After three months of grapevine-listening, tip-offs and an intense reading marathon, I’m very excited to present the Literary Sofa Top 10 Summer Reads 2013. Whatever your taste in fiction I hope you’ll find something you can’t wait to read: there are serious literary novels alongside books tipped to be commercial bestsellers; crime and psychological thrillers, … Continue reading
Some stories have such a strong hold on the popular imagination that they refuse to fade away. The desire to reconnect with the familiar in a new way has a history of crossing different media: the written word, opera, drama, the movies. Sometimes it’s the original storyline relocated in time or place, sometimes a sequel or … Continue reading
Thanks to Claire King, debut author of The Night Rainbow (Bloomsbury) and a past Literary Sofa Guest for interviewing me about book blogging. I really enjoyed our conversation, especially talking about the links between blogging and writing fiction. Here’s a link to the interview if you’d like to read it. As I mentioned, I really do … Continue reading
Display of Short Story Collections, Daunt Books, Marylebone Until relatively recently, I was a short fiction sceptic. The fact that I rarely read it didn’t stop me having a rather dismissive attitude: weren’t short stories a bit trivial and unsatisfying? Why would I spend time on them when I could be reading a novel? I was far from alone in my … Continue reading
I’ve attended many author events and have been lucky to hear/meet some of the big name novelists who’ve inspired me: Alan Hollinghurst, Linda Grant, Richard Ford, Marilynne Robinson. There’s a new addition to that list: Lionel Shriver, who read at an intimate salon at the Society Club on Saturday. I’ve never written up an author … Continue reading
OK, hate is too strong a word, but even blogposts need a good title… I’ve been in hypercritical mode lately and I’m hoping this will get it out of my system. It’s happened before. At university I spent four years overanalysing and pulling to pieces the greats of French and German literature. Parts of this I loved, … Continue reading
As you may recall, at the start of 2013 I set myself the challenge of re-writing my oft-rejected-but-apparently-not-that-bad novel after calling in the professionals. I spent weeks messing around with coloured pens, stickers and Post-It notes re-structuring the story and when (I thought) I had it right, I pinned them on a board so they couldn’t … Continue reading
Most writers say they learn from every book they read and I’d agree with that. Whilst it’s very valuable to observe how others handle a similar theme, style or genre, for me there’s a particular fascination, often mixed with admiration, to reading something I wouldn’t attempt myself, and that includes the fictional portrayal of a historical … Continue reading
Any novel set in New York City, whether historical or contemporary, stands a good chance of catching my eye but two things in particular attracted me to Karl Taro Greenfeld’s first novel Triburbia: the chance to discover Tribeca, a neighbourhood I know only very superficially, and an interest in novels which tell the same events … Continue reading
The buzz and excitement surrounding debut author Stuart Nadler in the United States has gone global. To call it hype would suggest that it’s not justified and believe me, it is. Nadler is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (alma mater of no fewer than 17 Pulitzer Prize winners), has held teaching posts both … Continue reading
