Fabulous: a book festival!
I am delighted to have been asked to chair the crime writersā event (at Watton Library in Norfolk), which takes place as part of the Breckland Book Festival on Saturday 16th March.Ā Itās a session that features Tom Benn and Elly Griffiths.
Yesterday Claire Sharland, one of the organisers of the event, got in touch to suggest that I should read their latest novels, Chamber Music (Tom) and Dying Fall (Elly), before the session and generously added that the festival would pay me for the purchases. I am delighted with this offer ā I shall buy the books when I am in London next week. Iām sure that, very shortly, I shall also be reviewing them on this blog!
Itās always nice to be given some books, especially if you buy them all the time. Iāve long been amused by the Booksellers Associationās definition of a āheavy book buyerā as someone who buys twelve or more books a year ā most years, I barely get through January without hitting this figure. What really excites me, however, is that someone has prescribed my reading for me. Iām going into this totally blind ā I havenāt been prompted by reviews, word-of-mouth recommendations or even by spotting the titles in a bookshop. Aside from examination texts, I canāt remember when I was last instructed in what to read in this way. It might have been during my third year at high school, when the class text was My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell. My bookish, priggish thirteen-year-old self turned up her nose in disdain when sets of this were distributed. I didnāt think it was suitable āseriousā reading for someone who, while still at primary school, had read such classics as Jane Eyre, The Thirty-Nine Steps and Great Expectations, especially as – distasteful innovation – the school copies were in paperback!
Itās a pity that I didnāt adopt such a fastidious approach to every subject. Today I wouldnāt be able to recognise a quadratic equation if it bopped me on the nose; and Iāve never mastered the mysteries of algebra (though it now occurs to me that it could be a useful vehicle for plot construction: let x be the murderer, y the victim, z the wicked stepmother etc.).
I should add that my precious teenage prejudice against My Family was immediately dissipated by readingĀ its delights; Iāve read it several times since and it was one of the books that I read to my young son at bedtime. Iām certain that I shall like Tomās and Ellyās novels, too, and look forward to making their acquaintance, first through their work and secondly in person. If anyone reading thisĀ should happen to beĀ in the vicinity of Watton Library at 3 p.m. on 16th March, I hope perhaps to meet you there, too.