JULY 2003

NEWSLETTER 5

Manchester feels more like the South of France at the moment. It’s very hot, far too hot to work, really, but writing a newsletter is little different. Perhaps this is a displacement activity, but I thought I would post it early this month, just for a change.

Before I go on to forthcoming events, I’d like to mention two that were cancelled. One was the Summer Party at Ottakar’s in Stafford. This was called off for a really *silly* reason: there was no one to lock up the venue afterwards…can you believe it? More than 60 people were disappointed, to say nothing of this author, who had really been looking forward to the occasion. I believe Ottakar’s might ask us all back for a date in September…watch this space!

The Wavendon weekend gig was cancelled because of lack of take-up…the musical part of the event went ahead as planned but no one, it seems, wanted to do creative writing…who knows why. I certainly didn’t see any ads at all for this event, but I’m not sure how all that works. Never mind, eh? I had a good weekend with our daughters both visiting us instead.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

The July 28th creative writing workshop at the Roehampton Institute as part of a Children’s Literature Summer School will definitely be going ahead and I’m looking forward to that. Lots of other writers, like Jill Paton-Walsh and Aidan Chambers will also be there and the events organized by the Institute are always great.

Edinburgh Book Festival is going to be the highlight of the summer for me. I’m scheduled to appear on Friday 14th August at 2.30pm along with Fiona Shaw and Catherine Dunne, and I can’t wait. Eileen Ramsay is coming as my guest, and I hope very much that Theresa Breslin will be in the audience as well. I’m staying overnight at a lovely-looking hotel and hope to see lots of friends, including Celia Rees who’s there to publicize her great forthcoming novel for young adults, Pirates!

I’m also on at the Cheltenham Festival in October. Details are scanty as yet, but the date is October 18th, and the event is what’s called a ‘family event’ i.e one that parents and children can attend together.

It’s also a long time in the future, but I ought to mention the Federation of Children’s Book Groups Day in Oxford on Saturday November 8th. This celebrates 10 years of the Oxford Children’s Book Group. I’m on a panel discussing Barn Owl Books, alongside Linda Newbery and Ann Jungman, who does such sterling work in bringing out-of-print books back to life. She’s published VOYAGE, and one of my very earliest books, APRICOTS AT MIDNIGHT, is appearing in September. This has a wonderful cover by Jane Ray which I will put up on the site as soon as I have a proof.

PUBLICATION NEWS

FACING THE LIGHT has now been sold to Poland,which brings the number of foreign rights sold up to 16.

The paperback is appearing in March 2004. Discussions are taking place as I write about the cover image, but it will be quite different from the hardback. The publication will hopefully coincide with the new hardback which still hasn’t got a title!

The German edition, SOMMERLICHT, was Number 1 on the Stern magazine bestseller list a couple of weeks ago. Thrilling news, that was.

I’ve just corrected the proofs of OTHER ECHOES, which David Fickling Books are publishing in February 2004. The cover artist is Chris Corr, whose rough in black and white is marvellous. He’s famous for his singing colours, so I can’t wait to see the finished article, but meanwhile, the sketch I have is very evocative, just because of the words like ‘turquoise’ and ‘orange’ written on the page.

There have been advertisements in the Bookseller for SLEEPING BEAUTY, and Annie Everall of Derbyshire Libraries chose it as her favourite picture book of the season. I’ll be putting some of Christian Birmingham’s lovely illustrations up on the site nearer to publication on October 17th. The Cheltenham Festival event will be a sort of launch.

I’ve had the proof of the cover of ‘silent snow, secret snow’( this title always has to be in lower case!) which Young Picador are publishing in October, and that will also go up on the site in the fullness of time.

THE BALLET CLASS comes out in September, and some of Shelagh McNicholas’s pictures will appear on the site at the end of next month.

And watch out next time for some of the illustrations by Anita Lobel for the very snazzy new full-colour edition of MY GRANDMOTHER’S STORIES, coming from Random House, USA in October.

WORK IN PROGRESS

I am still writing NOVEL 2…and it’s still NOVEL 2, though I call it NOV affectionately…Two titles have been jettisoned as not indicating clearly enough what the book’s about. I have till October to finish it, and I panic about this from time to time…it’s what they call in cricketing circles ‘a big ask’ but I hope I can do it. Head down and don’t look up till you’ve got there is my attitude at the moment. I’m not doing any other writing, but of course there are always emails, proofs to correct and so on.

TWO WONDERFUL WEBSITES

www.clmg.org.uk is the website for the Campaign for Learning in Museums and Galleries. If you click on the Words and Wings link, you’ll come across details of a wonderful CD of folk songs, sung by old people, who then speak about their memories. The CD is marvellous: moving and inspirational and I’m very grateful to my friend Linda Sargent who sent it to me. She works with the Campaign which helps to preserve the past in this exciting way. The CD is called Music and Memory.

A lovely present came to me from the USA. It’s a CD called Once Canciones/Eleven Songs by Diego Luzuriaga and Dana Hanchard ( soprano) These are incredibly beautiful: songs written for and about the composer’s (and other people’s) children. I haven’t tried but I’m sure you can probably order the CD from Amazon.com. The number is FGM 10294. FGM stands for Fertile Ground Music. Also, if you visit Diego Luzuriaga’s website, www.diegoluzuriaga.com you can see some of the glorious illustrations his wife, Clare Doherty, has made for these songs.

BOOKS READ RECENTLY

Poor old The Crimson Petal and the White will now have to wait till after I’ve finished NOV 2…I can’t even begin to think of picking up such a huge tome…but like a fine wine, I’m sure it’ll only get better
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I read everything Margaret Atwood writes but have to admit that Oryx and Crake, though brilliant, was not exactly my cup of tea. It’s written with Atwood’s usual élan, though, and frightened the life out of me!

I got to Anne Fine’s Carnegie shortlisted (and Commended!) novel Up on Cloud Nine rather belatedly, but it’s Fine on good form, and can be recommended to anyone of any age. It deals with a child who has tried to commit suicide, but isn’t nearly as gloomy as it sounds. Her book The More The Merrier, about a nightmare family Christmas, is a real hoot. That’s coming out in the autumn. Also Sisterland, by Linda Newbery is out in September and shouldn’t be missed.

Starter for Ten by David Nicolls (writer of Cold Feet) is hilarious. It’s about a young man going up to University and getting involved with the College team for University Challenge, but in spite of its subject matter being far from unexpected, the manner of the telling is what makes it so delightful. Great stuff.

The Emperor of Ocean Park by US law professor, Stephen. L. Carter is also terrific, though I did feel that it might have been a little shorter. It’s a thriller, but what’s so good about it is not so much the ‘story’ as the background of law schools, appointments to the Supreme Court, the whole tapestry of legal politics in Washington, particularly among what Carter refers to as ‘the darker nation.’ You really do learn a lot from this book, and it’s a page-turner as well.

Best thriller I’ve read for *ages* is Michael Malone’s First Lady. He’s an amazing writer…he’s written two other books about the same characters as those who appear in this latest book, so if you haven’t tried him, why not go for Uncivil Seasons and Time's Witness as well? He’s written many other things too, but I can only vouch for these three, and cannot recommend them highly enough. Lots of people write good thrillers…these are thrillers which are also cracking *novels*…a whole Southern town comes to life; the characters are engaging and funny and poignant and you just believe in the whole thing…there is no ‘so what?’ element at all.

Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel is one of the most interesting and moving memoirs I’ve read. She is a very good novelist (try Eight Months on Gazzah Street, A Change of Climate…just for starters) but this account of her extraordinary childhood and dreadful ordeals that the medical profession put her through is just as amazing as all the reviews have said it is. It’s hard to believe that someone could have produced such great books when they were almost constantly in agony.

I’m a huge fan of Nicci French, the writing partnership of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, and now Gerrard has written her first novel on her own. Things We Knew Were True is a domestic story with a slow-burning fuse…superb writing about family life, adolescent passion and food, but with a kick that only appears slowly and quite a long way into the book. I loved it!

Come Back to Sorrento by Dawn Powell (A US edition) is an old-fashioned read in the best possible sense. It was written in 1932 and this is a long-overdue reissue. It takes you into a small town world of a woman who once had ambitions to be an opera singer. Really enjoyable.

Anyone underwhelmed by the whole Harry Potter thing but in need of a fantastical world should try the witty and intricate Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud. This is part one of The Bartimaeus Trilogy and will shortly be a movie, too. Get a head start by reading the book!

I’m now reading The Straw Men by Michael Marshall, which is so exciting that it’s hard to put it down to come and sit at the computer. I’m about half way through but I *think* I might have guessed something about the identity of the main killer. Or maybe not..I’m useless at such things, and often get them entirely wrong.

Things to look forward to: Helen Dunmore’s latest Mourning Ruby, which has just arrived this morning in proof form, and Jan Mark’s Stratford Boys, which is about Shakespeare as a teenager. What a brilliant idea! Can’t wait to read both of these…when the murderer in Straw Men has been safely caught and order restored.

More in a couple of months…do send in any book recommendations you might have via email.

Adèle Geras

PS. My husband has just launched his new weblog - normblog - and anyone interested in blogging, movies, politics, cricket, music and sundry other matters might like to take a look. It's at:

www.normangeras.blogspot.com