archive for "Books"
Don’t Panic 15th, April 2013
Stories release us from the limitations of our ordinary lives. They process the complexities of existence, they entertain, they counsel and console. And sometimes, they save us. I was fourteen and the world was going to end. Four minutes, that was all we’d have, and then we’d be atomised: nothing between us and the bomb except a stupid understairs cupboard or a stupid kitchen table. Every time the Soviet Union and the States went head to head over Afghanistan, say, or Nicaragua, it meant High Wycombe [...]
for your consideration 13th, July 2012
My To-Be-Read (TBR) pile is so big that it’s not a pile at all, but several shelves in a downstairs bookcase. Here is part of it: This is what happens when your ability to read is outstripped by a compulsion to acquire. I sometimes fantasise about redressing the balance, taking a few months off writing to just read and drink tea. There may come a point where I will justify this to myself as essential to my work, and get on and do it. In the [...]
Fifty Shades of… oh stuff it, I’m not making a lame Book Porn pun 6th, July 2012
What follows is either a fascinating post about book classification, or a self-deluded account of high-level work avoidance strategies – take your pick. Either way, I have found My Adventures In Book Porn to be more exciting than bestselling women’s erotica. Which is probably a bad thing. Last weekend, I spent a pleasurable few hours rearranging my fiction and poetry books from their previous system (alphabetical by author’s last name). They are now arranged by colour, like this: I think this is very beautiful, so [...]
The Other Half of Me 9th, June 2012
As I write this, we are in the throes of a truly British summer which means, of course, that the sky is the colour of anthracite and high winds have forced the British sailing teams to take a break from their pre-Olympic racing. It’s the perfect moment to curl up with a book which will transport you to a completely different place and time, so I’m delighted to welcome writer Morgan McCarthy to the blog today. Her ‘exquisitely-written…gripping’ novel The Other Half of Me takes [...]
Richard and Judy (in which i react to good news ) 24th, May 2012
It’s just been announced that Jubilee is a Richard and Judy Book Club choice for Summer 2012. This is incredible / amazing / gobsmacking / brilliant / wonderful – delete as applicable. (No! Don’t delete anything! They’re all applicable!) These are the things I did when Orion’s Fiction head, Susan Lamb, rang to give me the news: 1: I didn’t believe what I was hearing. Each time she told me, my brain scrambled the information. She had to be very, very patient, viz: SL: [...]
Book at Bedtime 18th, May 2012
I am utterly thrilled to announce that Jubilee has been chosen as a Book at Bedtime on Radio 4, airing from Monday, May 28th. For me this is a piece of particularly good news, because Radio 4 and I have a very close personal relationship; it’s been going on for years. Several places at my fantasy dinner party are taken by Radio 4 stalwarts: Jenni Murray (we are not worthy), the razor-sharp Jane Garvey, and PM’s Eddie Mair, who occupies a particular place in my [...]
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