MARCH 2003

NEWSLETTER 3

It's barely two months since I wrote a Newsletter, but there's been a lot going on, including the publication of my first novel for adults, FACING THE LIGHT (FTL from now on), on March 3rd, but I'm going to start a little before that, on February 27th.

That was the day that a photographer (Emanuela Danielewicz) and a stylist ( Diana Stimper) arrived to take photos of me at the behest of my German publishers, Blanvalet. The day started at 8.30 am. Diana spent 45 minutes transforming me completely. At the end of that time I looked good, even though I thought I was nothing like myself. We spent a long time in different rooms in the house, taking what seemed to be rolls and rolls of film and I changed outfits several times…scarf colours were discussed and blouses, tops, etc looked at and decided upon. At eleven o'clock we moved into the house of a neighbour of mine. Ruth has a beautiful home with velvet-upholstered chairs, mullioned windows, lovely teacups etc. She produced a pink Pashmina and many happy minutes were spent trying to persuade her cat, Dora, to pose elegantly. Needless to say, this was a vain hope, though we did get a few good shots of her in the end.

After lunch at my house, we had a session with a birthday cake. Emanuela had bought it and we covered it with candles and lit them all…some great photos resulted from that. Then we went in a taxi ( I had asked for a black cab..very traditional... but got a pale blue one advertising trips to France... never mind!) to a nearby park called Fletcher Moss where I posed among crocuses, under a large potted palm and in the wonderful Botanical Garden. By the time they left at 5.00 I was completely exhausted but the whole thing had been great fun.

When the photos arrived they were indeed very good, and I am full of admiration for the skills of both Emanuela and Diana. The only shots I have asked Blanvalet not to use were those which showed me without my glasses…all photographers take some of these and I end up looking spookily unlike myself, (which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing) but also older and altogether more staid and mumsy ( which certainly is!)

The very next day I went to speak at Bramhall High School. I was asked to do this by a new bookshop called Simply Books in Bramhall. Andrew and Sue who run it have decorated it beautifullly and made it a welcoming place.There's even a little coffee bar at the back. They had copies of FTL in the window... a first for me... and after my session at the school, we went back to the shop and did a signing. Some pupils and staff from Bramhall High came down as well and we continued the chatting begun at school. I do far fewer visits these days, but this was a good one, with interested and interesting pupils and everything brilliantly arranged by Simply Books.

Simply Books also sell online. As of 7/4/2003 they have signed copies of FTL available.

On March 4th I went down to London for my publication dinner. Before that, I signed a lot of copies of FTL because it's going to be in the 'goody bags' that delegates to the Booksellers' Association will receive at their conference in Dublin in April. Then I was taken down to the studios of ONEWORD radio. There I did a half-hour interview with Paul Blezard for a programme called 'Between the Lines'. I don't have the date of transmission of this yet, but I will post it on this site as soon as I know. In the evening, Orion hosted a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called Elena's L'étoile in Soho and that was a very jolly occasion: smashing food and even better company.

On March 5th I did a readingwith my daughter, Sophie Hannah at Waterstone's in Manchester at which we launched our new books. Many of our friends came to that and some of us went for a curry afterwards. I signed a lot of stock which is now nicely stickered and up in W'stone's Mother's Day promotion.

I took a walk through Stockport on the Friday of that week. Stockport has five bookshops within half a mile and I was gratified to see that FTL was not only in the shops but very visible. There were actual PILES of the novel on tables called things like: Bestsellers, or put up on shelves labelled Recommended. This is new territory for me... when I have a new children's book out, I scarcely ever see even a single copy. Indeed, I DO have two new children's books out (THE FABULOUS FANTORA FILES/THE FABULOUS FANTORA PHOTOGRAPHS, published by OUP paperbacks.) and if there were any about I certainly didn't see them. I have written an article about the differences between being published on the adult list and on the children's for THE AUTHOR which is the Society of Authors magazine. I met the editor, Fanny Blake, at my publication dinner. She'd written a lovely review of FTL in the April edition of Woman and Home.

There've also been reviews in Company and Hello! Magazine, and Penny Vincenzi wrote an excellent one for a book club. You can see it on www.escapefiction.co.uk Click on Penny V's name on the home page.

Click here to read some short extracts from other reviews of FACING THE LIGHT.

Since publication, I've been down to London to meet my Dutch publishers, who brought me the most beautiful umbrella in the shape of a tulip, thus combining Manchester and the Netherlands in a very elegant way. Also on this visit, I went round a few shops in the Piccadilly area signing stock for Waterstone's, Hatchard's and Books etc.

One last word about FTL: rights have been sold to Russia, which makes 14 countries so far.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

I'm speaking at a literary lunch on April 24th at a hotel near Preston with the Scottish writer Eileen Ramsay. Sophie Hannah and I are doing a joint reading in York on May 15th in the evening at the City Screen.

BOOKS RECENTLY READ:

In the last couple of months, I've read Carol Shields' wonderful Unless which has just appeared in paperback. She's one of my very favourite writers and I can't think of one of her books that I don't admire and love. This one is extraordinarily moving and for anyone who is also a writer it says an enormous amount about the consolations of literature. I was baffled, while reading it, that it hadn't won the Booker prize... but then I'm often baffled by the decisions of judging panels!

The American Boy is a book I've just read in proof. It's by Andrew Taylor, the author of the brilliant Requiem for an Angel which gathers together the three novels of his Roth trilogy. This one is set in the early nineteenth century and without any pishtushery at all, takes you straight to the time and the place in a most exciting way. The boy of the title is the young Edgar Allan Poe... more than that I will not say, except that the characters are wonderfully real and there's a wealth of detail about all sorts of things, some of them truly horrid. All very enjoyable. It's publishing in July.

One of my birthday presents this year was What I Loved by Siri Husdvedt which is on the Orange Longlist. She's a very interesting writer and this is a fascinating book about art and life and madness and families…all things that make you want to turn the pages and not stop till you get to the end of the story.

Now I'm about to start Bel Canto by Ann Patchett which won the Orange prize and comes highly recommended by many friends and my mother-in-law as well!

Til next time, goodbye!

Adèle Geras

Black and white photograph of Adèle Geras by Emanuela Danielewicz