End of Tour

I finished my mini-tour of England yesterday. On Friday I visited four libraries in Suffolk to talk about THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE, but also THE DARE, which the libraries had chosen as their communities reading book. In each, there was a ‘Dare Door’ where readers could leave their thoughts on the Quick Read novella I published earlier this year. Then, on Saturday morning, I was at the BBC as a guest on Saturday View on Radio 4. You can listen back to the broadcast here.

June Reading

A couple of stand-out novels this months, including Sarah Waters’ THE LITTLE STRANGER. One of my favourite writers, Waters writes historical novels with a real feel for time and place. This ghost story is very well constructed, scary in all the right parts, sad and moving at times, and leaving the reader with questions about the characters to ponder. A really wonderful book. The other book I really enjoyed was William Trevor’s LOVE AND SUMMER, one of our great novelists writing about a rural Irish village and the unsettling effects of the arrival of a young photographer. I read a bunch of other novels over the last few weeks but I’ll stick with a photo this month.

Ipswich Arts Festival

Moved on from Hull to Ipswich for the Ipswich Arts Festival last night. In the afternoon I appeared as a guest on BBC Radio Suffolk and then later, on a beautifully sunny evening, my event was held on a university campus that overlooks a fantastic harbour. I’d been here 2 or 3 years ago while touring THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS so it was nice to come back with THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE. Also got a chance for a quick trip back and forth to Norwich, my old university, to catch up with some friends. The picture below reminds me of my 7 years working as a bookseller with Waterstone’s and the amount of times I stood behind tables like this one at events, selling books!

Humber Mouth Literary Festival

I had a great evening last night at the Humber Mouth Literary Festival in Hull. Many thanks to the organisers for putting together such a great event and a nice night out afterwards. I’ve never been to Hull before but their football club is well known to me as one of their greatest supporters is Mark Herman, the director of the film adaptation of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS. While travelling around Europe and the States with Mark while we were promoting the movie, Mark kept in constant touch with scores on his phone and we watched the team slowly freefall down the premiership. Never mind, they stayed up in the end. Just.

Spanish Bounty

The Spanish language edition of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY has just been published by Salamandra, with this very striking cover – Paul Gauguin’s Matameo (Landscape With Peacocks).

Siobhan Dowd

How fantastic to see the Carnegie Medal, the premier award in children’s publishing, won today by the late Siobhan Dowd for BOG CHILD.

I’ve read all four of Siobhan’s books and while they’re all of the very highest quality, BOG CHILD is, I think, the best of the lot and one of the finest novels of the decade. I read it earlier this year and was completely transfixed by the story of Fergus, who finds a body in a Northern Irish bog and thinks at first that this is another victim of the Troubles; very quickly he learns that the body is in fact 2000 years old and has remained mummified through the centuries. Written with a real sense of place and a central character of heroic proportions, the tragedy of the book is that Siobhan Dowd did not live long enough to see how inspiring her books have become to readers.

All royalties from Siobhan Dowd’s books go to Siobhan Dowd Trust, which was established to support disadvantaged young readers. You can read more about it here.

Orange Readers Group

The Orange Readers Group Book of the Year has been awarded to THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS. From the Orange website:

 

John Boyne’s novel, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, (Black Swan) has been voted the Penguin Orange Readers’ Group Book of the Year.

Votes were collected via the Spinebreakers website and from people entering the 2009 Penguin Orange Readers’ Group Prize. The award had previously been won by Khaled Hosseini’s, The Kite Runner, which remarkably claimed the top spot three years in a row.

The three favourite reading group books are:

1 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne, Black Swan

2 Twilight, Stephenie Meyer, ATOM

3 Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, Penguin

Author John Boyne said, “”I’m thrilled that The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas has been selected as the Penguin Orange Readers’ Group Book of the Year. From the day the novel was published, it has received extraordinary support from reading groups who debate the novel back and forth with all the passion and argument that good literature demands – I know, because I’ve been there for some of those debates! That the story of Bruno and Shmuel continues to move readers is a source of great encouragement to me as a writer. I’m very grateful to Penguin and Orange and all the readers who selected the novel for this prize.”

The Penguin Orange Readers’ Group Prize

Now in its eighth year, the prize is the UK’s only annual award for reading groups and forms part of Orange’s portfolio of literary partnerships

Radio Solent

If you live anywhere around the Hampshire area, you might like to tune in to a radio interview I’ll be doing on BBC Radio Solent between 2:00 and 2:30 pm to talk about THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PU.RPOSE. The interview takes place on the Charlie Crocker show. Radio Solent can be found on 96.1 FM / 103.8 FM

Zafon reading

Last night, I hot-footed it down to my local bookshop, Hughes & Hughes Dundrum, to hear Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon speak about his writing and particularly his two most recent novels, The Shadow of The Wind and The Angel’s Game.

I was a big fan of The Shadow of the Wind and have been looking forward to the new novel, which is a prequel to the early book.

Carlos did not in fact give his talk in the shop but in the nearby cinema, which was just as well as hundreds of people showed up to hear him; we all went back to the shop afterwards for the signing. I don’t think I’ve seen such a long queue for a book-signing session since the last time I was at an event with Jacqueline Wilson!

It was very interesting to hear Carlos talk about Barcelona and how it has influenced him both as a person and as a writer; I’ve been there a couple of times myself but always on promotional trips and would like to take a little time to explore the city next time I get a chance to visit.

The Dare audio edition

A two-CD edition of THE DARE, the novella I published earlier this year as one of the Quick Reads series on World Book Day is now available. Read by John Hasler, it’s published by WF Howes Audio Books and available from their website.