DECEMBER 2007

NEWSLETTER 27

WORK IN PROGRESS

Not much to report here, only that I’ve now begun my novel about Dido and I’m working on it. Not as hard as I should be, I think, but all this is about to change as the deadline of the end of February approaches. As soon as Christmas looms, next year does begin to seem just round the corner, so as soon as I’ve written this newsletter, I’m going to take up the novel with renewed energy and vigour. My hope is: to finish it before the next newsletter.

EVENTS

Back in September, Sophie Hannah and I appeared at the Hasmonean School. It was an event that had been arranged originally by Dina Rabinovitch, who came to the school, as did (and do) her daughters. Dina was too ill to come in and meet us, and I’m very sad to report that on October 30th, she died of breast cancer. She was a wonderful woman and a great supporter of children’s books and her own account of her experience of cancer TAKE OFF YOUR PARTY DRESS (Simon and Schuster pbk) is one of my best books of this or any year. I miss her and her unfailing humour and courage and good sense. The event at the school was very enjoyable and our thanks go to the staff and to Lois Gishen especially, who made us feel so welcome.

In October, I appeared with Dianne Hoffmeyr at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. Our event was a bit of an Egyptian fiesta, as I was promoting CLEOPATRA and Dianne was talking about THE EYE OF THE MOON, her teenage novel set in Ancient Egypt. The previous evening, I enjoyed a superb dinner at the Kandinsky Hotel as a guest of Catherine Potter, of Kingfisher Books and among the guests was Cathy Hopkins, another Kingfisher author and it was a great pleasure to meet her and her husband, Steve. Graham Marks was also a guest and this was the night England were playing France in the Rugby, so my husband was a kind of ghostly presence on my mobile phone, texting us the score all the way through the game. It’s always a pleasure to be in Cheltenham and nice to see various friends while passing through the Green Room.

We did another double act, Sophie and I, at the Chester Festival in October. There was a friendly and lively audience to hear us, which included the novelist Clare Dudman and since she was once a pupil on a Ty Newydd course I was tutor for, it was a pleasure to see her again. She later sent me her novel 98 REASONS FOR BEING (Penguin) and that is on the very top of my To Be Read list….see below.

This is getting repetitive…there we were again, Sophie and I, at Simply Books in Bramhall in November. She was talking about HURTING DISTANCE (Hodder pbk) her latest psychological thriller and I was talking about both MADE IN HEAVEN and A HIDDEN LIFE. I’d done a school event at Ladybarn House School earlier in the day, opening the very splendid new library at the school and lots of children bought my new book, Cleopatra, which was most gratifying. There was a wonderful tea party with beautiful cakes to accompany the library opening and all in all, it was a very good event. Thanks to Sue at Simply Books for organizing it.

Before my event with Sophie, I met the Young Reviewers who assemble every month at Simply Books and choose books to read and criticize. Biscuits and drinks are laid on, and each child chooses something from the pile to take away and read. It was a great pleasure to meet them all and they asked me lots of searching questions, too. Thanks as always to Sue and Andrew for a very pleasurable time.

On November 5th, I appeared at my local Oxfam shop, in Didsbury Village. This was as part of a week of events in which local writers came to the shop to read and talk to anyone who wanted to come in. Wendy, Debs and the others made the shop a delightfully welcoming venue, and served wine and nibbles and a very good time was had by all. I started things off on the Monday, but later in the week they had appearances from Cath Staincliffe (of Blue Murder fame) and Carol Ann Duffy among others. Oh, we’re a very literary lot round here! Didsbury now has its own Festival. I spoke to pupils at the Cavendish Road Primary School and that was great fun. There was a period in late October/early November when my photo was in the local paper every week.

On November 14th, I went to speak to the girls of Merchant Taylor’s School near Liverpool. Anita Barry, the teacher who invited me, met me at Southport station and took me to see the Anthony Gormley installation at Crosby. It’s called Another Place and the iron figures of the men standing on the shore and looking out to sea were very moving and beautiful. See images here. I’ve also now seen the Gormley statue in the crypt of Winchester Cathedral, which floods every year and perhaps, as Wendy Cope suggests, the Winchester statue gave the artist the idea for Another Place. Judge for yourselves! This one is called Sound ll. The school is a very pleasant place and full of enthusiastic pupils. I did two sessions: one before lunch and one after, but during the lunch hour, I also spoke to the Sixth Formers studying English for A level. I had a very good time, and the lunch was spectacularly good! Many thanks to Anita and all the staff and pupils.

During November I went all over signing copies of CLEOPATRA. Waterstone’s in Stockport, Waterstone’s in Wilmslow, (where I also met the pupils of a very lively reading group they run in the shop), Waterstone’s Piccadilly and Hatchard’s Piccadilly and (this was the highlight!) Harrods in Knightsbridge, in London. For anyone who doesn’t know this shop, take a look here and you will see why it was the IDEAL venue for a CLEOPATRA booksigning! I felt right at home and signed a huge pile of books. At Harrods, you have to write the first sentence or so of your book on the page alongside your name, so I was quite glad that my book starts: ‘My name is Nefret, which means pretty….’ I wrote in the …. to show that it was only the beginning of something longer. The bookseller assured me that the huge pile would all be sold, and it’s true, Harrods customers are not like most people. While I was at the table, passers-by stopped to buy copies, not only for themselves, but for kids going to have a birthday in the near future, etc. Good old Harrods! Ben Cameron came with me from Kingfisher and we agreed that we didn’t think much of the Russian-Oligarch-Chic furniture on display, turning up our noses at a gold-studded, white patent leather armchair.

Before dashing off to sign books, I spoke at Immanuel College in Bushey. This event was arranged by Jewish Book Week and thanks to Mekella Broomberg who organized the whole thing.

The children bought lots of books and were thoroughly friendly and interested in everything I had to tell them. I didn’t have time to stay to lunch but the biscuits were absolutely delicious. The librarian and teachers whom I met were charming and it was good of the Head to spare the time to come and listen to me.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

On December 10th, I’m off to Edinburgh to do more book signings but this time I’m having lunch at a new, specialist children’s bookshop, run by Vanessa Robertson of Fidra Books.

I’m really looking forward to this, as I’ll be having a quick lunch with Vanessa and Karen Howlett, who blogs at Cornflower and this I know will be fun. Claire Walker of Kingfisher Books will accompany me and I’m most grateful to her and to Ben Cameron for arranging all these signings.

My other dates for next year I’ll write about in the New Year….most of them don’t start till March.

BOOKS

I’ve read quite a few books by friends of mine recently, and it’s good to be able to recommend them wholeheartedly.

First, THE STONE TESTAMENT by Celia Rees. This is an enormous stew of fantastical elements which ranges from ancient Mayan curses, shamanism, different strands of occult philosophy, and the prophecies of doom which have to be averted through the hard work of two young people, who seem to be struggling against the most monumental forces. It’s not generally the kind of book I like to read, but Celia’s a very good writer and there’s so much fascinating detail that I was quite caught up in the whole thing.

Meg Rosoff, who has had enormous success with her first and second novels (HOW I LIVE NOW and JUST IN CASE) and been garlanded with prizes has a new novel called WHAT I WAS. (All Penguin Books) The thing about Meg’s books is: they are neither like anyone else’s books nor like one another. Each is entirely individual. What they share is a sharp intellect managing things. In this case, we have a love affair of a most unusual kind and a setting that moves between a beach hut and a fourth-rate boys’ boarding-school. This establishment is not one you’d want to go to, or send your boy to, and Rosoff sketches in the main outlines of an educational hellhole with damning strokes. There is a fantastic twist at the end which I did not see coming till it was upon me, and as a bonus, the cover of the hardback is quite beautiful.

BALANCING ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (Salt Books) by Elizabeth Baines is a collection of short stories which also has a lovely cover. These are tales of parents and children, lovers, husbands and wives and are marked by both wit and tenderness. Baines is very shrewd about the condition of being a writer and there’s one story about a script in production which ought to be required reading on every single creative writing course in the country.

A little late in the day, I have read Cormac McCarthy’s ALL THE PRETTY HORSES (Picador) and it’s a masterpiece, no doubt about it. I ought to have listened to various friends who’ve been telling me so for years. It’s elemental, almost Biblical and as one friend put it to me: “you can’t see what he’s doing or how he’s doing it.” The only thing you’re sure of is this: you’re in the presence of greatness and you just can’t stop turning the pages. Marvellous, and for anyone who hasn’t discovered this book yet I say: don’t wait any longer!

Other books I’ve greatly enjoyed are:

SELF HELP by Edward Docx (Picador hbk) A wonderful, wide-ranging, constantly fascinating story of a family with secrets and revelations that are a little more exotic than the average. This book was on the longlist for the Booker, and I wish it had been at least on the shortlist. It’s very good.

ON CHESIL BEACH by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape) Well, what is there to say? It’s brilliant and richly deserved its place on the Booker shortlist, its length, or lack of it notwithstanding. It’s the only Booker book I’ve read so far.

THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE by Emma Darwin (Headline Review) was a very good debut novel. Emma is an interesting new writer who moves between two time frames for this really unputdownable and well-written story. She blogs here and her site is well worth a visit, as she discusses her own work most intelligently and also general topics related to writing and being published.

OVER by Margaret Forster (Chatto and Windus) is wonderful. It’s about the effect of a child’s death on a family and is written in the first person by the mother. The dead girl, an eighteen year old, drowned in a sailing accident. I will say no more for fear of spoiling your pleasure, but Forster is one of our most reliable novelists and it’s a mystery to me why she is not more highly-rated, bestselling, garlanded with prizes, etc. She’s terrific.

Pamela Bone, a journalist whose work I have long admired, used to write in The Age and now writes in The Australian. She sent me and my husband her book about her own experience of cancer. It’s called BAD HAIR DAYS (Melbourne University Press) and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Pamela is happily in remission now and long may that continue. But the book is fascinating for all kinds of reasons, not least of them the wonderfully honest and clear way she writes about her youth, her work and the lives of women in other countries.

Also very enjoyable were:

SHARP OBJECTS by Gillian Flynn (Phoenix) a thriller which is a delicious slice of Southern Gothic with a really gruesome twist at the end.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Steig Larsson (Quercus) is another crime novel, from Sweden this time. The author wrote this book and two others in the series and died tragically just as he finished the third. This isn’t coming out till next year but do not miss it when it does. It’s enormously fat but very readable and has one of the most unusual and engaging characters to appear in recent crime fiction. Mesmerising stuff.

Also from Quercus, AFTER RIVER by Donna Milner is appearing in March 2008 and it’s one for anybody who likes Anita Shreve and/or Mary Lawson. A rural community in Canada, just across the border with America, is the setting and it’s both a myster and a love story and a family saga. It’s a great read and a very accomplished début novel.

On my TBR pile:

98 REASONS FOR BEING by Clare Dudman (I’ve dipped into this and it looks amazing. About a nineteenth-century lunatic asylum among other things.

PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follett (Pan) Because of our visit to Winchester I’m interested in this novel about the building of a medieval cathedral.

NEWES FROM THE DEAD by Mary Hooper (Bloomsbury) which I have in proof. She’s always a writer to look out for.

RISE AND SHINE by Anna Quinlen (Arrow Books) which is about a radio show host who runs into trouble of one kind and another. Looks great and just the thing for my journey to Edinburgh.

Finally….last night I sat down and read in one sitting Susan Hill’s latest ghost story, THE MAN IN THE PICTURE (Profile) and if there’s a better Christmas present around, I’ve yet to meet it. Couldn’t put it down and it’s stayed with me all night and still into today. A superb and nicely spooky book. Next newsletter will come in the middle of March. I wish all my readers a wonderful Christmas (or Festive Season!) and a very happy 2008.

Adèle Geras

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