MARCH/APRIL 2004

NEWSLETTER 9

Work in Progress

My second adult novel still refuses to tell me its name. Lots of people apart from me are thinking about this, so something will emerge eventually, I’m sure. Meanwhile, I’m still putting the final touches to the ‘corrections’ to the first draft, and I hope that by the time I write the next newsletter, the book will be finished and also have a name. And then I’ll move on to Ithaka,which has always had a name, but which also needs some corrections and additions made to the manuscript.

STOP PRESS! My second novel for adults is now called HESTER'S STORY and will appear at the beginning of January 2005.

I have, though, quite finished my contribution to Usborne’s Historical House series, which sets stories in the same house at different historical epochs. My book is called Lizzie’s Wish and takes place in 1857. It will be published in November this year along with Linda Newbery’s Polly’s March and Ann Turnbull’s Josie’s War which are set during the times, respectively, of the Suffragette movement and the Second World War.

Events

It’s been a busy time as far as events go, because this month saw the paperback publication of Facing the Light. The USA edition comes out on April 1st, and you can see what it looks like, together with images of the French, Norwegian covers, here. [NB. click on an image for a larger version]

On February 18th, I spoke to a literary lunch in North Manchester for the charity, Carmel Wizo, and this was the first time that the paperback was on sale. Every single copy Orion provided was bought, which was very gratifying and the whole occasion was most enjoyable. The house in which we met was very splendid and sixty people managed to eat a most delicious buffet meal and sit in great comfort for the talk and questions. A big thank you to all who helped organize it, especially Margaret Fink and Juliette Rose whose home was the perfect venue.

On World Book Day, I went to Waterstone’s in Macclesfield where I spoke to two classes of children from a local school. They were a lovely audience and also bought lots of books. I was gratified to see FTL in piles on the table. It’s in a lot of 3for2 promotions and I get a new kick every time I see it alongside the others. I also got a huge thrill from seeing it in my local Sainsbury’s and pasted on the sides of certain buses here in Manchester. I wonder if one gets blasé about these kinds of things? I haven’t. I still carry a camera with me and take surreptitious photos of the book whenever I can.

On March 5th, I went down to Bath to do an event with Sophie Hannah, my daughter. On the way, I stopped off at St. Michael’s School in Aldbourne and had a very nice picnic lunch with the children there. I spoke to several classes, but the big excitement was meeting Holly and Amy Standfast, who are now aged 10 and 8 but who have been writing to me for years. I’ve been sending them books, and I even dedicated a book to Holly [Louisa on Screen] so it was a real pleasure to meet them. The visit was arranged by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups Aldbourne branch, who are very friendly and hospitable.

Sophie’s train did what most trains do these days, and stopped for a contemplative hour or so outside Birmingham and I was already on the platform and about to speak when she arrived and tore her coat off and just plunged straight in to the discussion without so much as a missed beat. My daughter is a trouper! We had a good session about writing in the family, and the Bath Festival is a very well organized one. Many thanks to our excellent chair, Sara Davies and to Sarah Lefanu for inviting us. We went out to dinner with two old friends after the event and that was delightful. Our hotel, the Country Lodge, was terrific and I’d recommend it to any visitors to Bath. It’s quite the most fragrant hotel I’ve ever been in and coming into our room when we got back from dinner was a real delight.

Not exactly an event, but a gathering of historic significance happened on February 15th. We had a reunion of the cast and crew of a show called ‘Hang down your head and die’. I got a part in it during my first week at Oxford and it went on to be extremely successful, transferring to the Comedy Theatre in the West End in April 1964. This was a ‘forty years on’ celebration and David Wood had arranged a wonderful lunch at the Ivy, in an upstairs room. It was great to see people again whom I hadn’t seen for forty years... and a good few with whom I’ve kept in better touch too. After lunch, we actually sang every a single song from the show. It was a super occasion in every way.

In order to publicize Facing the Light, I did some interviews down the line from the BBC in Manchester. As I passed through the foyer, who should be sitting there but Alistair Campbell. Yes, the man himself! I said: Is it really you? He said: Yes, who are you? I said: An admirer and shook his hand. Not the most sensible passage of conversation but I was flustered by seeing him in the flesh. He is extremely good-looking, which is my excuse for behaving like a star-struck teenager.

On March 18th, I went down to London where I signed stock at Hatchard’s and Waterstone’s Piccadilly and then met Alex Hippisley-Cox, my publicist, at the Orion offices. There I was filmed speaking about Facing the Light for a firm that makes very short films of writers talking about their books. These little movie-clips are displayed in airport bookshops, it appears. Then we went down to Braintree where I spoke at the library as part of the Essex Festival. That was very enjoyable, and many thanks to everyone at the library, especially Sue O’Brien.

On Thursday 25th March, in the evening, I spoke at Simply Books, of Bramhall. Events there are always very pleasant. The shop is such a welcoming place and this time all the chairs put out were actually filled. This evening was an extra treat for me, because I re-met a very old friend from the days when I used to teach in Manchester in the late Sixties, together with her husband and a daughter who is now in her very early forties, but who I remember as a ten-year-old. All very nostalgic and good fun.

I approached the train trip to the Oxford Literary Festival on a Sunday with some trepidation... engineering works meant that buses would take us from Milton Keynes to Oxford and I was a little sceptical to say the least. But I have to report that all went like Clockwork [a Philip Pullman joke!] and full marks to Virgin this time around. And I had, in the words of Oscar Wilde’s Gwendolen "something sensational to read on the train". Val McDermid’s latest, which is called A Distant Echo. I haven’t finished it yet, but will report on it next time. Oxford is one of my favourite places in the whole world and I love coming back to it. This time, I went straight to the Union because I’d arranged to tell a story to some children in the Story Attic before the main event. I could hear Michael Morpurgo’s voice booming down the stairwell and could almost feel the indrawn breath of the children listening to him. Fiona Kenshole arranged this, and it was good to see her again. She used to be my editor at HarperCollins long ago, and then went on to OUP. After Michael’s dramatic tale, I told a rather low-key ghost story about a girl who turns into a bird. Then I had a splendid lunch [Welsh rarebit with leeks in it... must try that at home] with Michael Morpurgo and his wife, Clare and Nicolette Jones of the Sunday Times, who was chairing our event. She had her daughter Rebecca with her and it was great to meet someone who had read so many of my books. Philip Pullman and his wife, Jude, came and sat in on the feast, having hot-footed it from a lunch party at Balliol. The actual debate went well, I thought. We had an excellent chair and it was, as the young people say, awesome to be sitting in the debating chamber of the Oxford Union in front of something like 350 people. There were quite a few friends scattered among the multitudes: Linda Newbery, Linda and Andy Sargent, Louise Stothard, Patricia Elliott, Gill Vickery, Mary Hoffman, and David Fickling.My Spanish tutor, Robert Pring-Mill, who looks almost exactly the same at eighty as he did forty years ago, when he taught me, except for the colour of the hair, arrived with a copy of Troy for me to sign. It was a real treat to see him. The queues for Philip P. were almost Jackie Wilson-esque, so much so that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to him. Michael had long queues as well, and I had a much shorter one, but that allowed me to have a nice cup of tea and a piece of shortbread with my friends before being taken off in Linda and Andy’s silver car to the station. I now have on my desk a beautiful pen-pot as a memento of a really. I am runningout of adjectives to describe smashing times... a really spiffing day. Many thanks to the organizers, Angela Prysor-Jones and Sue Dunsmore.

On Friday April 2nd, I’m off to the Federation of Children’s Book Groups Conference in Birmingham. These weekends are more like a holiday than a conference: a chance to catch up with lots of old friends and chat away till all hours. It’s being held in a hotel and I adore hotels, so a good time seems most likely. More about this next time.

STOP PRESS!

News

I get quite a lot of messages by email, but sometimes something comes in the post, like the letter I’m reproducing below, which came from the British School of Paris. I am copying it here with Uty’s permission because I think it’s one of the nicest letters I’ve had. I like Uty’s fighting spirit and just the way she puts things. I am sure that with such determination, she’s got a good chance of success in whatever she does.

Uty’s letter:

Dear Miss Geras,

I am very glad to write this letter to you. My name is Utibeima (Uty for short) Utin. I am a girl of ten years old. I live with my parents and my favourite colour is blue. I enjoy reading your books and I am a fan of your work.

I love to read your books and I also admire books of fairytales, folk stories and emotional/dramatic. I am really inspired by your books to be a writer myself and it would be wonderful if you could tell me your secrets of writing fantastic books. The way I sometimes use to write little stories is to daydream about them, writing down any thoughts of a brilliant story that comes up in my mind. You are my idol and I am trying with all my focus to write and be a successful woman like you. It would please me so much if you could write back or send anything to teach or encourage me to be like you.

My favourite snacks are sweet, all types of them. Another reason why I decided to write so many poems and stories is that at my old school in Nigeria, where I used to live, my teacher said that I was hopeless at writing.. I write these stories at home on my own, just to keep me busy and also at school. I also started writing to prove the teachers wrong. Please help me to be a brilliant writer. I hope you will consider my letter favourably.

Books

Apart from review books, these are some of the things I’ve enjoyed reading over the past few weeks.

Bound proofs are almost my favourite kind of book. I get a kick from knowing that I’m reading something not many other people know about yet. Into this category falls a thriller called Live Bait by PJ Tracy. It’s their (PJT is two people!) second novel. Their first, Want to play? was a corker as well. Definitely one to write down on a list of ‘must reads.’

The very reliable Mark Billingham has done it again with Lazybones. Anyone who hasn’t yet got into his books has a real treat in store. They’re hard-hitting and quite unputdownable police procedurals but not as you’ve seen these done before. I can’t recommend them strongly enoough. The first two in the series are Sleepyhead and Scaredycat.

My email pal, Sophie Masson, (whose children’s novel, In Hollow Lands, I have reviewed for the Guardian, though they haven’t yet run the piece) sent me her adult novel The Hoax. It’s out of print but that’s a huge shame because it’s a very delicate and intricate family story with all sorts of fascinating insights into the life of Ravel. If you can get hold of it somewhere on the internet, do try to do so. [NB Sophie Masson has copies and if anyone would like one, you can contact her direct on
smasson@northnet.com.au]

The Reading Group is a first novel by Elizabeth Noble and it’s hugely enjoyable. It’s about a book group and the novel is divided into months of the year and each month is attached to the book the group is discussing. They’re interesting women and you get caught up at once in their lives and concerns. I’m going to be meeting the author at a Readers Day in Harrow in June and I can’t wait. This is a real page-turner and well written too. [NB For anyone who doesn’t know newbooksmag, the magazine for readers and reading groups, I do urge you to try and find a copy. I’m biased, I suppose, because they’ve always been very kind to me and FTL, which is one of their featured books in Issue 20, but it is a great magazine and the Readers Days they run all over the country are super fun. I went to one in Manchester last year and enjoyed every minute.]

Wives and Lovers by Jane Elizabeth Varley is another delightful first novel. A sequel is promised too, which is always good to hear when you’ve become attached to characters.

The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler is superb.She’s a writer who makes everything look so effortless. You keep rereading sentences to see how they work. Opening this book is exactly like actually inhabiting the family she’s describing. Marvellous stuff and take no notice of the rather sniffy critics who said things like: not much happens. They were clearly waiting for some shattered glass or perhaps a passing dragon.

My younger daughter sent me Fingersmith by Sarah Waters because she simply couldn’t understand why I hadn’t already read it. She is quite right. It is astonishingly good. Unputdownable and memorable. Also long, which is a plus with me. The same daughter gave me the new Muriel Spark for Mother’s Day [The Finishing School] and that will be good too, but it’s so skinny. I like really fat books, if given a choice, because I read quickly and the pleasure goes on longer if the novel is hefty.

I am going to be writing a review of Alison Prince’s latest book, which is called The Summerhouse. I haven’t quite finished it, but it is a fascinating insight into the writing process, among other things. Other memorable children’s books I’ve read lately include the ebullient Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce and the aforementioned In Hollow Lands.

On my shelf waiting to be read are two presents I received for my recent birthday: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which has a really beautiful cover, and The Time-traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneger, which is on the Orange Prize longlist. I will report on these next time. Also on how The Distant Echo by Val Mcdermid ends up.

Till the end of May, then,

Goodbye

Adèle Geras