Judge a book by its cover?

This week's Stylist was one of those best kind of surprises: the awesome but unexpected kind. This week is Stylist's literary week and the magazine is appropriately stuffed full of bookish things - from Gatsby fashion to Kindle debates, from book clubs to bookshelves. I'm not about to steal its content though because you can have a look right here: http://www.stylist.co.uk/in-this-weeks-issue/


Instead, I've used it as inspiration and for that I didn't need to look any further than its front cover. "Judge a book by its cover". This phrase is one known all over the world and used in ways that have absolutely no relation to books and its nearly always considered a bad thing. The thing is, everyone does it! One of the best things about working in the book industry is realising that you aren't the only one doing it... and guess what... the publishers know you're doing it too.

At our last book club meeting it was announced that we would read Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things. Regardless of the book itself, I can't explain my disappointment when I found out that there was only one edition available and that the cover was SO disappointing. It looks like one of those covers you get on the academic editions at school.

In publishing, what you want is a cover that is "sexy". Now, please take a moment to applaud my use of the word. I have cringed for much of my first year in the industry because that word keeps coming up and, ironically, as a word, it really couldn't be any less sexy! Anyway... I've rambled. Today I thought I'd take a look at some of my favourite covers.

So on the left hand side you have some of my favourite special edition hardbacks. I'm not going to pretend I read them, I don't - far too bulky and I wouldn't want to ruin them. I do like having them, though. In fact I have 3 editions of The Great Gatsby, including a beautiful red and gold one that I received as a present a few years ago.

My copy of Atonement is one of many beautiful modern classics sold exclusively by Waterstones. Some great novels have all been given these beautiful and unique covers including Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, Restoration by Rose Tremain, The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes.

Now to the paperbacks. I've always been a big fan of Vintage classics and their covers and when I got to do work experience there, I was lucky enough to take home a mountain of them. My shelves are now dotted with bright red spines and beautiful photographic, illustrated and intricately designed covers for some of the world's most celebrated stories. Wuthering Heights is one of my favourites of the Vintage collection. There's something so evocative and crisp about it. The matt covers of the books as well just give it that sleek final touch, which kind of makes me want to eat them...

Now everyone knows the cover for One Day by David Nicholls but all his books have had the same treatment. I hate it when book covers are so busy or 'clever' that it takes you ages to find the title and when you have found it you realise actually that's the author's name, not the title etc etc. This couldn't be further from complicated and I like it that way. Plus I'm a sucker for series...

At the end of the day, in a board room somewhere publishers, production and design teams are coming up with book covers that will make you pick them up off the shelf. The best covers are the ones that don't just reflect the novel but the reader, specifically catering the buyer's aesthetic tastes in order to ensure they pick up a book they will actually enjoy. Sometimes you get put off by covers and you think badly of yourself for judging it so quickly but I think, sometimes, that may not mean the book is bad but that it might be a sign that the book just isn't meant for you! What do you think?

And the winner is...

Unless you're sheltered in some underground cave somewhere in Antarctica, it would be hard for you not to know that it was the 84th Annual Academy Awards last night. Now, strictly speaking, the Oscars are not a celebration of books and I'm not about to persuade you that secretly it really is but books do play their part. One of the most anticipated awards is the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay.

The winner of this year's award went to The Descendants. I have, actually, seen this film, and some of its competitors (Hugo and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) but admittedly I haven't read any of the novels. Nevertheless, it did make me ask the question - can there ever be a good Adaptation.

At university I did a module called Literature into Film, where we looked at a handful of classic film adaptations of books ranging from Lolita to Amadeus, from A Room with a View to The Talented Mr Ripley. For my final essay, however, I studied Mrs Dalloway and The Hours by Michael Cunningham and the subsequent film. No reader of this blog will be surprised to learn that my choice stemmed from my fascination with Virginia Woolf but I still struggled with the question of 'good adaptations'.

My belief, and you may disagree, is that you can have a film that perfectly adapts the novel, word by word, in a way that spectacularly recreates the images in your head that the novel originally sparked. This is rare, as everyone's imagination is different, and even when it does happen, it can feel a bit lacklustre because you don't learn or experience anything new. The only times I have truly enjoyed this type of successful adaptation is when I have read the book such a long time ago that I get satisfaction from remembering the story through film.

It is well known that people who read a book before they see the film, are often disappointed as the book is 'always'  better. My personal view is that the more you can mentally separate a novel from its film, the more likely you will enjoy both and, also, protect  your enjoyment of both.

One of the most debated adaptations is the Harry Potter series. I personally enjoyed the books and the films but I think that is because I so rarely consider them as the same thing.

To finish off, I thought I'd list some of my favourite most recent adaptations in the last year:

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

and some that are due out in the coming months:

Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

England's literary south east coast

 
Last weekend I was lucky enough to spend some time down on the south eastern coast of England in Rye and Hastings, with some tea in Appledore for good measure. As a Londoner, I've always visited the South East and have done since I was a kid. We used to brave the crowds at Camber, go mad in the arcades at Hastings, potter about the shops in Rye and soak up the history at Leeds and Hever Castle. What I never really appreciated, though, was the literary side of things.
Rye, for instance, is the home to Lamb House. It's a beautiful Georgian house with a stunningly well-kept walled garden where English novelists Henry James and E.F. Benson once lived. It is also the subject of Joan Aitken's novel, The Haunting of Lamb House, one part of which features Henry James himself. The house has also been home to other successful writers, literary agents and publishers alike.

Moving down the coast to Hastings and you find yourself back in Dickens territory. Although Charles Dickens is not thought to have ever actually lived in the charming seaside town, he did perform readings of his works at the Music Hall there. Sadly, but not altogether surprisingly, this building no longer exists and in its place stands a Wetherspoons. When Dickens visited, he supposedly stayed at the Marine Hotel in Pelham Place, which, again, no longer exists. Another writer that spent time in Hastings was Lewis Carroll, who spent summers with his aunts at 2 Wellington Square. It is thought he visited the Royal Concert Hall in St Leonards and preached in St Mary Magdalene Church.

My favourite bookish feature of Hastings, however, was Boulevard Books. By day, it is a charming bookshop where you can browse and buy as you please but by night you can dine there, right amongst the bookshelves, and eat delicious Thai food! Two of my favourite things.. Thai food... and books. Yum!

For the Love of Books: A Sarajevo Story

Last night I watched a brilliant documentary, For the Love of Books: A Sarajevo Story, about a group of men and women who risked their lives to rescue and preserve a large and extremely valuable library collection - largely Islamic manuscripts – in an effort to protect the nation's history that lay between the pages of each book. 

I was, quite frankly, embarrassed at my ignorance of what exactly happened during the Seige of Sarajevo in the early 1990s. The Seige was the longest seige of a capital city in modern history and saw 18000 Serbian troops fill the hills and rain bullets and bombs down on Sarajevo. Every time someone left their house they risked being shot dead by the snipers hiding in the burnt out buildings and overshadowing hills. In the midst of all this, thousands and thousands of books dating back over 900 years sat sheltered in Sarajevo's Gazi Husrav Beg Library that was founded back in 1537.

But like every other building in the city, the library was not safe and it took a handful of extremely brave and admirable men and women to protect the most important books and see them to safety. This involved putting their own lives in danger on a regular basis and the reconstruction film together with the real wartime footage shown in the documentary made my heart race. Truly terrifying, yet inspiring, this documentary follows the people who moved 10,000 irreplacable texts to safety while their city was under seige for nearly 4 brutal years.

Heart-pumping stuff. Definitely worth watching on BBC iplayer this week! Go go go!

Five Quarters of the Orange

From the back cover: Why we hid the truth for so long. Beyond the main street of Les Laveuses runs the Loire, smooth and brown as a sunning snake - but hiding a deadly undertow beneath its moving surface. This is where Framboise, a secretive widow, plies her culinary trade at the creperie - and lets her memory play strange games. As her nephew attempts to exploit the growing success of the country recipes Framoise has inherited form her mother, a woman remembered with contempt by the villagers, memories of a disturbed childhood during the German Occupation flood back, and expose a past full of betrayal, blackmail and lies.

I had a lot of high hopes for this novel. On the surface, at least, Joanne Harris's Five Quarters of the Orange had everything I felt like reading. I had a craving for small-town France, a dollop of nostalgia and preferably a sprinkling of World War II for good measure. It didn't instantly grab me, though: the characters are great and you really get a feel for this particular family's dynamic but I didn't instantly like any of them. Framboise describes her eccentric, hard-nosed and deeply troubled mother but it is clear early on that Framboise is just like her and that she is resentful of that fact. She's a cool character with a sharp edge and a determination that is admirable but not instantly charming.

This is a family drama that explores many different generations and relationships but what Harris reveals brilliantly is just how cruel children can be. Often it is forgiveable but it doesn't make the victim feel any less hurt. Framboise and her mother really test each other and it makes for a captivating relationship.

The characters and the plot definitely took time to grow on me but what remains constant, is the landscape. Set just outside Angers, you can practically smell the countryside and the fruit in the market.

For me, this was a book I liked as a whole; I didn't love every moment, every scene, every word but I did enjoy the end product, the full package, the overall feeling and felt well and truly involved by the time I put it down. I give it a 7/10

To Kindle or not to Kindle...

Today, a fully-functioning, commercial literary agency walked into the 21st century armed with Amazon's latest state of the art, sleek, lightweight, slate-coloured, brand new Kindle. And, do you know what, I didn't die and there are still books on the shelf - beautifully tidied by me, might I add.

There's no getting away from it - the eBook is here to stay and today was the first time I've really had an up-close look at the beast that threatens to destroy the industry that I am so desperate, perhaps naively, to be part of.

I don't know about any of you kindlers out there but, aside from being easy to use and having ridiculously satisfying screensavers, there's definitely that feeling that you know this is an early generation of something potentially huge. One day it's going to be an all-singing, all-dancing, all-colour glistening beauty but for now, it's got something ancient about it. Maybe that's part of its charm? That its trying to slot its way into a world that has been around for so long and still produces thick bricks of paper for people to spill coffee over and accidentally rip.

For me, I can't see myself in the near future buying one of these for myself but it's fun and, realistically, necessary for me to be used to using one considering my job. The best thing about it for now, though, is that I can now read unpublished, unbound manuscripts on the train! Wow... geeky. But seriously, I can't believe that anyone, whether it 2012 or 1812, carrying around hundreds of double-spaced A4 pages could not do with a nice handy slimline tablet device to make it all that little bit easier.

Let's see where it takes me... but for now, would love to know where you all stand on the Kindle divide! x

The Bookshop on the Heath

A friendly wave from The Bookshop on the Heath!

One of my ultimate favourite places is The Bookshop on the Heath in Blackheath Village, south east London. It's like walking into one of those really old libraries that has so much character and is full to the brim with second hand books, signed first editions, posters and book illustrations. It has that convincing and oh-so-lovely old book smell... I am hoping you all know what I mean... There was one instance at school when I took a long deep breath to take in all the papery goodness of a book we'd been given to read only to find a handful of friends staring at me like I was some kind of book-smelling alien.

Anyhow... back to the bookshop. It's been around since 1949, making it one of the oldest second hand bookshops in Greater London and in its time has accumulated a mountain of fantastic books. There's a great range available, too, from modern crime classics to old children's books and rows and rows of old Penguin editions.

If you're looking for something in particular, do ask, because the owners are incredibly helpful. Saying that, it really is worth just diving in and seeing what you can find. Sure, you might not be able to fork out thousands of pounds for a signed first edition, but there is plenty there for your average book-buyer at ridiculously cheap prices and also plenty of titles that are currently out of print.

It was also used for a couple of episodes in Spooks! Why not pop in and see if you recognise it?

The Bookshop on the Heath

74 Tranquil Vale

Blackheath

London

SE3 0BW

Tel:   0208 852 4786

www.bookshopontheheath.co.uk 

The Art of the Bookshelf...

So the not-so-secret secret is out... I'm a hoarder and my bookshelves prove it. I have to admit it... much to my mum's despair. I can't seem to contain my 'stuff' on my own shelves and so often have to sneak a couple of brick-like books onto the 'family' shelves... So this post isn't about any specific books, but about BOOKSHELVES. Wow, this is promising to be a wiiild post, no?

I, personally, love bookshelves and, if you're like me but haven't already spotted it on my recommended links list - you really need to see this website http://bookshelfporn.com. It's the most hilarious concept and simply just makes you want a mansion to yourself just so that you could, in some way, attempt to recreate all the amazing bookshelves in your own home.

Now it's not just average person's bookshelf I'm interested in. To be honest, my own bookshelves are pretty uninspiring... Lots of great books but, at the end of the day, they're just normal wooden bookshelves... What I love is finding out what authors sit on the shelves of other authors. The ever-growing Legacy Libraries project allows you to explore just that! The website has a huge database full of authors and other well-known figures and all the books that were found on their bookshelves.

A year or so ago I visited Virginia Woolf's Sussex home, Monk's House (which I will have to blog about shortly). One of my favourite things about that trip was being able to see the Woolf bookcases and the literary minds that lived there. Absolutely fascinating, so why not have a look at the Legacy Libraries yourself: http://www.librarything.com/legacylibraries/list/2

Book Club: On Her Majesty's Secret Service

From the back of the book: When Bond rescues a beautiful reckless girl from self-destruction, he finds himself with a leaed on one of the most dangerous men in the world - Enrst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. In the snow-bound fastness of his Alpine base, Blofeld is conducting research that could threaten the safety of the world. To thwart the evil genius, Bond must get himself and the vital information he has gathered out of the base and away from SPECTRE's agents. Which may require the help of someone who is both beautiful and a little reckless...

This is the first Bond book I've ever read and it couldn't feel more like a Bond book. That may sound odd but it really is like reading an action film. The style took me a while to get used to; I'm not used to reading ski-chases and gun fire! Saying that, once I got used to the style, I got really into it. Bond is famous for a reason - what a great character. He's a complete douchebag but you still root for him... how does that work!?

Anyway, this is Book No.3 of the Book Club, (chosen by Lulu!) so let me share some of the views we had: We were all pretty grateful that it was so easy to read; we got through it pretty quickly and it didn't go on too long. I did briefly bring up the 'sexist' topic that seems to come hand-in-hand with most Bond analysis because the girls really are just objects who are beautiful but weak and characterless. Saying that, we didn't expect much more than that from Bond and so it didn't seem to cause any problems!

We all agreed that after a bit of a slow start, things improved. There's a good villain, a fun setting in the snowy Alps, a definite creepy feel throughout the narrative and a great final twist.

At the end of our Book Club meetings we all rate the book out of 10 and average it out. With quite a range in popularity, Bond got a good 7/10.

The Great Gatsby on stage...three times!

Elevator Repair Service's Gatz

Woah. It has been reported that a total of 3 stage adaptations of F. Scott. Fitzgerald's 1925 classic The Great Gatsby will make it to London in 2012... that's a lot of Gatsby. Even more Gatsby if you stop to hear that one of these adaptations is set to be a staggering eight hours long!

The first to hit the stage is Peter Joucla's adaptation, The Great Gatsby at Wilton's Music Hall in East London. It has been described as an 'immersive' adaptation. The audience are asked to dress up for the occasion in 1920s attire and should 'expect late night foxtrots, moonshine in teapots, pearls and flappers, bootleggers and millionaires.' It sounds like great fun and I'm definitely going to get myself a ticket.It will run Thursday 26th April until Saturday 19th May. Buy your tickets here.

Then the 8-hour play, Gatz, created by the New York based Elevator Repair Service, will be performed in New York's The Public Theater in May and London's Noel Coward Theatre in June. The reason it is so long is that the cast will read every single line from the original novel!

Buy your tickets here.

And then perhaps the most obscure format for what is a famously tragic story, is "The Great Gatsby" musical. Joe Evans has put together music and lyrics for the production, which will open at the King's Head Theatre in August. Oddly, this is not the first attempt at a musical either! Ben West's musical adaptation showed last year as a part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival and John Harbison wrote an opera in 1999.

It will run 7th August to 1st September. Tickets are available here.

That's all for the stage productions, but let's not forget Baz Luhrmann's long awaited film adaptation that will star Leonardo Di Caprio in the title role, Carey Mulligan as Daisy and Toby Maguire as Tom. Being an iconic novel, it's not the first film adaptation either. A total of 6 precede it!

I suspect that's enough for you to be getting on with, though...

Libraries in Literature

Books always have a place in libraries (who knew?) but sometimes libraries have a place in books. I thought that as libraries are in the midst of a fight for survival at the moment, why not have a look at some of the libraries that are immortalised on the page.

Possession by A.S. Byatt: Now, if you're an English literature graduate, there couldn't be a more perfect read. The novel opens in the London Library and opens it up as a site of academia, knowledge and, above all, mystery. The London Library was founded in 1841 and situated in London's St James's Square.

Atonement by Ian McEwan: Used slightly less as a literary institution... more for a sneaky moment of passion and a subsequent misunderstanding that proves to be the novel's pivotal scene. In the film the library was shot at Stokesay Court in Shropshire, England and it is believed that some of the bookcases were left behind and are still there.

Matilda by Roald Dahl: If I stumble back to my childhood, one of the first libraries I came across was the place of respite for one of my favourite children's characters, Matilda. In the film of the novel, the library scenes were shot at the University of Southern California in the lobby and reference room of its Doheny Library. (P.S. the library set in the RSC musical is phenomenal...)

Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin: Rankin himself spent a lot of time at Edinburgh's National Library and Central Library researching his PhD and so it is no surprise that it appears in his first Rebus novel. Rather than full of academics and young authors, however, the fictional version is much more action-packed!

Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling: Finally, my all-time favourite fictional library... the Hogwarts Library. Irma Prince, floating books, recipes for pollyjuice potion, Hogwarts a History, Quidditch Through the Ages... its got it all. Let's not forget the library in Diagon Alley, however, where one of the most important books in the series (Tom Riddle's diary) makes its first appearance...

Other books with libraries at the centre include The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett.

Midnight in Paris

Gil is a talented but frustrated writer in Hollywood. On a holiday in Paris with his wife, Inez, and her parents, Gil seeks inspiration for is magnum opus in its winding streets, cobbled riverside paths and European charm. As his in-laws become less and less in tune with the European city, Gil increasingly realises he is in the hub of European creativity. This becomes very literal when Gil, baffled by his in-laws disinterest in their surroundings, stumbles across time barriers and finds himself walking into his favourite era, the 1920s, amongst the writers, musicians and artists he idolises.


Now I know what you're thinking - I shouldn't reeeeeally list this as a book review, I know, because it's a film blah blah blah but it couldn't be more literary so I'm going to do it anyway! Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen's latest flick, came out on DVD on Monday and I will be quick to add it to my Amazon wishlist because, quite simply, it's bloody brilliant! Beautifully shot, filled with humour and has a phenomenal cast: Rachel McAdams, Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Tom Hiddleston and even French first lady, Carla Bruni.

I suppose one of the reasons I loved this film was because it was such a pleasant surprise. I was interested in watching it because the cast was good and Woody Allen is a legend - I had no idea what the plot was. I went to see it on a second date and probably was a pretty rubbish companion because I couldn't move  beyond talking about the film and all my book-geekiness came out in full force. I, myself, love the 1920s - one of my favourite eras in history, music, literature, fashion, art and so on. The thought of drinking cocktails with Cole Porter and the Fitzgeralds or sharing a cab with Ernest Hemingway was just too much for my geeky brain!

Aside from the book references, it's really very funny! I was laughing out loud at the characterisation, the sudden plot changes and the witty dialogue and I believe even my date for the night enjoyed it, despite the more book-related jokes mostly slipping him by.

Go watch it! This film got 8/10

Happy 200th Birthday Charles Dickens!

To celebrate Charles Dickens' birthday, I thought I would do a very general biog on the man who is thought to be Britain's first celebrity writer.

Charles Dickens was born Charles John Huffam Dickens on Friday, February 7th 1812 at 1 Mile End Terrace in Portsmouth, England. His parents were John and Elizabeth Dickens and were thought to have inspired some of Dickens' characters, most famously Mr Micawber and Mrs Nickleby in Dickens' semi-autobiographical Nicholas Nickleby.

He was married to Catherine Hogarth in April 1836 in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea, which still stands today. 

Before the couple separated in 1858, they managed to have a staggering 10 children! Even more amazingly for the time, all but one child, Dora Annie Dickens, survived infancy. 

The Pickwick Papers, Dickens' first novel, was published monthly during 1836 and 1837. It was extremely popular at the time and remains so today. Consequently, I believe, Dickens' books have incredibly never gone out of print!

Like many great literary minds, Dickens was far from average. It is thought he had obsessive compulsive disorder, brush his hair hundreds of times a day and being very particular about the position in which he slept. He also suffered from epilepsy. As would be no surprise from some of his writing, Dickens had a wicked sense of humour. He was close friends with the writer, Hans Christian Andersen, but that didn't mean Mr. Anderson never overstayed his welcome. One time, Dickens made a sign in his guest's bedroom, reading 'Hans Anderson slept in this room for five weeks, which seemed to the family like AGES'.

Following his separation from Catherine, Dickens had a relatively clandestine affair with an actress called Ellen Ternan, which went on until his death. Interestingly, in June 1865 Dickens was traveling with Ellen and her mother when their train crashed in Staplehurst. Although Dickens, himself, was not killed, it is thought that his coming to the aid of those injured and dying meant that he never fully recovered mentally.

Famously, Dickens was forced to quit school when he was 11 years old and take his first job in a blacking factory. Dickens had to help support his family this way after his father was sent to a debtors' prison. Although it is thought Dickens never spoke about his experience, it is documented in his novel, David Copperfield. The blacking factory itself does not exist any more, but its site is on Chandos Place, near Trafalgar Square, in London.

As well as David Copperfield, Dickens had many famous works, many of which have been televised. In the most recent adaptation of Great Expectations, Herbert Pocket was played by a descendant of Dickens himself, Harry Lloyd.

From David Copperfield

Dickens died on June 9th, 1870, aged 58 and was buried at Poet's Corner in London's Westminster Abbey, should you wish to visit!

To celebrate Dickens' 200th birthday today, there are tonnes of events. I was hoping to go to Claire Tomlin's talk in Southwark Cathedral tonight but unfortunately won't be able to go! Would be fascinated to hear what it's like. Also, do go and check out the exhibition at the Museum of London!

Unplanned hiatus

Apologies for lack of blog posts the last few days. Not from lack of inspiration, I assure you! Have had various important things going on around me and had to be out of London without internet. Expect new posts soon :) RH x


For now, I've just read this short fun article and thought I'd share :) http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/06/ebenezer-scrooge-most-popular-dickens-character

Bridget Jones 3

One of the most popular film adaptions of a novel has to be Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding. Two films later and we're being promised a third but it seems it's not quite ready yet... In true Bridget fashion, it seems some bickering and going round in circles is happening off screen.

The film has already seen one director jump ship after 'creative differences' but Peter Cantanneo came to the rescue. It's not the director causing the problems though. According to the Guardian, Hugh Grant has had some concerns about the screenplay and has made that very clear to Helen Fielding and David Nicholls, resulting in a temporary break in production.
Working Title have promised that this is not the end for the project though and that we will see more from the big-knicker-wearing Bridget in the future. Let's hope so!

In the meantime, tune in to ITV and watch Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason at 10.30pm, Saturday 11th, to have your Bridget fix. 

The Outcast

One summer's day in 1957, nineteen-year-old Lewis Aldridge stands alone at Waterford railway station. The only person awaiting his return is a fifteen-year-old girl called Kit Carmichael. Like him, she endured a childhood spent in the stifling atmosphere of an English village recovering from the ravages of the Second World War. A decade earlier it was Lewis who waited for his father's homecoming from the war. His mother, a free-spirited and glamorous woman, holds husband and son in her thrall. But when tragedy strikes, Lewis and his father, unable to console one another, are torn apart by their grief. As menacing as it is beautiful, The Outcast is a devastating portrait of transgression and redemption.
I think it's fair to say that Sadie Jones' The Outcast is one of my top favourite books. Winner of the 2008 Costa First Novel Award, this is a truly beautiful novel. I gave this book to a colleague for Christmas and she's just finished it and can't stop raving, which inspired me to post this!

It's not distant in its style and tone from Richard Yates, actually, who I talked about a couple of days ago. Also, it may sound like a weird thing to say but the whole book feels very green... Maybe I was just made to think that from the cover, but generally it has a real green haze to it! Very fresh, very English Home Counties. Besides from being green... it's a really touching story. It's essentially about relationships and how they can both break and form when tragedy strikes.

My favourite relationship in this book is that between Lewis and his father and I'm sure Freud would have lots to say about this relationship too... I don't give much away by saying that their relationship is difficult from the very start and this seems to stem from a lack of any fundamental understanding of one another. It's incredibly frustrating to read, so much so that at one point I did well up. I think now is a good time to say that I very rarely cry in books and so welling up is a momentous reading experience for me... It's not quite up there with the Snape scene in the Deathly Hallows (please forgive the reference...) but The Outcast did similarly comfort me by affirming I'm not a cold-hearted non-crier...

Simply, it's fantastic. I couldn't recommend it enough and I can't wait for her third book to come out in March - The Uninvited Guests. Her first novel, though, gets 9/10!

Gordon's Wine Bar

Last night I went for a drink with a good friend of mine at London's oldest and probably most famous wine bar, Gordon's, on Villiers Street. You stumble down some narrow steps into the old wine cellar, choose from a great selection of wine and sit under the low arched stone ceiling and enjoy. 

We sat actually outside under the heaters and, although after half an hour lost feelings in most of our bodies, had a great time. It does get very busy but the hustle and bustle is part of Gordon's charm. It isn't just the wine and atmosphere that's great, though. You walk in and the waft of delicious smelling food makes it hard to leave...

Now you might be wondering what this great bar has to do with books. Well, if you've got a wine bar that's been around for hundreds of years in one of the most famous and literary cities in the world, you're going to have writers. Most famously, Rudyard Kipling and Samuel Pepys both lived in the building above Gordon's Wine Bar. It is thought that Rudyard Kipling wrote his famous novel, The Light that Failed, in the parlour above the bar. The building is now, fittingly, called Kipling House!

Gordon's Wine Bar
47 Villiers Street

London WC2N 6NE
United Kingdom
http://www.gordonswinebar.com