, who designs most beautiful jewellery, was waiting. I’d met her on email and it was a great pleasure to do so in person. Linda S had kindly organized a pre-birthday supper for me, which arrived, borne by Linda Newbery, who’d been doing an event in Oxford for the School Days associated with the Oxford Book Festival. It was delicious….and I had the extra fun of opening my birthday presents from Linda S and Elisabeth a little early.

After our pre-birthday party, Linda N drove me to Moira da Costa’s house for a meeting of the Oxford branch of the Federation of Children’s Books Groups. Linda and I spoke to about twenty people and it was good to see so many old friends. There was even a friend of mine there whom I used to know in Manchester many years ago before she moved to Oxford….always great to see Helena. Moira provided the most generous hospitality as usual. Linda and I talked about the Historical House books and then answered questions about those and also about our other work.

I stayed at Linda’s overnight but on Wednesday morning we had to set off early again for Oxford, where we were going to meet Ann Turnbull, the third writer of the Historical House series. Before that, Linda took me to Brown’s in the Covered Market and we had the full vegetarian breakfast which was absolutely fabulous. It was her treat for my birthday and I can’t think of a better one. We both felt like characters from Morse and being in the Covered Market reminded me of my undergraduate days. We went down to the Town Hall and met Ann there and prepared for our session with 100 children from four different primary schools. Our session took place in the Courtroom, and the three of us were seated in the Judges’ chairs The courtroom still operates as a courtroom and some of the children were even sitting in the dock. My friend Angela has wondered whether this room might have been the original of the courtroom in ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll. I should think it’s more than likely!

Lots of other writers were there at the same time, appearing in other rooms. The Oxford Festival is amazingly well-organized and thanks are due to Sue Neale for fixing all this up. We saw Katherine Langrish, Theresa Breslin and Lauren Child before Sarah Macmillan from Usborne took us off to get the train to London.

That evening, Jenny Tyler and Megan Larkin of Usborne took all three of us out to a most delicious dinner at Clarke’s Restaurant in Kensington Church Street. Sally Clarke’s food was out of this world. It was yet another birthday meal for me (my third so far and it wasn’t even my birthday yet!) and a very good way to launch the Historical House series. Many thanks to them both.

Next day was my birthday, so I had presents at breakfast from Linda and Ann and also later on from Jean Ure who came to meet the three of us at our morning event. This was a visit to Glendower School in Queen’s Gate. The Golden Treasury, a children’s bookshop in South London, provided the bookstall and as we spoke to the whole school, a great many copies of the Historical House books were sold. Thanks to Sue. The school is housed in what must once have been a private residence. Ann Turnbull’s book in the series is set at a time when our house in Chelsea was a school for young ladies so Glendower School was a very appropriate setting.

On March 20th, I travelled to Leicester for a meeting organized by The Reading Agency for those who are helping adults to become fluent readers with the help of Quick Reads. I went to talk about LILY: A GHOST STORY and it was good to hear encouraging accounts of the marvellous work being done in this field. There’s a great deal of information about adult literacy and associated matters on the Quick Read website and the site of the Reading Agency.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

On March 27th, I’m speaking to children at Seven Stories, in Gateshead and I’m very much looking forward to my first visit to this wonderful (according to everyone who’s been) venue which is a dedicated centre for the study and promotion of British children’s books.

MADE IN HEAVEN is published in paperback on May 18th. There are also other events lined up for May but I’ll put them up in the next newsletter.

BOOKS

First of all, let me recommend yet again the winner of the Costa Book Award. THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES by Stef Penney ( Quercus pbk). Linda Newbery’s SET IN STONE (Black Swan pbk) is also marvellous. You’ll enjoy them both, I’m sure.

I read Charlotte Mendelson’s WHEN WE WERE BAD (Picador) in proof and it’s going to be available in May. Watch out for it, because it’s really excellent. It’s about the family of a female rabbi in North London and it’s true, and funny and sad and very entertaining and uplifting. There are lots of meals, rows, introspection, irritation, deception, revelation, support and above all, love. Normal life, in other words. In spite of the recent remarks by Muriel Gray about women writing domestic fiction, I still reckon it’s not what you do but the way that you do it, and Mendelson does it brilliantly. And families are where we live…all of us.

Also in proof, I read Sally Prue’s THE TRUTH SAYER which is, as always from this writer, an exuberant blend of fun, imagination, excitement and good writing. Muriel G ( see above!) clearly was not referring to female writers of children’s books when she made her remarks. There are no bounds to Prue’s imagination and invention and this is the first of an interlocking series of stories, so much fun and many thrills to come.

A superb new thriller IN THE WOODS by Tana French (Hodder hbk) kept me up late at night. It’s brilliantly written and most thrilling and unputdownable with characters whom we get to like and sympathize with. I had one caveat at the end, but I won’t spoil the book for others by saying what this is, as she may fix it in the next novel, which carries the police characters forward into another story. I can’t wait.

I have to admit to being, up till now, a Cormac McCarthy failure. That’s to say, I’ve tried him and not managed to continue reading beyond about page 30. Mea culpa. But I was persuaded to read THE ROAD (Macmillan hbk) and I haven’t been so knocked out by a book for many years. It’s a masterpiece, there’s no doubt about it. It’s terminally bleak but so well- written that you are mesmerized from the first page. A father and son, after some ghastly apocalypse (of an unspecified kind, but probably nuclear,) are walking along a road making for the south. That’s it. Nothing else. It is, believe me, much more than enough. You won’t be able to forget it once it’s in your mind.

I picked up NOTTING HELL by Rachel Johnson in a three-for-two and it kept me happily occupied all the way to London and back. It’s fabulous. Frivolous, amusing, entertaining and very wittily written, I loved every minute. Not everything has to be Cormac McCarthy and this is almost the diametric opposite of THE ROAD, but hey, that’s the beauty of books, right? You can read one and then one that’s completely different and a whole lot of other kinds of books besides. The drunkenness of things being various, as Louis McNeice says.

Two good Orion thrillers: Laura Lippman’s BY A SPIDER’S THREAD (pbk) and SAVAGE MOON by Chris Simms (proof copy: publication July 2007) were both very good reads. The latter, in particular, is interesting to me as it’s set in Manchester, but it’s a cracking story and the depiction of new parenthood and the onset of post-natal depression are particularly well done and it’s good to see a male writer tackling this sort of material. Muriel G, take note!

THE HISTORIAN is still not read….I am not giving it away yet! And I’m going away on holiday in late April and my treats which I’m keeping for that are: SOVEREIGN by CJ Sansom and THE SEVENTH GATE by Richard Zimler. I know the Sansom will be fabulous and have high hopes of the Zimler.

In the wings and waiting to be read: Margaret Forster’s KEEPING THE WORLD AWAY, Paul Torday’s SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN and most exciting of all Jane Smiley’s TEN DAYS IN THE HILLS. I may also succumb to the latest Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child next time I’m in town. THE HARD WAY comes recommended by friends whose opinion I value. And then there’s my bet for the next winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction: HALF OF A YELLOW SUN by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which looks amazingly good and is worth a ten pound bet, I reckon. All of those are on the shelf and I ought to read them before buying more, but doubtless other books will join these on the shelves before the next time.

Next newsletter will be posted in mid-May when I’ve returned from my holiday.

Have a lovely spring….

Adèle Geras

Please email me at: adele @ adelegeras.com