The Adele Geras Web Site

Adele

MARCH 2009

NEWSLETTER 31

WORK IN PROGRESS

I have made a start on my Next Adult Novel which I call NAN. This name conjures up a benign, grandmotherly sort of person and makes the whole prospect of writing the book seem less daunting. I made slow progress at first but am gradually speeding up. In any case, I have a good new motto: It doesn’t matter how slowly you go as long as you don’t stop.
Things are progressing nicely on the DIDO front. The bound proofs are ready soon and are being sent out, as is a lovely flier advertising the book. This is the cover, by Alison Jay, who also did the artwork for Troy and Ithaka. I love her style and think the jacket image works beautifully.

click to see a larger version

EVENTS

The event at Stockport Art Gallery on November 6th went very well. I spoke mostly about my novel A CANDLE IN THE DARK because the children had just been round the travelling Anne Frank exhibition.

The Gothic Day at Highgate School was also very enjoyable. Linda Newbery, Sarah Singleton and I had coffee in a cafe near Highgate tube station before walking up to the school. Linda had prepared a Power Point presentation which added greatly to what we were telling the pupils. We spoke in a nicely Gothic setting of a school hall which wouldn’t have been out of place in Hogwarts: all dark wood and high vaulted ceilings. Linda is an old and good friend of mine and it was great to meet Sarah for the first time and I think we worked well as a triple act. During lunch, we met up with a rather damp Celia Rees. She’d been taking children round Highgate Cemetery in the rain and was doing a talk just after lunch. I hope she forgave me for missing out on this and electing to go home on an earlier train...the temptation to be back before nightfall was irresistible. All in all, it was a very pleasant day indeed.

On February 8th, I gave a talk at Yeshurun Synagogue in Gatley, in their Xperience series of events. The audience came out to listen on a really foul night for which I’m most grateful. They were a very lively and interested gathering and I came home with a bunch of proteas which look really exotic and beautiful. Many thanks to Julia and Marilyn; also to Steve, Daniel and Ruth. This is a photo of me taken by Daniel at the event.

I visited Henry Box School in Witney on February 13th and spent a few hours with a group of Gifted and Talented children, doing some creative writing. It was wonderful to see what good work they produced and I think everyone enjoyed the day. I certainly did and many thanks to Caroline Reading for organizing it and also driving me to and from Oxford Station.

On February 24th, I spoke at the Macclesfield Literary and Philosophical Society. It was an evening when Manchester United were playing in Milan and I thought no one would want to leave their television set. In the event, about 50 people came to Macclesfield Library where Geoff Kipling introduced me. I hadn’t seen Geoff for about 20 odd years and it was good to see him again and also to meet his wife, Lesley. We had a super meal at Pizza Express beforehand which was an extra treat.

On February 26th, Sophie Hannah and I spoke at Simply Books. As ever, they put on a wonderful evening with wine and delicious titbits to eat and the room was full to capacity. I’m always amazed by how well Sue and Andrew manage these events. I’ve not been to one that hasn’t been fun, and well-attended and what’s more, they manage to sell an awful lot of books to a great many people.

On March 1st, Geraldine Brennan chaired a session at Jewish Book Week in which Lynne Reid Banks and I were speaking about our work to a crowd of children and their parents. It was billed as being two ‘grandes dames’ of children’s books and Lynne for one took the description seriously, appearing in a fabulous brocaded jacket....every inch the Grande Dame. It was terrific for me to meet a writer I’ve admired most of my reading life and Lynne is just as interesting and entertaining in person as she is in her novels. Geraldine was a very good chair and the whole event was very enjoyable.

I also led a workshop later on in the afternoon for adults who want to write for children. They were a very lively crowd and I’m sure that there are some very good writers among them.

On World Book Day, I was in Rochdale talking to adults on the Shamwari Project, which helps recent immigrants and others who are learning English as a second language and also adult learners from the Gateway Centre. I was mostly speaking about my Quick Read book LILY: a ghost story as you can see from the photo here.

I had a really good time and enjoyed meeting such a friendly group of people. Many thanks to Pamela Taylor-Bramwell for all her kindness in giving me a lift there and back and thanks to her and to Jane Mathieson for arranging everything.

I spoke to more adult learners at the Sixth Form College at Ashton-under-Lyne on March 11th and they too were a very interesting and lively group. Lots of them bought copies of LILY, too and they all were most enthusiastic about reading which was heartening to see. Many thanks to Chris Smith and Angela.

BOOKS

Quite a lot of books to talk about this time round. First of all the ones mentioned at the end of the last newsletter.

ARCTIC CHILL by Arnaldur Indridason (Harvill Secker) was excellent. The death of an immigrant child near a block of flats begins a story which ties in with Erlandur’s own personal history. The past is, as usual, an important influence on the present. His characters are as strong as ever and perhaps now that there’s an added interest in matters Icelandic Indridason will become as well known as Mankell and Larsson.

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE by Stieg Larsson (Maclehose Books) is the follow-up to THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. Some people liked it even better than the first book but on the whole I think I marginally preferred the first novel in the series. There’s not much in it, but I think the actual ‘mystery’ to be solved in more interesting in Dragon Tattoo. Still, the heroine of both, Lizbeth Salander, is an amazing character and I am now eagerly awaiting the last book in the trilogy. Larsson is dead, alas, so there will be no more from him, but he’s ensured his immortality with these novels.

AMERICAN WIFE by Curtis Sittenfield (Doubleday) is absolutely terrific. Easily one of the most enjoyable books I read last year. It tells the story, in her own words, of a fictionalized Laura Bush and you are right there with her every step of her way to the White House. It’s unputdownable, and the one event in her life which you think might be a fiction turns out to be actually true about the ex-First Lady. Do not let your opinion of the Bushes stand in your way...this is an outstanding novel and it would be a pity if anyone were put off it on political grounds.

THE CORONER by M. R Hall (Pan) is a good new thriller (and the start of a series about the eponymous coroner, who is a woman.) Jenny has problems of her own in plenty as she arrives in her new job only to discover all kinds of murk and wrong-doing centred round a prison for young offenders. She takes an awful lot of tranquillizers during the course of the novel, but it’s a gripping read and very enjoyable. The writer is a male lawyer, and his female coroner rings entirely true.

HOLD TIGHT by Harlan Coben (Orion) is about parents who are worried about their son and who therefore put a spying device on to his computer. Coben also manages to interweave three other stories on to the stem of this one and the result is a very involving story which races along.

COLD IN HAND (Arrow) is by the reliably good John Harvey. If you don’t know his Charlie Resnick books, set in Nottingham, then you are in for a treat. There are lots of them for you to enjoy but this one, be warned, is extremely sad and I was quite upset by one plot development. I won’t say another word...do try these novels. Resnick is one of the best of English coppers and makes terrific sandwiches and has cats called after jazz musicians. How can you resist?

People can sometimes be very rude about Richard and Judy’s choice of books, but I often enjoy them. It’s also good (though it makes me feel ancient) to read a novel by the son of two writers whose work I’ve enjoyed in the past. If you know Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, then you’ll be glad to hear that their son, Jesse Kellerman is a chip of both old blocks. THE BRUTAL ART (Sphere) is a corker. I shan’t say more than that about it. Do try it for yourselves. It’s very interesting and unusual and has to do with the world of art dealers and artists and also with murky secrets from the past, than which there is nothing nicer.

TOO CLOSE TO HOME by Linwood Barclay (Orion) is a follow-up to this author’s Richard and Judy bestseller, NO TIME FOR GOODBYE. I really liked this one, which is about a family killed in their own home. The neighbour who narrates the story realizes that perhaps the murderers got the wrong house and the wrong family. I guessed the twist in No Time for Goodbye about half way through the book but here I was in the dark for a while longer. Gripping stuff.

CROSSED WIRES by Rosy Thornton is a delight. Her hero, Peter, rings a call centre after a car accident and her heroine, Mina, answers the phone. From this beginning we are led into two stories, his and hers, and the way in which the two plot strands are woven together is most skilful. And okay, we know they are going to end up together, but how they get there is both highly satisfying and also very engagingly written. Thornton’s also very good at depicting children and teenagers: not a skill that’s universal among writers.

WEDDING SEASON by Katie Fforde is her usual blend of romance, fun, gossip, good humour and in this case lots and lots of detail about weddings. The heroine is a wedding-planner and I just loved reading about the clothes, the food, the flowers, the hair and even the Colour Me Beautiful consultation. It’s terrifically good fun like all Fforde’s book and she’s even imported a couple of characters from another book into the mix for good measure. This book is the literary equivalent of a Pimm’s.

BETWEEN TWO SEAS by Marie-Louise Jensen is a very unusual historical novel which many adults would enjoy, even though it was written for teenagers. The brave and resourceful heroine, Marianne, goes to Skagen in Denmark after her mother’s death to seek out her father whom she has never known. The journey is hard and when she gets to her destination, her troubles are far from over, but (without giving away the ending) she finds happiness at last, thanks to her own talents and the help of others. What I liked best of all in this book was the way in which the landscape, the countryside, the fishing, the sea and the work of various painters came so vividly to life. Skagen is a real place and the author has researched the artists working there very carefully. A really fascinating book about a place that has not been much written about before.

Jean Ure’s latest, FORTUNE COOKIE ( Collins) is written with this author’s characteristic humour, and understanding of both children and animals. She deals with issues of disability and animal cruelty and relationships between old and young with such a light touch that you don’t notice there’s a moral there at all. But her characters are sympathetic and the first person narrative is light without descending into triviality. Her animals are lovely and threaten to steal the show whenever they appear. One to try on any child you know.

OUT OF THE BLUE by Val Rutt is published by Piccadilly Press in April. I read it in typescript and can report that it’s a touching and moving Second World War story, but with an extra dimension. The romance between sixteen-year-old Kitty and Sammy, an American pilot is the main thread of the plot, but the story is amplified and deepened by a letter which Kitty receives sixty years later. This double time-frame adds drama and irony and a sense of ‘if only’ that’s one of the best things about this well-told story. Rutt has a good eye for period detail and speaks on her website about the inspiration for the novel within her own family.

POP PRINCESS by Isabelle Merlin. Isabelle Merlin is an Aussie writer and she happens to be a pal of mine so that I can get to read her books even though I don’t live in Australia. I can’t imagine that teenage girls over here wouldn’t enjoy these books (there’s an earlier Merlin book called Three Wishes) . This one is about a girl called Lucie who is whisked away from her daily life to become a kind of companion to the eponymous Pop Princess, whose name is Arizona. In Paris no less....so the stage is set for adventures, glamour danger etc. All terrific fun without being mindless. Well-written, vivid and engaging and Lucie is a delightful first-person narrator. We’re rooting for her all the way. Meanwhile, in the global village that is our world, it’s possible to get these books from Random House, Australia thanks to the magic of the internet.

I’ve started to put up some book reviews on the blog of the Scattered Authors’ Society. The link is awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com

and you will find on the site reviews of SERIOUS THINGS, by Gregory Normiston, THE SANDFATHER by Linda Newbery, SAVING RAFAEL by Leslie Wilson, TETHERED by Amy MacKinnon, FORTUNE COOKIE (see above) and ARCTIC CHILL ( see above also)

Next time, I’ll talk about two forthcoming novels I’ve read recently: a glorious, all-encompassing state-of-the-nation story from Amanda Craig, called HEARTS AND MINDS (Little Brown) and a spooky tale by Margaret Leroy called THE DROWNING GIRL ( Mira)