Books by women

I recommend a thought-provoking talk given on Feb 15 at Newnham College Cambridge, posted on the Persephone books website www.persephone.co.uk about books written by women.

Moffat Book Events latest

Here is the latest news from Moffat Book Events:

• tickets for our April 16 event Love and Marriage in Moffat went on sale yesterday.
• the current March 2011 issue of D&G Life magazine features a picture of cover girl model Hazel Ivins-Whately wearing a vintage 1930's wedding dress from Moffat's Lothlorien Emporium with details of our event on page 116
  
• the organizing committee (or 'gang of three') visited the Moffat House hotel on Thursday Feb 24 for a very delicious cream tea and finalised our choice of sandwiches and cakes for tea on The Day with Julie the pastry chef at the hotel. The things we do for art!
  
• The last 15 names are sought to complete the founders 'members welcome' box on our website www.moffatbookevents.co.uk
  
• Alistair Moffat, world authority on Borders history has agreed to be our guest of honour at a literary luncheon at the Moffat House hotel on Sat 15 October to talk about his new book on the genetic makeup of the population of Scotland
• The Lanark Gazette for Feb 24 carried a pic of Moffat Book Events chairwoman Elizabeth Roberts in connection with the distribution of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold on World Book Night (March 5) and her encounters with author John le Carre.
  

Box of books

Q: When does the message 'the books have arrived' sound like code? A:When the books are 48 copies of The Spy Who Came in from The Cold. The books are at the Atkinson Pryce bookshop in Biggar whence they will be whisked in an unmarked vehicle today to the Heatherghyll Hotel in Crawford ready to be distributed, courtesy of the proprietor Philip Leek to long distance lorry drivers on World Book Night - March 5 2011. A meeting of Moffat Book Events today to finalise the programme design -to be like a wedding order of service, requesting the pleasure of your company - for our inaugural event at the Moffat house hotel on April 16. Our theme is love, romance and happy married life, most suitable in the feverish, cupcake-ridden run-up to the royal wedding ten days later on April 29. And champagne.

Kittens

Holding my battered old paperback copy of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold yesterday brought back memories of the time I let my house in 1982 to be a location for BBC TV's serial of John le Carre's Smiley's People. I was a single Mum at that time, and the three weeks rent paid for a holiday for me and the girls at the recently-opened Forte Holiday Village in Sardinia. They used the first floor drawing room as George Smiley's bedroom, because the houses in the Chelsea street where the fictional character is supposed to live are too small to film inside. In the series, we see George Smiley (Alec Guiness) and his other colleagues, family and friends approach a front door in that street and then - they are in my house. Alec Guiness used my small office on the ground floor at the back overlooking the garden as his sitting room. While we were away, the cat had kittens behind my filing cabinet and the carpet was alive with fleas. What could Sir A have thought? No further forward today with The Lighthouse Stevensons but am sticking with them.

Pix at AJay's

A lightning visit in defiance of doctor's orders and in falling snow this afternoon to Crawford's corner shop-cum-Post Office, AJay's, for a pre-World Book Night pic for the Lanark Gazette. It was AJay co-proprietor Alan Bierman who suggested I base myself and my 48 copies of The Spy Who Came in from The Cold on giveaway night (March 5) at Crawford's popular long distance lorry drivers' stopover, the Heatherghyll hotel. Waiting for Lindsey the Gazette photographer, I started Bella Bathurst's The Lighthouse Stevensons which is packed with amazing amounts of information. I plan to be curled up by the fire all day tomorrow so watch out for statistics about wrecks and wreckers.

Another sort of book day

Another sort of book day entirely - guest blogger literary agent Robert Dudley reports:

‘‘Get Writing’ hosted by the Verulam Writers’ Circle took place yesterday at the Uni of Hertfordshire. Verulam are a writers’ group based in St Albans whose moving spirit is one Jenny Barden, a real force of nature. There were about 190 people there who enjoyed a series of events between 9-6. As it was a foul day and quite a few people had travelled considerable distances to get there this was quite a tribute to Jenny’s organising and inspirational skills. I was asked to talk for ten mins at the start of the day with another agent, John Jarrold and Matt Bates, the chief buyer for WHS Travel on ‘How to Impress Us’. Then there were ‘workshops’ run by visiting authors including Rosy Thornton, Leigh Russell, Toby Frost, Jean Fullerton and others on a range of subjects such as Writing a novel with a foreign setting, Creating compelling lead characters past and present, Bringing storytelling alive through the speech of the characters. This was followed by three very senior publishers, Simon Taylor from Transworld, Marlene Johnson, the children’s publisher at Hachette and Gillian Green from Ebury Press talked about e-books. After (a very delicious) lunch the television presenter Sue Cook presented the ‘Get Writing’ cup to the delegate who submitted the best story for the Get Writing Short Story Competition (who actually wasn't a member of the VMC!) – and talked about her life. Then it was time for the ‘pitches’ – to us agents and the publishers - three minute and five minute – which were over-subscribed with would-be novelists and writers. Finally a number of talks and Q & A sessions by publishers and authors brought the day to an end. I don’t know what they charged (it was £55 - ER)but I would say that unless it was very exorbitant most people would have felt they received exceptional value for money.’

Thanks for a v. interesting post Rob - maybe we should try a writing day here in Moffat? See www.vwc.org.uk for details of the Verulam Writers Circle's multifarious activities throughout the year.

My birthday

It is my 67th birthday! I am sharing the day in bed with Flo my cairn terrier-in-law (well, she's actually beside the bed) and Geoff Dyer's new collection of essays Working the Room. I met Geoff Dyer several years ago at a writers' workshop. I had never heard of him, but his book about (and not about) D H Lawrence Out of Sheer Rage is a rare, clever, comic masterpiece. He likes book titles with puns: Jeff in Venice for example, or Paris Trance. I am proud to have suggested that he write the essay accompanying my sister Jenny's collection of photographs A Propos Rodin published a year or so ago by Thames and Hudson. So this is my big idea for our MBE followup event in Moffat in Oct: family history. Jenny is compiling ours. Alistair Moffat has done one, in a sense, for the whole people of Scotland, in his The Scots: A Genetic Journey (Birlinn out March 1st). There are organisations out there which specialise in helping us find our roots. Mine are strongly Scottish but I was born and grew up in Kent, the daughter of economic immigrants you might say. I will be crawling up to Elvanfoot tomorrow with a sick note to be photographed by the Lanark Gazette as a participant in World Book Night, Edinburgh-based publisher Jamie Byng's million-book giveaway. I personally am giving away (courtesy of WBN) 48 copies of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold to long distance lorry drivers at the Heatherghyll hotel in Crawford - the nearest village to my forestry business. Next up on my reading list: The Lighthouse Stevensons by local author Bella Bathurst. Our MBE April 16 event features author D E Stevenson who was a direct descendant, casting a different sort of light on her surroundings.