Will Self is never a cosy read, and The Book of Dave is no exception. Its central conceit is that, in a Britain where the waters rose calamitously centuries ago, the primitive people who inhabit what’s left of England have founded a religion based on the sacred texts of Dave, a depressed cab driver. The… Continue reading The Book of Dave
To the Royal Exchange on Friday, for the award of the first Edge Hill Short Story prize organised by my friend and colleague Ailsa Cox, and presented by AL Kennedy. It was a very pleasant evening – wine was consumed, canapés eaten, shoulders rubbed with the famous. The prize was awarded to Mothers and Sons… Continue reading Edge Hill Prize
Just got round to reading this novel. You may recall that, over at Patternings, Ann Darnton’s experience of the novel was considerably spoiled by a reference to Beatles and Rolling Stones covers of Chuck Berry, at a time when they hadn’t released them. Now here’s a funny thing- I was bracing myself for that bit,… Continue reading On Chesil Beach
Over at Patternings, Ann Darnton points out how her reading of Chesil Beach was spoilt by Ian McEwan’s failure to get a contemporary detail right – he has his protagonist playing Beatles and Rolling Stones covers of Chuck Berry before they were recorded. On one level it’s a minor detail, but on another, as Ann… Continue reading Oh for an editor
Recent analyses of what writers earn confirm pretty much what we all knew anyway, which is that, unless you are JK, or Salman, don’t give up the day job. That is, unless you can live on four grand a year.In that financial climate, the claims of the mail-order writing schools look a bit dubious. But… Continue reading Writing for profit?
Classic FM tell me that, to mark Mothering Sunday, they are podcasting Jane Austen novels, or, as they put it “complete abridged re-telling of these romantic classics”. That’s got to be better than the shortened abridged version, hasn’t it?
This dilemma was recently faced by me and ‘er indoors. Our solution appears as a comment way down the page. This marks a huge advance for us, as about ten years ago when we decided we were really really going to get rid of some books, we managed about three nominees between us in about… Continue reading Book Cull