Writing in a Digital Age 2014: Day 2

Back at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon today for Round 2 of The Literary Consultancy's Writing in a Digital Age conference 2014. Today was, even more so than yesterday, all about the author - more specifically, the self-published author.

First up 'The Writer in the Machine' brought us a 'dynamic quartet' made up of Orna Ross, the founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors, and self-published writers Joanna Penn, Polly Courtney and Rachel Abbott. The first hour consisted of each panelist giving a talk about their own experiences, their own bylaws and their own take on the daunting task of marketing.

Joanna Penn's energetic (if not slightly manic) manifesto on exploiting the plethora of rights opportunities out there was certainly informative and her results hugely impressive but I felt left with a mild case of whiplash... In short, though, they all agreed you need a damn good cover, a great blurb, a strong strap-line and "know your reader". The discussion of the latter may have sounded a little stereotypical in places and potentially creepy taken out of context... hunt down your 40-something women on Mumsnet, capture your sci-fi readers as they browse techie websites and fan fiction forums - but essentially the message was that every book needs a primary readership to target and that you're doing it all wrong if you're just saying 'any gender, any age, any location'.

The second half was what I will call the Marmite session in that some people in the audience really loved it, others looked slightly bamboozled and on the verge of an attack of the giggles. Orna Ross led a practical session where all the writers got out their pens and pads (did not help me stay inconspicuous as the only non-writer in the room...) and scrawled down answers to questions like "why do I write" and "who do I write for".

As engaging as it was, after a two-hour long session lunch was a welcome break.

Last year it was Tina Seskis, this year it was Piers Alexander - winner of last year's Pen Factor award and the latest TLC self-published success story with his historical novel, The Bitter Trade. This guy should be an agent - it was the greatest pitch of the weekend and saw him sell a healthy number of signed copies of his book and likely double the size of his book launch by sort of accidentally inviting the entire conference... charming, talented and go-getting, just what you want from an author!

This post is getting quite long... so I'm going to stop rambling quite so much... other highlights included a star-studded panel chaired by Paul Blezard (who has a voice to rival Michael Gambon and Anthony Hopkins in my opinion), which saw 'book-blogging's First Lady' Dovegreyreader, the Telegraph's Sam Leith, and founder of ReadySteadyBook and Quercus's Mark Thwaite discuss the art and future of the book review.

We also got to hear who had won TLC's Kobo Writing Life sponsored Pen Factor Award 2014. The prize went to a very shocked Guinevere Glasfurd-Brown - such a lovely moment seeing her collect it from Kobo's Diego Marano. Judging by Piers's success, great things are sure to follow for her - I do hope so, having myself had a read of the sample material she submitted.

Another great day at the conference. Final day tomorrow!

What does this tell us about the state of the world?

Bet you were thinking wow, this blog's gone a bit intellectual, a bit philosophical one might even say. Afraid that day hasn't come quite yet. The title of this blog post refers to the news revealed a couple of days ago about the Oxford English Dictionary Word of 2013 being awarded to... the "Selfie".

Dear dear dear. Flashing images of my 13 year-old self desperately trying to catch myself in the frame as I my camera out in front of my trying to create a suitable "selfie" (sorry I just can't not use quote marks for this word..." for my myspace page. You know, the kind that says intelligent but not dull, pretty but not sexy, not self-conscious but not narcissistic either. If I could talk to my 13 year-old self I would tell her right now. 1) Not possible, honey. 2) STOP TAKING PHOTOS OF YOURSELF and 3) If you are going to take photos of yourself, wait a few years when they invent cameras on the front of your phone so you don't look like even more of a moron taking the photo as you do posting it to your facespacewitter page.

Nice little wordy nugget for you there. I'll leave you with this bewildering yet genius article highlighting some of the other words that have made it into the OED hall of fame - and yes, "twerking" is there. All I can say is thank you OED for providing me a distributable link for the next time someone asks me what it means... scarred. for. life. OED words 2013

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

Blurb: In a tower on the New Zealand sea lives Kerewin Holmes, part Maori, part European, an artist estranged from her art, a woman in exile from her family. One night her solitude is disrupted by a visitor—a speechless, mercurial boy named Simon, who tries to steal from her and then repays her with his most precious possession. As Kerewin succumbs to Simon's feral charm, she also falls under the spell of his Maori foster father Joe, who rescued the boy from a shipwreck and now treats him with an unsettling mixture of tenderness and brutality. Out of this unorthodox trinity Keri Hulme has created what is at once a mystery, a love story, and an ambitious exploration of the zone where Maori and European New Zealand meet, clash, and sometimes merge. Winner of both a Booker Prize and Pegasus Prize for Literature, The Bone People is a work of unfettered wordplay and mesmerizing emotional complexity.

My bezzie moved to New Zealand this year and for my birthday present she aptly bought me this, The Bone People by Keri Hulme. Hulme was the last New Zealander to win the Man Booker Prize before Eleanor Catton won the esteemed prize this year with her novel, The Luminaries.

I really loved this book. Not necessarily for its literal story or its specific characters, although both were extremely good, but for the tone it set and how I felt reading it, particularly the first half. New Zealand has an extraordinary landscape and has remained, for many, a mystery as Australia normally seems to win the tourists for some reason. This landscape and sense of the unknown comes across in abundance in this novel. With the risk of sounding like the biggest ponce, I'd go as far as saying you could almost feel the waves crashing on the sand - the novel's cover arguably helping me construct this image...

There are three main characters in this novel, all completely different and all adding something to the novel. Kerewin's eccentricity could perhaps have the potential to make her seem caricatured and unbelievable (which fits in with the book itself, which does, in places, touch upon the magically realist...) But despite and because of these slightly odd moments, Hulme has crafted Kerewin (and her world) wonderfully; her grace, her insecurities, her unique mind and her inner-conflicts all come across to create a very full, 'real' person that you can't help feel affection for.

If I had anything negative to say, it would be that I could have done without the author's introduction. As brilliant a writer as she is, she's definitely indulgent. The novel is long, with not much plot - and I liked that - but she's clearly a woman who is difficult to edit. Her preamble felt a little aggressive and a little self-consciously eccentric, which easily winds me up. Saying that, I don't know the woman but I do know her book, and I really loved it.

Eleanor Catton wins Man Booker Prize

So last year Hilary Mantel set a number of Man Booker Prize records and 2013 has seen two more records broken as 28 year-old Eleanor Catton becomes both the youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize and her book the longest, at 872 pages (I think we can safely say that challenges my 400 page rule...).

Eleanor Catton is the second New Zealander to win the prize. Keri Hulme won in 1985 with her novel, The Bone People - another case of book sat on my shelf that I haven't yet got round to reading.

Catton apparently started writing The Luminaries three years ago and 872 pages later we have a Victorian murder-mystery set during the gold rush:

It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky. The Luminaries is an extraordinary piece of fiction. It is full of narrative, linguistic and psychological pleasures, and has a fiendishly clever and original structuring device. Written in pitch-perfect historical register, richly evoking a mid-19th century world of shipping and banking and goldrush boom and bust, it is also a ghost story, and a gripping mystery. It is a thrilling achievement for someone still in her mid-20s, and will confirm for critics and readers that Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.

Catton was up against, as always, a stellar line-up of novels and writers: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, Harvest by Jim Crace, The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin and We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo. Although The Luminaries was not the favourite to win (Harvest by Jim Crane was considered the more likely candidate), critics seem to be pleased - that's got to be a first?

2013 marks the end of an era when it comes to the Man Booker Prize. Up until now the prize has been open to Commonwealth countries and Ireland only. Next year they're letting the Americans in... who knows if the Cattons and Mantels can stand up to the likes of Jonathan Franzen and Donna Tartr... we'll see. We'll also see if I ever get round to reading The Luminaries... I do hope so.

AM Homes wins Women's Prize for Fiction

So finally Hilary Mantel's winning streak has been broken. I always feel that the winner should always be "the best book" rather than "the best book but not by that frickin' woman who won last time". What's the point in winning something if the only reason you won was because someone else wasn't allowed to win. However, I think everyone feels a little sigh of relief that someone else can have some time in the limelight after Mantel's historic last year.

I've never read a novel by A.M. Homes so I couldn't pass judgement on whether or not she is a valid winner but what I can say is that she is an American author, originally from Washington DC who has written, I believe, 7 novels as well as many short stories and some non-fiction. She has also written for the American TV series, The L Word and has been working on her own television series, which she describes as "a cross between Desperate Housewives and Grapes of Wrath."

The novel she won with is called May We Be Forgiven:

Harry is a Richard Nixon scholar who leads a quiet, regular life; his brother George is a high-flying TV producer, with a murderous temper.They have been uneasy rivals since childhood.Then one day George's loses control so extravagantly that he precipitates Harry into an entirely new life. 

To learn a little more, I recommend watching AM Homes' interview with Jeanette Winterson. I could have regurgitated it all and pretended I am the almighty knower of all things fiction and AM Homes, but that is plagiarism and I'm pretty sure people who like books aren't massively keen on that so here you go:

Bookseller Industry Awards

When Jennifer Lawrence (yes - her again, I'm trying to increase my blog's key words ok?) won her Oscar, I got myself into a bit of a bate. As amazing as I was starring in The Happy Prince aged 5, there is no way I'm going to find myself on that stage at the Kodak Theatre collecting my Best Actress Oscar any time soon. Furthermore, it's not like there are any opportunities to win stuff (not that that is my sole prerogative...) in my industry unless I actually write a book myself. That is, to be fair, a lie as there are the Bookseller Industry Awards so what I really meant was - there's no opportunity to be flooded with offers from top designers to dress the nominees for a red-carpet occasion. That aside, if you win a Bookseller Industry Award, that's still pretty cool.

This year publishing giant Random House received Publisher of the Year. BookScan figures show the publishing company to have earnet a massive £47.3m from E L James' Fifty Shades trilogy, making them the 3 bestselling novels last year. And just to rub it in, Random House managed to also stack up 28 number 1 bestsellers and 70 prizes. Give credit where it's due n' all that...

Other winners include, perhaps unsurprisingly, 4th Estate (HarperCollins) and editor Nicholas Pearson who is behind Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies, which has continued to dominate the chart in paperback upon its release last week. Foyles walked away with their 2nd National Bookseller of the Year Award and Pottermore was awarded Digital Strategy of the Year. Arguably no surprises, but it's nice to see that you can still do plenty of exciting things in modern publishing, even without the red carpet events...

Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2013

    

   

The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize is, believe it or not, the only UK award for comic fiction. The Prize was founded in 2000 and has awarded the likes of Ian McEwan (Solar), Marina Lewycka (A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian) and Michael Frayn (Spies).

This year is set to be a tough battle with the five short-listed titles announced last week being made up of two previous winners (Howard Jacobson and Michael Frayn), a previous short-listee (Deborah Moggach) as well as critically acclaimed writers Joseph Connolly and Helen DeWitt.

Lovely to also see indie publisher, And Other Stories, with a nominee in this year's list following their unexpected presence in the Booker list, with author Deborah Levy missing out to HRH Hilary Mantel.

Women's Prize for Fiction - Longlist

   

   

   

   

   

No surprises to see Hilary Mantel is up there fighting for, I think, her fourth major award for Bring Up the Bodies. She has some pretty stiff competition if you ask me, though. Female literary heavy-weights Zadie Smith, Kate Atkinson and Barbara Kingsolver are all up there fighting for the once Orange, now colourless Women's Prize for Fiction. Let's also not underestimate the six newcomers on the longlist either, with the last two years' prizes being awarded to debut novelists Tea Obreht (for The Tiger's Wife in 2011) and Madeline Miller (for The Song of Achilles in 2012 - review here).

85th Academy Awards

And they've finally happened. After all the hype, the predictions and the glitzy dresses, the Oscars have been awarded by the Academy and I have to say, it's been quite an exciting year. Not because the films are any more amazing than previous years, or because the fabulous Adele sang "Skyfall" at the ceremony or even that DanRad danced his merry way across the stage of the Kodak Theatre, but because, except for Daniel Day Lewis, no one really knew what was going to happen (certainly didn't expect poor J-Lawrence to stumble up the steps). And actually partly because Jennifer Lawrence was nominated and, in the words of Bridget Jones, I have, 'let's face it, a bit of a crush now, actually'. I. Love. Her.

Anyway, as last year, I can't really persuade you that film awards are 100% to do with books. I can, though, talk about the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. This year rather embarrassingly I have not read any of these books despite my mum having bought me Life of Pi, twice.

Argo, winner of Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, was adapted from Antonia J Mendez' book The Master of Disguise and Joshuah Bearman's Wired article, 'The Great Escape'. Mendez is a, now retired, CIA technical operations officer who led the rescue of 6 American. diplomats from Tehran during the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis. The film stars Ben Afleck, who also directed and produced along with fellow producers Grant Heslov and George Clooney.

Other contender, Beast of the Southern Wild, was derived from Lucy Alibar's play Jucy and Delicious. The fantasy drama garnered a Best Actress nomination for the youngest ever Best Actress nominee, 9 year-old Quvenzhané Wallis and has been highly praised since its release last year. Then six years old, Wallis plays young Hushpuppy whose dilapidated bayou community falls victim to a flood caused by melting icecaps. If that weren't enough, she must also cope with her hot-tempered father who is not well.

Life of Pi may not have won this film but this magical realist adventure unexpectedly saw Ang Lee snatch the Best Director award for the second time in his career. The book has already received high praise since it was published over ten years ago in 2001 but there was always a question of how the unusual style would translate into film. Ang Lee's fantastical masterpiece, though, seemed pretty successful, also picking up the award for Special Effects. Amazingly the book (which follows Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, after he survives a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean with just a Bengal tiger for company, was originally rejected by 5 London publishing houses before being taken on by Knopf in Canada. The book has now sold well over three million copies worldwide.

Lincoln was inspired by the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. As we all know, Daniel Day Lewis broke the records this year by winning his third Best Actor Academy award for his portrayal of the beloved president. While the film focuses on the turbulent final four months of Lincoln's life and presidency, focusing on the passing of the thirteenth amendment, the book is a real beast at nearly 1,000 pages and looks at the final four years. Apparently Goodwin had previously consulted with director Steven Spielberg on a project of his in 1999 and just mentioned that she was planning to write Team of Rivals. Spielberg didn't hang about... and immediately asked for film rights there and then. Interestingly, Lincoln was going to be played by Liam Neeson until he had to withdraw in 2010. Reportedly, the film was then pushed back by a year so that DDL felt he had enough time to prepare for the role... we've all heard how he likes to prepare...

Finally, my highlight of 2012 cinema, Silver Linings Playbook, was adapted from the novel by Matthew Quick. For what is, essentially, a romantic comedy, this adaptation did very well this awards season, being nominated for 8 Oscars (including the Big Five - the first time since Million Dollar Baby in 2004) and with J-Lawrence walking/tripping away with Best Actress. The story follows Pat Solitano (played by Bradley Cooper), a bi-polar sufferer who has just spent some time in a mental institution, who meets recovering sex addict Tiffany (Lawrence) who has problems of her own. The film's subject brought Robert De Niro, who also stars in the film, uncharacteristically to tears during an interview and Director David O. Russell has spoken openly about his inspiration: "It's personal to me, because I've lived through some of these experiences with a son". 

Anyway, excuse the long post and go see ALL these films. Ciao!

The Great American Novel: First Round

You may remember that back in the summer I came across a competition started by Guardian journalist and blogger, Matthew Spencer, to find out which is the greatest 'Great American Novel'. The first round has taken place now, setting duals up between several top notch candidates. Some great arguments were made and information taken from numerous sources in this highly anticipated first round draw. The results are as follows:

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (W)
vs

JR by William Gaddis – The Battle of the "Difficults"

That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx (W)
vs

Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton (W)vs

Something Happened by Joseph Heller

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (W)
vs

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Rabbit, Run by John Updike (W)
vs

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin

Billy Bathgate by EL Doctorow (W)
vs

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

Libra by Don DeLillo (W)
vs

42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos 

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (W)
vs

The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

Now I don't know about you, but I would say that although there are some top authors on both sides of the drawer, this seems like some authors didn't have a chance. By that I mean that I know every single one of the winners and only three of the losing novelists... So perhaps I am not as well-read in this department as I hoped... oh well!

Anyway, in summary, there don't seem to be any particularly controversial decisions I think you'll agree, but there were some definite contests - namely Steinbeck vs. Auster and Wharton vs. Heller. Although the winners aren't hard to guess, each author has a big and long-standing following. Luckily, though, I am yet to hear of any violent fights breaking out in libraries... but, saying that, I'd pay good money to see book geeks flapping bookmarks and library cards at each other...

In the second half of the drawer we are expecting to see the likes of Fitzgerald, Nabokov, Chandler, Toni Morrison and post-modernist Pynchon who my brain will never ever understand. Ever.

You can follow Matthew's blog via the Guardian website here.

Costa Book Awards 2013

Happy New Year!  The festive season officially finishes today so I am back in business.

The New Year has kicked off well for female writers, securing every single prize at the Costa Book Awards for the first time in the Awards' history. Carrying on her 2012 winning streak, guess who walks away with best novel of the year? Yup, Hilary Mantel for Bring Up the Bodies.

So, if you're struggling to choose which novel will start your 2013 reading list, then take a look at these:

Costa Novel Award: Bring up the Bodies Hilary Mantel

See my review here

Costa First Novel Award: The Innocents Francesca Segal

What if everything you'd ever wanted was no longer enough?

Adam and Rachel are getting married at last. Childhood sweetheartswhose lives and families have been intertwined for years; theirs is set to be the wedding of the year. But then Rachel's cousin Ellie makes an unexpected return to the family fold. Beautiful, reckless and troubled, Ellie represents everything that Adam has tried all his life to avoid - and everything that is missing from his world. As the long-awaited wedding approaches, Adam is torn between duty and temptation, security and freedom, and must make a choice that will break either one heart, or many.

Costa Biography Award: Dotter of her Father’s Eyes Mary and Bryan Talbot

Part personal history, part biography, Dotter of Her Father's Eyes contrasts two coming-of-age narratives: that of Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce, and that of author Mary Talbot, daughter of the eminent Joycean scholar James S. Atherton. Social expectations and gender politics, thwarted ambitions and personal tragedy are played out against two contrasting historical backgrounds, poignantly evoked by the atmospheric visual storytelling of award winning comic artist and graphic novel pioneer Bryan Talbot. Produced through an intense collaboration seldom seen between writers and artists, Dotter of Her Father's Eyes is intelligent, funny and sad - a fine addition to the evolving genre of graphic memoir.

Costa Poetry Award: The Overhaul Kathleen Jamie

The Overhaul is Kathleen Jamie’s first collection since the award-winning The Tree House, and it broadens her poetic range considerably. The Overhaul continues Jamie’s lyric enquiry into the aspects of the world our rushing lives elide, and even threaten. Whether she is addressing birds or rivers, or the need to accept loss, or sometimes, the desire to escape our own lives, her work is earthy and rigorous, her language at once elemental and tender. As an essayist, she has frequently queried our human presence in the world with the question ‘How are we to live?’ Here, this is answered more personally than ever. The Overhaul is a mid-life book of repair, restitution, and ultimately hope – of the wisest and most worldly kind.

Costa Children’s Book Award: Maggot Moon Sally Gardner

Narrated against the backdrop of a ruthless regime determined to beat its enemies in the race to the moon, MAGGOT MOON is the astonishing new novel from award-winning author Sally Gardner. When his best friend Hector is suddenly taken away, Standish Treadwell realises that it is up to him, his grandfather and a small band of rebels to confront and defeat the ever-present oppressive forces of the Motherland. Utterly original and stunning, it is impossible not to be moved by MAGGOT MOON's powerful story and the unforgettable heroism of Standish.

Bad Sex Awards 2012

Possibly the most important book awards of the literary year: Bad Sex in Fiction. Do I really need to describe what it's all about? 2012 marks the twentieth year of Literary Review's prize for the most embarrassing passage of sexual description in a novel and the winner will be announced on 4th December.

The big question was of course, would E L James' famous Fifty Shades feature in the shortlist. I'm afraid I can only disappoint that she doesn't feature. Neither does JK Rowling and it looks like Hilary Mantel didn't put enough cringe-worthy romps in Bring Up the Bodies to continue her winning streak. What a shame! Who wouldn't want that trophy on their mantel piece in time for Christmas?

The sad news for Tom Wolfe, is that he has beaten these ladies to the post entirely by being featured in the shortlist for a second time this year:

The Yips by Nicola Barker

The Adventuress by Nicholas Coleridge

Infrared by Nancy Huston

Rare Earth by Paul Mason

Noughties by Ben Masters

The Quiddity of Will Self by Sam Mills

The Divine Comedy by Craig Raine

Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe

If you would like to learn a little more on this year's awards or see who was named and shamed in previous years, why not take a look at the Literary Review's website: http://www.literaryreview.co.uk  

Also, for any one looking for a job or for the people who frequently think that there just must be a more interesting, fun job out there, look at this video from the Literary Review website that follows their Senior Editor in his hunt for literary fornication:

Costa Book Awards 2013: Shortlist

Hoorah, arguably my favourite awards of the year, the Costa Book Awards, have announced their shortlisted titles in each category. As always, Costa's 'First Novel Award' introduces us to some fresh new writers and I've got to say, so far, they've got it right. You all know my love for The Outcast by Sadie Jones, which won the award in 2008, and The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney which won both the First Novel Award and Costa's Book of the Year in 2006. 

Historically, the Costa Book Awards used to be the Whitbread awards prior to the renaming in 2006. Over the years the awards have recognised a staggering number of top debut writers that have gone on to great things: Zadie Smith, Kate Atkinson, Mark Haddon, Jeanette Winterson and William Boyd to name but a few.

Surprise surprise, this year far-from-debut-novelist Hilary Mantel is up there hoping to continue her winning streak with Wolf Hall sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. For the first time the shortlist features two graphic novels as well as another year of fantastic children's books. Here's the shortlist below, or as I like to call it, 'my Christmas list'.

_________________________________________________

Costa First Novel Award

The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder, J W Ironmonger (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Snake Ropes, Jess Richards (Sceptre)

The Innocents, Francesca Segal (Chatto & Windus)

The Bellwether Revivals, Benjamin Wood (Simon & Schuster)

Costa Novel Award

Bring up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate)

Life! Death! Prizes!, Stephen May (Bloomsbury)

The Heart Broke In, James Meek (Canongate)

Days of the Bagnold Summer, Joff Winterhart (Jonathan Cape)

Costa Biography Award

Patrick Leigh-Fermor: An Adventure, Artemis Cooper (John Murray)

The Crocodile by the Door: The Story of A House, A Farm and A Family, Selina Guinness (Penguin Ireland)

Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household, Kate Hubbard (Chatto & Windus)

Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot (Jonathan Cape)

Costa Poetry Award

Bee Journal, Sean Borodale (Jonathan Cape)

The World’s Two Smallest Humans, Julia Copus (Faber and Faber)

People Who Like Meatballs, Selima Hill (Bloodaxe Books)

The Overhaul, Kathleen Jamie (Picador)

Costa Children’s Book Award

Maggot Moon, Sally Gardner (Hot Key Books)

The Seeing, Diana Hendry (The Bodley Head)

What’s Up with Jody Barton?, Hayley Long (Macmillan Children’s Books)

A Boy and A Bear in A Boat, Dave Shelton (David Fickling Books)

The Song of Achilles

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their differences, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grown into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, Achilles must go to war in distant Troy and fulfill his destiny. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus goes with him, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.

The Orange prize lost its sponsor this year but I’m pleased to say it doesn’t seem to have lost its ability to pick a good book. Winner of this year's prize, Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles (or the 'dong' of Achilles as I wrote originally... not actually altogether inappropriate...), is perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, though. From the blurb someone might see the Trojan War, angry hairy men who believe in fantastical Greek gods and the soldierly duty of a young mythological prince rather dull. I, however, see this as an exciting historical epic (with gods and stuff) but, first and foremost, as a love story. A love story with hunky men that have sexy battle scars and togas and feathered helmets. Mildly aware that I am demeaning a classic, although sometimes controversial, story that is centuries, millennia old…

The embarrassing part is that despite floaty goddesses and angry war gods sending disease and *gasps* no wind for an army’s sails, I had somehow persuaded myself (quite easily it seems) that this was an historical novel… I was like ahh cool, love to read about what really happened with the Greeks taking on the Trojans with arrows and giant wooden horses. I think I got confused when I had to explain to myself how in the recounting of a famous event some of the characters could have been real and some… namely a pretty central half god/half human character…  must be fictional… I fear this blog may have turned into some kind of tribute to my simple mind. Perhaps someone else could chip in here, you know, say I’m actually not that stupid? I’m not. Honest.

Anyway… the novel. It’s beautifully written. Sure it has some metaphors in there that make it beautiful, but for me the real pleasure is in the way the writing flows. It’s just so easy to read. Easy almost to the point that I wondered if I’d picked up the wrong title. I’m not quite sure why I was expecting a challenge but it wasn’t so I was pleasantly surprised.

The relationship between the iconic Achilles and Patroclus is carefully built and culminates in a truly touching final scene that did make me well up. I like to blame that on the too-many glasses of Aperol Spritz that evening but I think Miller needs the credit there.

There's plenty of sex in here too if you're missing your dose of Fifty Shades...

The only blip for me was a short period in the middle. I can’t quite put my finger on what was lacking but there is a sort of transitional point in the narrative that just dragged a little bit. The concluding chapters though more than made up for it with plenty of action and 'oh what have you done' moments. For those well-acquainted with the myth, don't be put off - it's a great story and one that you can understand why, from this book, has stood the test of time. 

This book gets 7/10. I originally gave it an 8 but after some thought I wondered if perhaps I was raving about it so much because the end affected me so much. Had I been asked to rate it at half way through, maybe I'd have given it a lower rating. As a result, I've gone down the middle but I do recommend this book. Particularly if you like soldiers and mythology and good old forbidden love.

Hilary Mantel Makes History...

...and in more ways than one. Hilary Mantel has written two novels in her Tudor trilogy and as of last night has now won two Booker prizes. An impressive feat and one that puts her into the history books rather than just writing them as she becomes the first British author and the first woman to win the award twice as well as the first author to win twice with such a brief interlude between the two (Wolf Hall won in 2009). She joins only two other authors who have achieved the same double-win, South African novelist, JM Coetzee and Australian writer, Peter Carey.

Last night's glamorous award ceremony held at London's Guildhall, complete with literary glitterati and those all-important ice sculptures, was televised live on BBC news. The hall, rather suitably (maybe we should have guessed the winner from the very beginning), played host to a number of Tudor trials including those of Archbishop Thomas Cramner and Anne Boleyn's cousin Henry Howard who would be sentenced to death after being accused by Henry VIII of trying to usurp the crown from Henry's son, Edward. 

Will Self was the favourite to win but Mantel's insurmountable writing that brings to life the Tudor court swooped in to collect the title. The shock on Mantel's face told it all.

You can see the announcement for yourself here via the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19966267 and thankfully they have cut out much of Sir Peter Stothard's speech... I'm sorry, I'm mean - maybe it stems from the minor immature disappointment that it wasn't Booker panelist and Downton Abbey star, Dan Stevens...

You can read my review of the winning novel here. 

Booker Shortlist 2012

Now back from holiday, I have been thrown back into the world of books and what better way to start the autumn than with the Man Booker Prize 2012 shortlist.

As with any shortlist, you find yourself disappointed to an extent that certain authors or titles got left behind. Michael Frayn's Skios, for instance, as well as The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, were not chosen for the final six. On the other hand Hilary Mantel's Bringing Up the Bodies seems set to make her the first British writer to win the literary accolade twice, having won it already for the prequel, Wolf Hall.

I think perhaps an equality commission targetted the booker this year, with everything seeming distinctly 'fair'. In terms of gender, there are equally three men and three women on this year's shortlist and it seems to be the year of the small publisher, with them making up half of the list. Now I'd been thinking how wonderful it is and how astonishing that these small companies hadn't managed to make the list before... turns out there's a fee to pay if you are nominated... 'congratulations, you're in line to be the best literary novel of the year, that'll be A MILLION POUNDS please.' ok, so not a million... maybe. no really..

Anyway, what you really want to know is if any of them take your fancy, so here you go:

Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)
Malaya, 1949. After studying law at Cambrige and time spent helping to prosecute Japanese war criminals, Yun Ling Teoh, herself the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle fringed plantations of Northern Malaya where she grew up as a child.
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber)
A merciless gaze at the insidious harm that depression can have on apparently stable, well-turned-out people. Set in a summer villa, the story is tautly structured, taking place over a single week in which a group of beautiful, flawed tourists in the French Riviera come loose at the seams. 
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)
By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith’s son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife. But Anne has failed to bear a son to secure the Tudor line. At Wolf Hall, Cromwell watches Henry fall in love with plain Jane Seymour. The minister sees what is at stake: not just the king’s pleasure, but the safety of the nation. See my review here.

Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt)
The Lighthouse begins on a North Sea ferry, on whose blustery outer deck stands Futh, a middle-aged, recently separated man heading to Germany for a restorative walking holiday. As he travels, he contemplates his childhood; a complicated friendship with the son of a lonely neighbour; his parents' broken marriage and his own. 

Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)
Umbrella sets out to understand the nature of the modern world by going back to the source – the industrial madness of World War One. Set across an entire century, Umbrella follows the complex story of Audrey Death, a feminist who falls victim to the encephalitis lethargica epidemic that rages across Europe, and Dr Zack Busner, who spends a summer waking the post-encephalitic patients under his care using a new and powerful drug. 

Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)
A rich and hallucinatory novel, set around a Bombay opium den, that follows a fascinating cast of flawed characters as the city transforms itself over three decades.