Sydney Literary Lunch

Before heading to Melbourne for the Writers Festival in a few weeks, I will be in Sydney for a few days and taking part in a literary lunch organised by the Australian booksellers, Dymocks, in association with the Sydney Morning Herald. It takes place on Tuesday 18th August at 12:30 pm at the Four Seasons Hotel and tickets are currently available from the Dymocks website. I’ll be talking about THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE and my other novels so if you’re in Sydney then, it should be an enjoyable afternoon.

Irish Tour

Hughes & Hughes, Wexford

Waterstone’s Cork

Just back from a mini-tour of Ireland over the last few days, first to Dubray in Galway, the Waterstone’s in Cork, then Hughes & Hughes in Wexford in the always delightful company of Claire Kilroy, where we read from and discussed our new novels THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE and ALL NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED. Thanks to all the staff in each of the bookshops for their generosity each evening and to the fine audiences who showed up! Writers do a lot of events in Dublin and it’s clear that there’s a real appetite outside the capital for author readings – booktours should look to extend their borders!

Melbourne Writers Festival

I’m really looking forward to taking part in this years Melbourne Writers Festival, the programme for which has just been published.

The festival takes place between 21st and 30th August and I will be taking part in a range of events across the programme. On Saturday 22nd, I will be giving a day long masterclass on the historical novel; over the course of the week I will be giving separate talks on THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE and THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS. I will also be introducing a screening of the film and taking part in the schools programme (where I get a long-awaited opportunity to read with Morris Gleitzman, who wrote those wonderful novels ONCE and THEN). I will also be talking at Deakin University later in the festival.

There are some fantastic writers appearing at the festival, including Philip Hensher, who wrote my favourite novel of 2008 THE NORTHERN CLEMENCY, Antony Beevor, Thomas Kenneally, Glen David Gold and Tom Rob Smith.

The full programme is available here and the schedule for my own events can be seen on my website here. Tickets are available now through the festival’s box office page.

Ireland Tour

Claire Kilroy (TENDERWIRE / ALL NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED) and I will be reading together in 3 Irish cities next week as well as signing copies of our books, so if you happen to be in one of these cities, do come along:

Tuesday 21st: Dubray, Galway, 6 pm

Wednesday 22nd: Waterstone’s, Patrick Street, Cork, 6 pm

Thursday 23rd: Hughes & Hughes, Wexford, 6:30 pm

Lisbon

I’m on holidays in Lisbon at the moment. Which is why the blog’s so quiet. Home soon!

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.