Blog

His novels translated into twenty-two languages, bestsellers on several continents, it would be fair to assume that crime-writer Ian Rankin can sit back a little and relax. Not so. Initially optimistic before setting to work on his latest project, he quips that, if you’re a novelist, one good idea a year is all you need. On the wall…
» Continue Reading

Like many writers, I have been resistent to the concept of self-pulishing. All the more reason to attend the Writers’ and Artists’ Conference (those very nice people who bring us the yearbook). Alison Bavistock kicked off proceedings by reminding us of a few names who have taken this route before: Virginia Woolfe, Mark Twain, Beatrix…
» Continue Reading

Books, coffee: what’s not to love? I am almost tempted to move to Hastings, so that Hanushka’s can be my local coffee shop.

Why not celebrate Banned Booked Week by reading a banned or frequently challenged book? The list is extraordinary, ranging from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (banned in the Chinese province of Hunan, in 1931 for its portrayal of animals acting with the same sensitivities as humans, which censor General Ho Chien believed was an insulting) and Animal Farm (banned in Kenya in…
» Continue Reading

Gloomy statistics from today’s Metro Number of bookshops in UK in 2005: 4000 Number of bookshops in UK in 2011: 2178 Number of towns without a single bookshop: 580 

This Autumn’s National Trust Magazine features short articles from various contributors about their love of walking. In one, novelist and pet Ben Okro describes how he often combines walking with reading as he wanders the canals of Little Venice, pitying the joggers who, unlike him, return ‘reddened and crumpled with all that strain’. Since walking and reading are…
» Continue Reading

Today Flavorwire served up a treat with these rather fetching picture of famous authors and their bicycles. http://www.flavorwire.com/328895/photos-of-famous-authors-and-their-bicycles?all=1

I thought I would share with you paragraphs that consistently top the polls for best opening lines of novels:  “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before…
» Continue Reading

The Booker short-list is out. Must add to reading list. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19592084

“People ask me, “Where do you get your ideas?” “Out of the air,” I tell them. This is a fact, though not a simple one. The air is different in different places; it is the local atmosphere, the medium through which pass the history of the place and the ideas there indwelling.” Russell Hoban  …
» Continue Reading