Friday 16.02.07 18:00 Andrea Levy
Anyone who has not heard Andrea Levy read from Small Island should take the next opportunity they get. She read extracts from Gilbert's rant against the mother country and Queenie's trip to the national exhibition. I know many (yes, really) who think Small Island is very dull and pedestrian. And it is .... if you don't read with the proper Jamaican and Cockney accents .... and AL does it with great elan.
As for insights: Ms Levy's mum was not pleased at her daughter washing their dirty linen in public and took all the awards in her stride. However, she began to plump up when her daughter was invited to for a cuppa and a chat with Her Majesty and now is trying to persuade her daughter to write a novel about Jamaican women getting older!
There will be no sequel. Personally I agree with AL in that she could never meet the expectations raised by the brilliance of Small Island.
Saturday 17.02.07 14:30 William Boyd
(Insert comments at a later stage.)
Sunday 18.02.07 15:00 Linda Grant
Linda Grant of When I Lived in Modern Times fame has now penned the 2006 Ulysses Award for Literary Reportage winning title The People On The Street. It is an exploration of the attitudes of the ordinary men of Israel and is the result of research she did when she visited Israel in 2004 fully intending to write another novel. The book is not a political commentary just a depiction of the attitudes she discovered while she was there. If expectations are to be measured from the book's cover .....
http://www.amazon.co.uk/o/ASIN/18440...4
... we can expect complexity, confusion and contradiction! (Excuse amazon link - I can't work out how to upload images.)
I think LG incredibly brave. Questiontime was a minefield which I am making no attempt to summarise for two main reasons: 1) I don't profess to understand the issues and 2) like LG, I do not want to be drawn into political statements.
For those, like myself, who have not read When I Lived In Modern Times, LG did say that her predictions in the novel could not have been more wrong had she tried.
As for the novel she went to Israel to write, she's scrapped it. She's quite fascinated by the concept that suffering does not enoble the human race but the novel she wrote in an Israeli setting did not work. She's now reworking it in a contemporary London setting ... which gives me time to read her Orange Prize Winner before the new one is published.
Sunday 18.02.07 18:15 John Banville / Benjamin Black
John Banville, Booker Winner for The Sea, meets his alter-ego Benjamin Black, potential Dagger winner for Christine Falls .... and John Banville didn't know to put himself when talking about crime writing which, to quote, "is so bloody easy!". John Banville is happy writing 200-300 words in a morning's session yet writing as Benjamin Black he can churn out 2000-3000 words in the same time. (As a reader, I'm quite pleased that Black has not inherited Banville bellyaching about nuance for Christine Falls is readable and as literary thrillers go very good. I have yet to finish a Banville novel.)
As you can see from the above aside, I went to see Black and so .... Black quoted his major influence as Simenon. He also rates Jason Starr (a new name for me but a lead I shall be following pronto.) I am delighted to announce that a second crime novel is finished and a third in the offing. The Banvillians amongst you will also be pleased to know that work has (painstakingly) commenced on a new Banville novel.
It is well-known that until he won the Booker, Banville struggled to shift 3000 copies of his novels. As he was signing Christine Falls I asked how many copies had sold to-date. Banville/Black claimed he had no idea - not sure I believe him for he also claimed to know nothing about the Daggers.
Sunday 18.02.07 19:40 Alasdair Gray
Large-as-life with trademark Worzel Gummage hair, baggy trousers and startled eyes, Alasdair Gray entertained us hugely as he read from his forthcoming novel "Old Men in Love", which, from the extracts he read, seems to be a mixture of modern (im)morality tale and historical polemic. However, it being Alasdair Gray, I may have got that completely wrong, so don't quote me. The reading was lengthy and deliberately so, for as AG said "I don't want the questioning to last 100 years". Was this an aside? (He was sharing the stage with Rodge Glass, his biographer, who at one point quipped "I've been asking you questions for 10 years - you've still to answer them.") Or was it a lack of confidence? For, astoundingly AG, the giant, crumbled during question time. His answers were long but more than once completely offtrack. I felt quite saddened. Fortunately though, the evening ended more cheerfully - a comment I made during the book signing, which I cannot divulge to protect the innocent, produced loud raucous laughter from the author ... a marvellous noteon which to end the evening.
Anyone who has not heard Andrea Levy read from Small Island should take the next opportunity they get. She read extracts from Gilbert's rant against the mother country and Queenie's trip to the national exhibition. I know many (yes, really) who think Small Island is very dull and pedestrian. And it is .... if you don't read with the proper Jamaican and Cockney accents .... and AL does it with great elan.
As for insights: Ms Levy's mum was not pleased at her daughter washing their dirty linen in public and took all the awards in her stride. However, she began to plump up when her daughter was invited to for a cuppa and a chat with Her Majesty and now is trying to persuade her daughter to write a novel about Jamaican women getting older!
There will be no sequel. Personally I agree with AL in that she could never meet the expectations raised by the brilliance of Small Island.
Saturday 17.02.07 14:30 William Boyd
(Insert comments at a later stage.)
Sunday 18.02.07 15:00 Linda Grant
Linda Grant of When I Lived in Modern Times fame has now penned the 2006 Ulysses Award for Literary Reportage winning title The People On The Street. It is an exploration of the attitudes of the ordinary men of Israel and is the result of research she did when she visited Israel in 2004 fully intending to write another novel. The book is not a political commentary just a depiction of the attitudes she discovered while she was there. If expectations are to be measured from the book's cover .....
http://www.amazon.co.uk/o/ASIN/18440...4
... we can expect complexity, confusion and contradiction! (Excuse amazon link - I can't work out how to upload images.)
I think LG incredibly brave. Questiontime was a minefield which I am making no attempt to summarise for two main reasons: 1) I don't profess to understand the issues and 2) like LG, I do not want to be drawn into political statements.
For those, like myself, who have not read When I Lived In Modern Times, LG did say that her predictions in the novel could not have been more wrong had she tried.
As for the novel she went to Israel to write, she's scrapped it. She's quite fascinated by the concept that suffering does not enoble the human race but the novel she wrote in an Israeli setting did not work. She's now reworking it in a contemporary London setting ... which gives me time to read her Orange Prize Winner before the new one is published.
Sunday 18.02.07 18:15 John Banville / Benjamin Black
John Banville, Booker Winner for The Sea, meets his alter-ego Benjamin Black, potential Dagger winner for Christine Falls .... and John Banville didn't know to put himself when talking about crime writing which, to quote, "is so bloody easy!". John Banville is happy writing 200-300 words in a morning's session yet writing as Benjamin Black he can churn out 2000-3000 words in the same time. (As a reader, I'm quite pleased that Black has not inherited Banville bellyaching about nuance for Christine Falls is readable and as literary thrillers go very good. I have yet to finish a Banville novel.)
As you can see from the above aside, I went to see Black and so .... Black quoted his major influence as Simenon. He also rates Jason Starr (a new name for me but a lead I shall be following pronto.) I am delighted to announce that a second crime novel is finished and a third in the offing. The Banvillians amongst you will also be pleased to know that work has (painstakingly) commenced on a new Banville novel.
It is well-known that until he won the Booker, Banville struggled to shift 3000 copies of his novels. As he was signing Christine Falls I asked how many copies had sold to-date. Banville/Black claimed he had no idea - not sure I believe him for he also claimed to know nothing about the Daggers.
Sunday 18.02.07 19:40 Alasdair Gray
Large-as-life with trademark Worzel Gummage hair, baggy trousers and startled eyes, Alasdair Gray entertained us hugely as he read from his forthcoming novel "Old Men in Love", which, from the extracts he read, seems to be a mixture of modern (im)morality tale and historical polemic. However, it being Alasdair Gray, I may have got that completely wrong, so don't quote me. The reading was lengthy and deliberately so, for as AG said "I don't want the questioning to last 100 years". Was this an aside? (He was sharing the stage with Rodge Glass, his biographer, who at one point quipped "I've been asking you questions for 10 years - you've still to answer them.") Or was it a lack of confidence? For, astoundingly AG, the giant, crumbled during question time. His answers were long but more than once completely offtrack. I felt quite saddened. Fortunately though, the evening ended more cheerfully - a comment I made during the book signing, which I cannot divulge to protect the innocent, produced loud raucous laughter from the author ... a marvellous noteon which to end the evening.
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