SEPTEMBER 2007

NEWSLETTER 26

WORK IN PROGRESS

I’m a little late with the newsletter this time. August seems a funny month to put new stuff on the website, so I’ve left it till September and that means I can include an account of my event at the Edinburgh Book Festival.

A HIDDEN LIFE came out on August 8th and has received very good reviews from the book bloggers. You can find out what they said by clicking on any of these links.

Cornflower - Hide and Seek

Harriet Devine - Adele Geras, A Hidden Life

Random Jottings - A Hidden Life - Adele Geras

Ex Libris - A Hidden Life

Bookwitch - A Hidden Life

Me and My Big Mouth - Lilac Time

Elizabeth Baines - A Hidden Life by Adele Geras

Deluzy - Book notes: Adele Geras, A Hidden Life

I am just about to start writing a Young Adult book for David Fickling Books about Dido, the tragic queen of Carthage. This will be quite short, I think, and perhaps even finished by Christmas. I must get cracking, as I’ve been having a very pleasant sabbatical from writing since about February.

CLEOPATRA (Kingfisher) appears in October and I’m looking forward to that. It’s a splendid production with brilliant illustrations by M.R. Robertson and the cover really is studded with (fake but very super) jewels, a first for me.

EVENTS

The school at Ruabon was not at Ruabon at all but at Llangollen, and it turned out to be a very good event, even though the dates got mixed up and the poor librarian, Gill, was frantically texting and phoning me from the railway station while I was in Manchester having a chatty lunch with a writer friend, Alison Leonard. Still, I went the following week and all was well. I had a very good time there, including a wonderful lunch by the river in a spectacularly-sited restaurant. Gill had done a presentation about the Historical House books in my absence the previous week, so the children were well prepared.

I loved my time at Oundle School. Leigh Guirlando, the school librarian, was most hospitable and the pupils very responsive and eager. The town is so pretty and it was a great treat to stay at the Talbot Hotel, too. But on my way home, the floods affected the train. What I thought was a direct journey from Peterborough to Manchester turned out to be full of changes on account of Sheffield being ‘cut off’ (sic) by the rising waters.

Barlow High School, just round the corner from where I live, was full of the children who must see me pushing my shopping trolley round Tesco. They were very enthusiastic, as was Paula Hill who arranged the visit.

Prince Charles’s Teaching Institute held its Summer School at Homerton College in Cambridge. I arrived the evening before my event and went out to dinner at Brown’s with the organizers and Gervase Phinn which was a jolly start to the proceedings. Next morning, I spoke about historical fiction: my own and that of others, and the uses that could be made of it in primary schools. They had a very stellar line up, including Michael Morpurgo and Brian Moses among others but I had to get home and couldn’t stay to hear them.

I always like going to Our Lady’s in Oldham where Susan Ford runs the excellent library. I spoke as always to Year Eights and had a really good time. I have next year’s date already in my diary. The theme was theatrical this time and when I left, as well as a lovely bouquet of flowers, I also received a beautiful blue shiny star, just like the ones pinned to dressing-room doors.

It was great fun meeting Ann Darnton ( and her bears!) in Birmingham in July and I had a good session about MADE IN HEAVEN with her very friendly and hospitable book group, but when we came out of Margaret’s beautiful house, Ann’s car had been bashed by another motorist. This meant a fraught journey home, limping along in a wounded vehicle and also much trouble and inconvenience and worry for Ann herself. I fear she’s always going to associate my visit with this occurrence! But I enjoyed myself and am grateful for her hospitality and kindness.

Also in July, the annual visit to Charney Manor for two days, to meet up with other members of the SAS ( Scattered Authors Society). The floods in the Midlands were at their height and I was greatly helped by Dennis Hamley, who came all the way to Birmingham New Street to meet me and Linda Strachan and drive us to Charney. On the way back, amid fears that Oxford was going to disappear under the water, Mark Robson drove me to the station. All was well, but it was a bit disconcerting to see the Botley Road sealed off and the whole countryside looking like a rice-paddy. Thanks to those two gallant men. The days at Charney were, as usual, brilliant. I particularly enjoyed a Quiz one night where our team (The Lit-Chicks) won a disgusting amount of Green and Black Chocolate. Fabulous organization as usual and all very inspirational and invigorating.

I love going to the Edinburgh Book Festival. Edinburgh is one of my top cities of the world and coming out of Waverley station always gives me a thrill.. This year, I stayed at the Hudson Hotel and managed to fit a great deal. The first highlight of the trip was lunch with the book blogger, Cornflower (Karen), and her family. They live in a really beautiful Edinburgh house with high ceilings and a feeling of elegance which must have been there from when it was first built. But it’s this particular family who have made it into such a warm and comfortable home, with the children (who were all there for a delicious lunch of salmon and raspberries and chocolate cake) and the dogs adding to the fun. I was in Scotland on a rare fine day and we actually sat out in the garden in the sunshine and drank Pimms, which I reckon is the embodiment of summer. Later on, Karen and Harriet, her younger daughter, came to the event I was doing with Julia Golding and I was so pleased to be able to put a face to the name of one of the blogs I read every day. To read her account of the lunch click here. The piece is very complimentary about me, but I do urge anyone who reads it to follow some of the other links on the site. It’s packed with good things and you can even view photos of the house!

The event with Julia was about Writing Historical Fiction. She is a very successful new writer, author of the terrific Cat Royal books, who’s managed to bring out something like ten novels in two years. I did like meeting her and I think we went well together, as speakers. There were about 120 people at the event and questions came with very little prompting from all over the tent.

After that, I went to dinner with Nicola Morgan, with whom I’ve been in email contact, but whom I’ve never met before. She’s just as nice in real life and we had the most fantastic meal of risotto with asparagus, mint and peas. Must try that one at home!

Next morning, I had coffee with the very warm and friendly Vanessa Robertson who runs a publishing company reprinting mainly children’s books which have gone out of print. It’s called Fidra Books.Vanessa, too, writes a blog that’s well worth reading. It’s here! And she, too, I’ve just seen, says nice thing about me…oh, I love the book bloggers!

I had lunch with another of them, Harriet Devine, in Manchester the other day and she’s also as delightful a person as you could wish to meet. We got on very well… I’ll let her tell the story as she has photos on her blog which are fun.

And yes, I do go out to lunch quite a lot. If ever I’m asked to be in Who’s Who I will list it as a hobby.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

On September 19th, I’m talking at the Hasmonean School for Girls in Hendon, together with Sophie Hannah, my daughter. I’m looking forward to this very much, as it will give me a chance to see my friend Dina Rabinovitch, whose daughters are/have been at the school. She’s always been a valued reader of my books and there’s an endorsement from her on the cover of CLEOPATRA as she was one of the first people to see it.

I’m doing a talk with Diane Hofmeyr at the Cheltenham Festival on Sunday October 14th. I’m promoting Cleopatra and she’s talking about her excellent novel set in Ancient Egypt, which is called THE EYE OF THE MOON. She wants us to dress up a bit, but I haven’t got the figure for it. She’d look amazing. I think I will stick to holding up the book itself.

I’m speaking at the Chester Festival on October 22nd, again with Sophie Hannah.

And also with Sophie, I’m doing an event at Simply Books in Bramhall on November 12th, in the early evening.

On November 14th, I’m at the Merchant Taylor’s School in Crosby, Liverpool and I’m going to be taken to see the Anthony Gormley figures on the beach during my time there. Can’t wait for that.

BOOKS

TELL IT TO THE SKIES (Orion) is Erica James’s new book and it’s out in hardback in early October. I read an advance proof. It’s more serious than many of her other books, but still has all the qualities her many fans will enjoy and admire. And a wonderful new cover look, too.

THE LAY OF THE LAND (Bloomsbury) by Richard Ford is the third in his trilogy about Frank Bascombe and just as good as THE SPORTSWRITER and INDEPENDENCE DAY. Frank is growing old in this one. He has prostate cancer and his wife has gone off with her first husband. It’s a very long and rambling book but a credit to Ford that we never get bored or irritated by Frank’s first person narrative. Wonderful.

I reviewed GODS BEHAVING BADLY (Cape) by Marie Phillips for the TES. I loved it. Well, I suppose I would, as the Greek Gods are my old friends, fictionally speaking. She writes a very lively, jokey, and entertaining fable and if it weren’t for the swearing and the sex, I reckon this would make a perfect teenage novel. Or maybe because of those things, it will cross over even better!

In the same review, I also discussed Penelope Lively’s latest: CONSEQUENCES (Fig Tree) She is one of my favourite authors and even though this may not be one of her very best, it’s still pretty good. It’s the story of three generations of women and the way their lives unfold. It’s a quiet, un-showy book and beautifully written.

THE NEEDLE IN THE BLOOD (Snow Books) by Sarah Bowers is a cracking historical novel of the kind I used to read a lot when I was in my teens. Anya Seton, anyone? This is about the making of the Bayeux Hanging (not a tapestry at all!) and the great love which grows between the heroine, who is one of the embroiderers, and Odo, who is William the Conqueror’s brother and a bishop. It’s all fantastically raunchy and rattles along at a fair old lick and the historical detail is very impressive. I loved it, though I think it might have been a little shorter, but many of the book bloggers really went for it in a big way. Just the thing for a winter’s night.

THE ALMOST MOON (Picador) by Alice Sebold is another book which is about to appear and which I read in proof. It gets right down to business on the first page, when the narrator kills her mother. That gets you right from the start and of course you have to read the rest, which is a story of a family, slowly unravelling. Very gripping and involving, though I don’t think it will be as generally popular as THE LOVELY BONES by the same author.

THE LYING TONGUE (Canongate) by Andrew Wilson is an intriguing and well-written thriller set in Venice, which has one of the most unreliable narrators I’ve ever encountered. It’s one for admirers of McEwan’s COMFORT OF STRANGERS, DEATH IN VENICE by Thomas Mann and even Henry James’s THE ASPERN PAPERS. I loved it.

THE SAVAGE GARDEN (HarperCollins) by Mark Mills caught my eye because it’s set partly in Florence. This is a fascinating and romantic thriller and one of the Richard and Judy Summer Reads. I enjoyed it, particularly all the Dante references and I admired very much the way the whole tale unfolded: its structure. Too few writers care about structure and I think it’s one of the most important things about any book.

EATING HEAVEN (NAL Accent) by Jennie Shortridge isn’t published here yet, though Long Barn books, Susan Hill’s imprint, will be bringing it out soon. I found it a very affecting story, about a food writer who takes care of her uncle while he’s dying of cancer. During the course of the novel, family secrets are revealed and by the end of the book, you feel you know the narrator through and through. Incidental delights are: lots of wonderful descriptions of every sort of meal; clever analysis of a particular kind of mother/daughter relationship and a truly adorable cat called Buddy. I think this is a moving novel which will mean a lot to many people, and I hope it gets the wide readership it deserves.

I’m now in the middle of Peter James’s NOT DEAD ENOUGH (Macmillan) and that’s proving very exciting indeed. Grace, the hero, has a love interest in this book but he’s still preoccupied with his wife who’s been missing for some years. This is not even to mention the actual murder mystery, which at the moment is deeply mysterious and very murderous….more next time.

Okay, that’s it for now…. I will write again before Christmas. Have a lovely autumn.

Adèle Geras

And do write to me at: adele @ adelegeras.com