#BuyBooksForSyria

The capacity for bookish bods to do wonderful and charitable things is quite something. Not long ago Patrick Ness set up a fundraiser for Syria through Save The Children, which is still taking donations, and has just blown up and now made over $1,000,000. In the last couple of weeks author and vlogger Jen Campbell announced her challenge to write 100 Poems in 24 hours from the 6th to the 7th of October for The Book Bus, a wonderful charity that sends mobile libraries to communities in various places across Africa, Asia and South America to help children learn to read, provide teaching materials and create school libraries. Now the book shop chain Waterstones, one of the few chain stores I love whole heartedly, have announced their Buy Books For Syria campaign….

They have teamed up with authors and UK publishers to raise £1m for Oxfam’s Syria Crisis appeal. From Today they will be selling books in our shops from a range of authors with all the proceeds going to Oxfam. A wide range of authors are supporting the campaign, including Philip Pullman, Hilary Mantel, David Walliams, Neil Gaiman, David Nicholls, Marian Keyes, Victoria Hislop, Ali Smith, Robert Harris, Lee Child, Salman Rushdie, Caitlin Moran, Julia Donaldson and Jacqueline Wilson.

I was kindly asked if I would like to champion one of the books and once the list was announced I went and chose one of my favourite thrillers of the last year or so which is Tom Rob Smith’s The Farm. If you haven’t read this corker of a thriller then here is my review to give you a taster and to add an extra reason to get your mitts on a copy for this cause.

Though frankly don’t even go and look at that just please do order the book, using this special link so the proceeds all go to Syria, if you haven’t read it yet. If you have read it then have a look at the rest of the special selection of books which you can buy in store or online using the special links here. Often when we take a moment away from our books and watch the news we feel like we can’t really do anything massive, well with this initiative we can, and all buy buying ourselves and/or our loved ones the gift of a book. Simple really, how can we not? I am off to go and choose a title or two myself!

The Farm – Tom Rob Smith

Without making myself sound up my own bottom or like I am some connoisseur of the genre, but it does take a rather different crime to really make my deerstalking covered ears prick up and I settle down to devour a good crime novel (with my pipe and my smoking jacket) in one big gulp because I can’t get enough. This is exactly what happened when I read The Farm by Tom Rob Smith. He who wrote Child 44 which is one of my favourite crime novels of recent years. Oh, though in reality I don’t actually wear a Sherlock Holmes outfit when I read crime fiction, but it’s an idea.

Simon & Schuster, hardback, 2014, fiction, 368 pages, kindly sent by Riot Communications

Imagine one day you are on your way back from Tesco/Waitrose (or any other supermarket) and you get a call from your father out of the blue telling you that your mother is unwell, it isn’t something physical or something terminal, your mother has had a mental breakdown of some sort and she believes that something, which your father won’t divulge, dreadful has happened. This is the rather intense and intriguing way that Tom Rob Smith starts The Farm, yet this is only the beginning.

‘Dad?’ ‘Your mother… She’s not well.’ ‘Mum’s sick?’ ‘It’s so sad.’ ‘Sad because she’s sick? Sick how? How’s Mum sick?’ Dad was still crying. All I could do was dumbly wait until he said: ‘She’s been imagining things – terrible, terrible things.’

Things get even stranger, very quickly so I am not spoiling anything, as no sooner has Daniel spoken to his father and packed to head for Sweden (where his parents have moved to) he receives a call from the airport from his mother, Tilde. She has been released from the psychiatric ward she had been placed in by her husband and is about to get a flight to Daniel to tell him her story, a story he might not believe and might implicate his own father in having been part of something very dark and very wrong.

To say too much more about the plot would be to spoil what is a fantastically gripping account of a woman who goes back to her homeland, taking her husband with her, to live a life close to nature on a remote farm which at first seems idyllic and soon turns into a nightmare for her.

Looking out the window I was reminded of just how lonely this landscape was. In Sweden, outside the cities, the wilderness rules supreme. People tiptoe timidly around the edge, surrounded by skyscraping fir trees and lakes larger than entire nations. Remember, this is the landscape that inspired the mythology of trolls, stories I used to read to you about giant lumbering man-eating creatures with mushroom warts on their crooked noses and bellies like boulders. Their sinewy arms can rip a person in two, snapping human bones and using splinters to scrape the gristle out of their shrapnel teeth. Only in forests as vast as this could such monsters be hiding, yellow eyes stalking you.  

There are lots of things that are marvellous about The Farm. The main thing for me was the sense of unreliability throughout. Tom Rob Smith has Tilde recount what has happened to her, from her perspective, from start to finish providing items she feels prove her story. These are interjected with questions from Daniel as he tries to understand, as we readers try and figure it all out, and also interjections from his father, Chris, calling trying to find out what is going on and trying to tell Daniel his mother has had a breakdown and isn’t to be believed.

This adds a marvellous sense of tension to the book. Which parent should we believe? Has Chris been part of something horrendous? Has Tilde misread what she has seen with so much additional time on her hands in the remote wilderness, has she escaped to a place of trolls from her childhood, has she gone mad or could she be telling the truth? You are constantly second guessing all of the characters as you read on and just when you think you have taken a side, something happens to make you change your mind. It is a web intricately spun.

What adds to this is the fact The Farm is laced with secrets. As we read on we learn there are many secrets behind the façade of this family (as in real life). Why did Tilde and Chris really leave the UK and head to the middle of nowhere? What happened in Tilde’s childhood which led her to fleeing her home country and makes everyone question her all the more? What is really going on in the neighbouring farm of Håkan Greggson (a brilliantly constructed neighbourhood bully, who I loved to loathe) behind closed doors? What secret is Daniel himself keeping from his parents? Throw in the atmosphere of Sweden with is brooding landscape, mythology and remote nature and how can a read fail to be compelled?

I thought The Farm was superb. Cliché alert, I couldn’t put it down. I read it in just two settings begrudgingly putting it down when I selfishly needed some sleep before waking up very early to get back into it. Tom Rob Smith creates a genuinely thrilling mystery where secrets brood along with the atmosphere. Whilst also being a gripping read it looks at the stories we tell our families and also, more importantly, what we leave out. It also takes an interesting look at mental health and asks some big questions surrounding that. All in all The Farm is a multi-layered compulsively readable thriller that puzzles and provokes. One of my books of the year so far.

April’s Incomings…

Where oh where do the months seem to be going? Can you believe that a third of the year has already been and gone? Well it has! So being the last day of April its time to share with you all the latest incomings that have arrived at Savidge Reads temporary HQ in the last month, however they might have gotten through the door.

First up are the gifts that I have bought myself, or indeed exchanged at the lovely local café, and my reasons why. I think you will find I have been rather reserved this month…

• Deja Dead & Death Du Jour by Kathy Reichs – I have seen reviews all over the shop about Kathy Reichs and have been meaning to read her forever, especially as I have been told she is on a par with Val McDermid and Tess Gerritsen. A review of another of Reichs books by Harriet Devine made me pick these up at the book exchange.
• Nocturnes by John Connolly – I loved, loved, loved ‘The Book of Lost Things’ (pre-blogging) and rather liked ‘The Gates’ so this selection of short stories is sure to be right up my street.
• Fresh Flesh by Stella Duffy – I have recently read the second, review pending, of the Saz Martin crime series by Stella Duffy and they are rather hard to get hold of so this one was snapped up the moment I saw it.

Up next are gifts that have been kindly sent/lent by people that I know. I realised I forgot to include some of the books I had for my birthday from people in my March Incomings which is rather shoddy of me, so…

• Bedside Stories (a birthday pressie), and two treats of a World Book Night edition of Erich Maria Remarque’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and ‘Cloudstreet’ by Tim Winton all from the lovely Kimbofo when she came to stay.
• ‘Bel Canto’ by Ann Patchett from Lou of I Hug My Books as she loved it and thinks I will, we do have quite similar taste.
• ‘Miss Buncle Married’ by D.E. Stevenson, a get well/birthday pressie from the Persephone purveyor herself Claire of Paperback Reader.
• After seeing her review of ‘Love in Idleness’ by Charlotte Mendelson and letting Harriet know I loved the author she kindly offered me her copy of the only Mendelson I don’t have.
• ‘The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot’ by Angus Wilson was a lovely old edition for my birthday from Paul Magrs. I haven’t heard of the author, but from the title I am guessing it might just be perfect for my love of books about women of a certain age.

So onto the books from the lovely publishers and lets start off with the paperbacks, a big thanks to Vintage, Virago, Picador, Myriad Editions, OUP, Hodder and Headline for these books…

• Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton
• What The Day Owes The Night by Yasmina Khadra
• The Stars in the Bright Sky by Alan Warner
• In-Flight Entertainment by Helen Simpson
• The Death of Lomond Friel by Sue Peebles
• Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead
• The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall
• The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller
• Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco
• Hurry Up and Wait by Isabel Ashdown
• Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder by Catriona McPherson
• Touch The Stars by Jessica Ruston

And thanks to Headline, Macmillan, Atalantic, Serpents Tail, Harvill Secker, Picador, Portobello and Simon & Schuster for this joyful collection of an audiobook, trade paperbacks, proofs and hardbacks…

• When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
• Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz
• Embassytown by China Mieville
• The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes
• The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale
• Walking on Dry Land by Denis Kehoe
• The Reinvention of Love by Helen Humphries
• The Winter of the Lions by Jan Costin Wagner
• The Sly Company of People Who Care by Rahul Bhattacharya
• The Proof of Love by Catherine Hall
• The Rest is Silence by Carla Guelfenbein
• Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith

Phew, quite a loot. Without showing any preferential treatment I have to say that the new Tom Rob Smith is really, really exciting me. Which of the books and authors have you tried and tested? Any you would recommend or would like to see me get too sooner rather than later?

What Do You Want & Expect From An Award Winning Book?

This is a question which I have been asked rather a lot recently. Actually the exact question has been ‘what do you look for in an award winning book?’ So I thought I would open it up to all of you for all your thoughts on that very subject. We all do it, we judge the panel that judge the award and we always have opinions of why a winning book should/shouldn’t or did/didn’t win don’t we? (If anyone is saying no then you are fibbing!) I am also interested, as ever, in what you all think because I would like to see just how different or similar our expectations are with these books. 

I could easily think of some recent titles that show just how much discussion/controversy book winners can cause. The first that came to mind were these two both winners of awards in 2010.

First up is ‘Truth’ by Peter Temple, which I have now decided I need to get my hands on imminently, this book seemed to shock everyone by being a ‘crime/thriller’ that won the literary prize The Miles Franklin Award 2010. Why should that be so shocking, does the genre really matter? There seems some great surprise, like when Tom Rob Smith’s brilliant ‘Child 44’ was put forward for the Man Booker, that a crime book could be well written and yet they are well written (need I send you in the direction of Kate Atkinson or have I raved about her enough?) in fact I think some of the plots in some of the best thrillers published could put some of the more prose heavy contenders to shame yet you wouldn’t.

Also a shock winner this year was ‘The Lacuna’ by Barbara Kingsolver (which I gave up on and am giving to Gran at the weekend as she’s doing it for one of her book groups and a ‘guest review’ on here) which caused a lot of controversy for winning the Orange over what many believed was the better novel ‘Wolf Hall’. It appeared the judges couldn’t let the latter book win as it won the Booker the year before, which strikes me as slightly odd because surely if its won one award already it’s because its bloody good and deserves to win more? Or is it just me that belongs to that rare school of logic?

Turning to another subject on award winners I was interested that reviews of one of this years Man Booker long-listed titles ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue have suggested that despite the fact people think its absolutely brilliant they doubt it will be Man Booker winning material because its too accessible. I am not berating that because that’s what I thought too, why though? Shouldn’t the books that go on to win awards, not only by being very well written, be able to reach out to a mass of people and just be a cracking good read as well as everything else?

Really with most awards it’s down to a group of people rather than us and what they think makes a cracking read. They aren’t able to please everyone and yet we expect them to, which brings me nicely to my next point.  

Another question which I have been asked a lot is ‘what qualifies you to be a judge of what is a good book or not?’ My answer so far to that one has been ‘I read enough of them to know what I like, what makes a book special or amazing rather than just another good read, it’s a very personal thing too.’ Which left me wondering what my criteria is for an award winning book and I don’t think it would match some other peoples, and maybe people will be asking the question at the start of this paragraph even more after seeing what it is.

Though because we have sworn to secrecy I can’t tell you how many books have been submitted for The Green Carnation Prize 2010, which ones they are/might be or which publishers sent them… I do feel I can tell you what I personally will be looking for regardless of genre, length etc;

• The writing has to be captivating. I don’t mean that it has to be the most beautiful prose that has ever graced a page – though that helps – I do need to be spell bound by it, every word should count without being calculated and together as a whole work have an effect on me.
• It needs to be readable and accessible. I don’t want to be able to put it down (this doesn’t mean it has to be trashy books like the marvellous ‘The Hand That First Held Mine’ by Maggie O’Farrell can be stunningly written and also page turning) yet I don’t want to enjoy it and forget about it as soon as its on the shelf.
• I want narrators who I believe the whole way through no matter how lovely or vile or how reliable or not they may be.
• It needs to be a book I would rush out and buy for anyone and everyone (hence why no thoughts on any of the long listed or short listed books of a certain prize will appear on my blog or be discussed by me in specifics in the real world until the winners announced) because because its a great story and one I want others to read asap.
• Most importantly I want a book that stands out and etches itself in my brain in some way, it doesn’t have to change my life or world completely, but it does need make me think and linger with me for days, weeks and months after.  

So what makes the perfect award winning book for you? By all means mention a few titles but what I would love to get to the crux of, and am much more interested in, is just what those perfect award winning books had about them for you? What made them work for you personally? Which criteria would you be looking for if you were judging a book award? What would instantly stop you from wanting a book to go further through the process? Which book award winners have mystified you and more importantly why?

Books of 2009… A Teaser

I have to say I don’t normally do something like this during a blogging year. Instead I normally do a Savidge Reads Dozen (thirteen though like the Man Booker) Top Reads at the end of the year here is last years. However as its thanksgiving for some today- Happy Thanksgiving to you – Booking Through Thursday was asking about books and authors we are thankful for. Recently I also saw Jackie of Farmlanebooks do her best books of 2009 so far so I thought for a change I would merge the two in a way. My end of year one won’t be books that have necessarily come out in 2009 just ones I have loved in 2009. I thought for now I would give you my top five (in no particular order) as a bit of a teaser, it was tough I can tell you… there is still five weeks to go till 2009 ends so it could all change.

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie – The story follows possibly my favourite character of the year so far (and there have been a few contenders) Hiroko Tanaka on August the 9th 1945 in Nagasaki just before they dropped the bomb and ‘the world turns white’. Though Hiroko survives her German lover Konrad is killed. Two years later as India declares its independence she turns up on his half-sisters door step in Delhi with nowhere to stay and becomes attracted to their servant Sajjad and all this is in the first 60 pages. The book then follows Hiroko’s story and the story of people around her (that’s all I am saying trying not to plot spoil) through more pivotal times in history such as the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and America post 9/11… Read more here.

The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett – The Shuttle is one of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s adult fiction books. I should admit here I haven’t read any of her children’s titles either. I had picked it up purely as it was a Persephone novel and I have wanted to read as many as I can get my hands on frankly. Reading the synopsis in the book cover I wasn’t sure this was going to fare very well with me as it seemed to be about the ships that took American’s to England and vice versa in the late 1800’s. I don’t really do books with ships and so with trepidation I opened the book and then simply couldn’t put it down… Read more here.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin – ‘Brooklyn’ is a tale of Eilie, a young girl in Ireland after the Second World War where the economy is a disaster and jobs are scarce. Overjoyed simply to find a Sunday and occasional evening job when you can expect little more Eilie is suddenly offered a job and life in Brooklyn where work is easier to find and so is money and more importantly prospects. Eilie soon realises that this isn’t a sudden offer and in fact her mother, sister and brothers (in England) have been well meaningly plotting this for quite some time and really she has no choice.  After following her nightmare journey across the ocean we watch as Eilie settles into a new life with new people and new cultures in an unknown environment. We also watch as she grows from girl to woman and falls in love. It is eventually though a trip home that leads to the climax and a huge decision for Eilie… Read more here.

Henrietta’s War by Joyce Dennys – Henrietta’s War actually started out as columns in Sketch. Dennys was an artist who has many successful collections though once married and a mother in the late 1920’s her life became a domestic one in the English countryside and so needed something to take her frustrations out on. Out came Henrietta’s wartime letters to her ‘childhood friend’ Robert who is ‘out on the front’ and eventually became published as a collection and a novel in the form of this wonderful book. I think that any book that has the line “Dear Robert, I have a great urge to knit something for you” with in the first chapter (or letter in this case) is going to be a hit with me… Read more here.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith – Child 44 is set in the 1950’s Soviet Union. A child is found dead with what appears to be soil in his mouth and his family are sure that this is murder despite the boy’s body being found on the train tracks. Leo Demidov of the MGB is sent to cool things over and persuade the family that this is nothing more than a tragic accident, a job he does begrudgingly as he feels it is taking his time away from his more important work. However when Leo himself goes through some very changing circumstances and another body of a child with soil in its mouth is found he begins to realise that there may be a serial killer out there… Read more here.

Now I mentioned that we have five weeks left (how is it going so quickly) and so it could all very easily change. In fact I know there are two books I have read but haven’t written about yet that would probably wing it in the top five at the moment. You could also make it change, I would love you to tell me what the top five books are that you have read this year and if I own them I will try and read some of them and if I don’t own them I will look out for them when I have a small binge next week once we are in December! So its over to you…

Some Culture South West

This Friday and Saturday just gone seems to be a blur of culture frankly. Now I know this weekend has seen quite a few blogs with a De Bernier Review and Competition and then the latest sensation read but I couldn’t leave this post really (though I am still to report back from high jinx in Highgate and much more but those aren’t so urgent and can fit into other posts) as it’s just been and gone and I wanted tow rite about it while its fresh in my mind.

Friday night saw me head to Wimbledon Library for the first in two running evenings of delights that the Wimbledon Bookfest had to offer. Now I did offer one of you to come but no one took the bait and so I went alone (that was a cue for violins please) to see Kamila Shamsie talk about one of my favourite, favourite books of the year (which may go on to my soon to be revamped favourites page) the wonderful ‘Burnt Shadows’ which I still think is just amazing. I could gush on for longer but I will zip it there. They had gone to town with the event as we were entertained (Kamila had been held up anyway) by some wonderful Indian music along with drinks and nibbles and then some wonderful dancing before Kamila spoke. 

Sometimes when you see an author it can put you off them for life, no seriously I won’t say which one it happened to me with but never reading a book of theirs again. Kamila Shamsie wasn’t one of those authors; she was very thoughtful, very insightful and very funny. Not one to shy away from asking as many questions as possible I asked when she knew that she wanted to be an author and who inspired her and she said ‘I wanted to write from the age of about nine and so I would say Roald Dahl and C.S Lewis were my first inspirations’ and went up even further in my estimation. She later discussed how her mother also an author used to insist ‘from the age of fourteen I had to read Ishiguro, Peter Carey, Salman Rushdie she was very into contemporary fiction and made sure she bought the Man Booker winner each year. I just spent all my free time wandering her library and reading what I could and what she occasionally pushed firmly in my direction… in Karachi there is very little else to do so I was very grateful for my mothers love of contemporary fiction as well as the classics’.

I queued up to get my book signed (you can see from the not very good picture above) and had to buy one for my Gran as I honestly think she would love the book and has been asking for five books she should put forward for her book group choice. I thought having a signed one might just tip it over the edge for a must read for them, and its also her birthday very soon (fans of Gran Savidge feel free to send gifts ha)! Who did Kamila then want to talk about, my Gran of course, honestly she’s becoming ever more famous… or infamous depending on your view, ha!

Saturday saw myself and Novel Insights being ‘culture vultures’ as she put it as we went to see a matinee of Matthew Bourne’s ‘Dorian Gray’ in the afternoon which was just utterly astounding, it just took my breath away, utterly wonderful its on tour so you must, must see it if you can. Its quite raunchy, I don’t think some of the other audience members were quite aware what was in store for them and we had some very shocked older ladies milling around in the interval looking quite perturbed and in need of a fanning down.

The evening saw us visit the Donald Hope Library in Colliers Wood for another author who doesn’t put you off by talking about their books, Mr Tom Rob Smith who I interviewed at his home a while back for Savidge Reads (and some freelance work too). He was there to talk us through the process of how he came to write the massively successful ‘Child 44’ even though bar in the sixth form he had never really been to Russia or had a huge interest in it until he was researching serial killers for short story he was going to make into a screenplay. Isn’t it amazing how these things happen? He was very entertaining and also very patient.

Now I mentioned the other day that this has been the first book festival I have ever been too, though have been to the odd signing, literary evening etc. Is it normal that one or two members of the audience completely and utterly try and make it about them? It happened with one gentleman at the Kamila Shamsie event who basically tried to down play the book and then gushed at her in the signing who had about ten questions. At the Tom Rob Smith gig it went another level as one woman must have asked about five questions in a row without being asked, one man kept interjecting with ‘Russian facts’ and another regaled us with the history of his Grandfathers entire history in relation to Stalin and communism for about five minutes before the host managed to interject during the man’s first taking of breath with ‘erm, but is there a question to go with all that?’ It was a wonderful event, well a wonderful start to a weekend really and of course I have managed to quite bulk up on my signed copies…

  

I am looking forward to next years Wimbledon Bookfest now and will also be making an effort to go to more. Which are the ones that I should simply not miss? I am sure you all have some book festival stories to tell and I would love to hear them.

Elementary Dear Oscar

Last night was my first visit to the goings on at Wimbledon Bookfest. Now believe it or not I have never been to a book festival before, I know isn’t that shocking for someone who loves books so much? So I didn’t really know what to expect or what the whole thing would be like. I was intrigued, excited and as The Converted One had refused to come feeling slightly like a sad billy no mates. However when you are in a theatre people aren’t there to look at you are they, they are there to look at the stage. I always say this about going to the cinema alone which is something I love doing, oh dear painting rather a sad picture of myself, some people hate it.

I couldn't take a picture of him talking as theatre rules dont allow!

So my first event at a book festival had something of a sensational era twist about it which I thought was just perfect both for my current reading and just because the whole late 1800’s fascinates me. It was a talk by Gyles Brandreth, at the Polka Theatre, all about his Oscar Wilde mysteries. I have only so far read the first in the series Oscar Wilde and The Candlelight Murders but have had the second one, Oscar Wilde and The Ring of Death, waiting in the wings for quite a while.

I wondered just how a modern author could put themselves into that historical era and make everything so real. Gyles admitted he had trouble and actually Oscars grandson phoned him after reading the first book and said ‘Oh Gyles why oh why have you done this, you have done something dreadful’ which of course left Gyles very worried ‘you let Oscar drink Bollinger… it wasn’t made until the 1920’s and he only drank Perrier Jouet’ which made us all laugh, and showed how much research needs to be done into the era. Laughter was a theme as Gyles Brandreth discussed his diaries which are soon to become a memoir ‘Something Sensational To Read On The Train’.

The part I was there for was all things Victoriana and it soon came as Gyles discussed how reading The Trails of Oscar Wilde had lead him to find a real hero as well as having his fictional hero Sherlock Holmes as a young man. When he went to boarding school he became a friend of the founder who he played Scrabble against once a week and who turned out to be one of Oscar Wilde’s oldest friends and illuminated him to the life of Oscar without the scandal and painted a portrait of a man many could not say they had met.

It was when a few years ago reading a biography of Arthur Conan Doyle that he found the two had met in a hotel invited by an American publisher looking for murder mysteries to publish. The two became great friends and two legendary books were created ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ and ‘A Study In Scarlet’. The friendship and that evening is what inspired Gyles to write the Oscar Wilde Mysteries where Conan Doyle plays sidekick to Wilde’s amateur detective role which has now spawned a series.

Why the Victorian era for the basis of his fiction apart from the two main characters? “I love being lost in it. It was such a time of great change and great drama. It was a time when six men would meet at a table, some unpublished at the time, for a dinner club. These six men included Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, and J.M. Barrie. What was it in that fog of London during that time that made it such a creative era, it must be what makes modern authors go back and live it in order to be even more creative themselves.”   

A fascinating evening and a delightful first taste of book festivals. I am now very excited about Kamila Shamsie on Friday and Tom Rob Smith on Saturday, also annoyed missing Chris Cleave tomorrow and Sadie Jones on Wednesday but focus on the positive. I definitely need to go to more and shall do, which are the best ones? I also managed to get my copy of the second in the series signed and should really stop typing and get on with reading it…

Now before I do dash off I have something of a competition for you which involves the Bookfest. I have a spare ticket on Friday night to see the wonderful Kamila Shamsie talk about the wonderful, wonderful ‘Burnt Shadows’ and wondered if any of you would like it? It does mean spending about two hours with me which could be a downside ha! So if you can be in Wimbledon for 7pm and have read it and loved it, could read it by Friday but haven’t yet or are desperate to read it then do enter in comments either with a link to your review (I will be checking your reviews were positive – or why would you want to be there ha) or saying why you are desperate to read the book and The Converted One Will do a draw by 9pm tomorrow! Good luck, I may cry if no one wants to spend a few hours with me though! Ha!

Savidge Reads on the Radio, Bookfest and Book Group

This is just a bit of an update post really; there is another post coming up shortly but more of that later on. I just wanted to let you know a few bookish bits and bobs that are on my radar and the like.

First up is Savidge Reads on the Radio though that isn’t actually the name of the radio show… hang on let me explain. A few weeks ago I got an email asking if I would be interested in being a member of a panel for a new radio show that is an hour of books, books, books. Now who could say no to a request like that? If that wasn’t enough it’s for a brilliant cause too, it just gets better and better, this is going to be for hospital radios all over the shop, which I think is brilliant. Having had a few stays in hospital myself one of the things that I spent hours doing was reading, but with no one to talk to about it and this show will encourage patients to chat, hospitals to start book groups etc. All absolutely brilliant and what’s more some of you could feature on it too! If you can be free in north London by 5pm (at the studio) towards the end of every month and want more info do contact me at savidgereads@googlemail.com

Next up is Wimbledon Bookfest which starts tomorrow; I will be bringing you some reports from the festival as it takes place over the coming week and a half. I am very much looking forward to hearing Kamila Shamsie and Tom Rob Smith talk and think that on Sunday Gyles Brandreth will be the perfect evening for my ‘Sensation Season’ as his series of murder mysteries with Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle and of course is set in the late 1800’s. So I am really looking forward to listening to him talk and might have to now have a binge read of the second in the series. I read Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders earlier in the year and it’s a series I have been planning on reading more of. Is anyone else coming along to any of the events would be lovely to see some of you?

Now last night was book group, more on the book we discussed last night later today, so what is the next novel that we will be discussing, and so can you? It was Gemma who was next up to choose last and she has chosen George Orwell’s ‘1984’. For those of you (like me) who haven’t read it here is the synopsis “Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent – even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they invented Room 101. “Nineteen Eight-Four” is George Orwell’s terrifying vision of a totalitarian future in which everything and everyone is slave to a tyrannical regime.” You can pop here for more information on Book Group. I am really excited about this next choice as I haven’t read it yet though I have been meaning to for ages.

Erm, that’s all my bookish latest, apart from the fact I am doing a huge book sort over the next few days – one that is ruthless. What bookish news do you have?

Savidge Reads Grills… Tom Rob Smith

It’s not everyday that your first novel sells millions, ends up on the Man Booker Long list, gets chosen by Richard and Judy and has the film rights bought by Ridley Scott. However Tom Rob Smith it did with his debut novel Child 44 and now he is hoping to follow that success with The Secret Speech. Savidge Reads was incredibly lucky to be able to pop round to his converted Jam Factory house for a nice cuppa, a catch up and some Jammy Dodgers… in what I am hoping will be a regular on here with ‘Savidge Reads Meets…’

Now for anyone who has been on Mars and missed the amazing success of Child 44 can you tell us a bit about it?
It is set in the 1950’s in Russia in the time leading up to Stalin’s death. It’s also actually based on a real life notorious Russian serial killer who got away with a horrendous amount of murders simply because people didn’t believe someone would do something like that and people weren’t looking for him. In fact they denied he existed and many innocent people were killed for the crimes he committed. I thought it was an interesting way to look at society then with a crime background. I wanted to write something that was a page turner something that was thrilling and hopefully that’s what it is.
How did you come up with a story like this?
I came across the original idea for a screen play; well I was researching a screen play which was an adaptation of a Jeff Noon short story about how to make serial killers safe in a science fiction world. As I knew nothing about serial killers I thought I should read up about them and came across the real life case which happened quite some years after the setting of Child 44. I just wanted to tell that story and then to have the whole Stalin Regime setting too worked for me.
How did you create the atmosphere of Stalinist Russia, as obviously you weren’t there…
Quite right yeah (laughs) it was all through other books really. In a way the weird thing, though a good thing, with the secret police was that they confiscated so much stuff particularly diaries. Now these people weren’t hoping to be published they were just daily diaries and they make amazing reading and snapshots of their lives and then I put myself in their positions.
So how do you put yourself in the mind of a killer? Reading the part from the killer’s perspective when he captures a victim is hard going I found as a reader personally…
Well the thing with that was that as you are dealing with a killer who has murdered many victims I didn’t want people to become immune to it, so you get a lot of mentions of the way bodies are found and the clues it leaves but then at the same time I wanted people to really feel the fear and the horror of the situation.
Well you did that at the start for me by killing a cat!
(Laughs) Well it wasn’t a cute cat, it was a scrawny cat. It had fought really hard to live that long but that’s the way it goes. I do have to kind of forcibly say to people ‘I do like cats’ (laughs) but it was true domestic animals disappeared very quickly at that time and I wondered about people who loved their pets enough not to eat them… so it was born out of sentamentalism
So now The Secret Speech which is set a while after Child 44, did you intend to write a sequel?
No, I had no idea. I didn’t even know if the first one would do well. Child 44 wasn’t presold when I wrote it I just wrote it. Once it had sold, I then thought ‘well is there another story’ and I knew if there was it would have to be another historical event and came across this marvellous speech and what happens after Stalin, so there was already a what happens next. I am not saying though as then no one will pick it up (laughs) so you’ll have to read it to find out. I will say its set in a fascinating period, it’s a revenge story in a world that’s completely upside down.
I have to say that I was really pleased Leo was back, but I have to admit I didn’t like him at first and then grew to really like him and warmed to him. How did you write him, were you aiming to get him to grow on the audience.
In a way… I mean at first I don’t think people twig he is even going to be the hero, I brought him into the book in a slightly peripheral way. Once people know he is the hero they say they find him hard to like until a good way in and that’s right. The job he did, though with his best intentions as to why he does it and his beliefs, is essentially a horrid job, they are the baddies. He does that job because he genuinely believes he is building a Utopia and that is hard for people to see and I wanted people to try and see it from a different perspective.
Was the instant success a shock?
Yes, you have this little dream in your head of what could happen and how well a book could do and how badly. Then when it does as well as Child 44 did, it’s a shock. Part of you is amazed and then part of you thinks what about the next one, will that do as well? If I do great, if I don’t I don’t mind… ok I do. I just wanted to write something I wanted to read, something exciting and new as I loved Conan Doyle and the like when I was younger. Plus I used to commute across London and to not have a book was hellish, I would actually walk back all the way home if I got to the station bookless. I wanted to write something that made people miss their stops, I didn’t think of the prizes or awards.
Now the Man Booker long listing caused a bit of controversy in some ways how was that for you as the author?
I didn’t mind the debate about genre particularly I think that’s actually an interesting debate. As to debating the book… well lists are always going to be debated and people will always say “oh this should be on there and that shouldn’t” that side of it didn’t bother me. I find the genre thing really interesting as all genres mean are a promise, so a thriller will thrill you and a comedy will make you laugh, that’s it it shouldn’t mean a book isn’t good if it is a crime book or some other genre that not what some people call literature.
Had you always wanted to write?
Yes, I mean I had been writing stuff for quite a long time in terms of plays and screenplays… and some TV. Mind you (laughs) most of the shows I worked on like Family Affairs and Bad Girls seem to have been dumped. Then when I found this story I decided that this might make a very interesting book as opposed to a screenplay which I was originally going to make it. Something clicked and fortunately it has really worked as a project. What’s your writing routine?
I like to start quite early and go on till lunch; have that and a nice walk then do more in the afternoon. I stop around six or seven; I am not a late writer. Do I have any rituals… hmmm… lots of tea (laughs) very British. When I am in American I become the worst Brit and complain about tea…
So what’s next?
Well… The Secret Speech is out, and then I am working on something with Universal screenplay wise. The million dollar question of what will happen with the Child 44 is something that’s in discussion and I am very excited about. I will then the final book in the Russian Trilogy which is a very definite ending, the whole book is about endings. It’s weird I didn’t ever expect it to be three books. I just thought I will try one and see how I go. See people can do anything.

A Month in Books: March & The Orange Prize

Can you believe March has almost been and gone, is it me or is this year going incredibly quickly? So as with February here is my review of the month as a whole. It has to be said on the whole it was a really good reading month, a very diverse range of authors and genres of books. March has been quite influenced by Richard and Judy looking back, mind you now their reads are over next month will be quite different, I still have The Cellist of Sarajevo to go though. I have also travelled a lot going to Los Angeles, New York three times, Russia under Stalin’s regime and the aftermath, Germany during both wars, in the land of theatre twice, strolled through Paris with Edmund White and been to Wonderland. It’s no wonder that I am shattered.

Books read: 12 which I think is a record.
Books added to the TBR Pile: 46 though I have absolutely no idea how that happened.
New author I tried and want to read ‘the works of’: Tom Rob Smith, and I did, all two.
Character of the month: Lilly Aphrodite
Best crime: Child 44 – Tom Rob Smith
Best non-fiction: The Flaneur – Edmund White
Surprise of the month: The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite – Beatrice Colin
Book of the month: Ok this month there are three. The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin, Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith and The State of Happiness by Stella Duffy which you all have to read.

I am excited about what April will bring. It already seems a promising month as I have started The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry and it seems like its going to be a complete corker what more could I ask for at the start of the month. Now this leads on to the next topic of my blog The Orange Prize. The long list has been announced and I have one (Blonde Roots) and heard of three others (Burnt Shadows, Girl in a Blue Dress and The Lost Dog – the latter two were long listed for the Man Booker last year) here is the full long list.

The Household Guide To Dying – Debra Adelaide (Harper Collins)
Girl in a Blue Dress – Gaynor Arnold (Tindal Street Press)
Their Finest Hour and a Half – Lissa Evans (Doubleday)
Blonde Roots – Bernadine Evaristo (Penguin)
Scottbro – Ellen Feldman (Picador)
Strange Music – Laura Fish (Jonathan Cape)
Love Marriage – V.V. Ganeshananthan (Orion)
Intuition – Allegra Goodman (Atlantic)
The Wilderness – Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape)
The Invention of Everything Else – Samantha Hunt (Vintage)
The Lost Dog – Michelle De Krester (Vintage)
Molly Fox’s Birthday – Diedre Madden (Faber & Faber)
A Mercy – Toni Morrison (Vintage)
The Russian Dreambook of Colour & Flight – Gina Oschner (Portobello Books)
Home – Marilynne Robinson (Virago)
Evening Is The Whole Day – Preeta Samarasan (Fourth Estate)
Burnt Shadows – Kamila Shamsie (Bloomsbury)
American Life – Curtis Sittenfeld (Doubleday)
The Flying Troutmans – Miriam Toews (Faber & Faber)
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree – Ann Weisgarber (Pan MacMillan)

They sound like a real mixture of books and I so want to read every single one. Is anyone planning on doing the Orange Challenge and reading the whole long list or will people be waiting until the short list is announced?

The Secret Speech – Tom Rob Smith

I actually finished this last week but it’s a book that you need to take a bit of a step away from to sort out all in your head. Partly because it’s quite complex (I admit I got a little confused once or twice) and also because there’s so much action in it you feel like you have lived it with the characters. Yes I can say that Rob Tom Smith’s The Secret Speech is just as thrilling as its predecessor Child 44, only in a completely different way. Now how do I review this without giving anything away from either of the books?

The Secret Speech is the second in what is now going to be the Leo Demidov Trilogy. The first Child 44 was all about a serial child murdered in the early 1950’s before Stalin’s regime comes to an end (that doesn’t give anything away does it). Now we meet the former MGB Agent Leo Demidov once more now as the head of his own special homicide department, the first that Russia has sanctioned. Oddly this homicide department doesn’t see much action in this book as it’s all about the time after Stalin’s rule and how Russia seems to turn on its head the police are now the criminals and that includes Leo. How will society react to the fact that all they saw Stalin implement is denounced in ‘The Secret Speech’ and will they seek revenge on their former rulers and tormentors?

Behind this is also a big family plot for Leo and his wife Raisa as they bring up two young girls they have adopted and who aren’t taking to Leo at all. How will Leo cope when one of his own daughters is used as the perfect weapon for revenge from an enemy of his past changed beyond recognition?

The Secret Speech isn’t quite the crime thriller that Child 44 was its still very good though. Instead this is a thriller of two very different plots, one is the political thriller and one is the personal family thriller and they work very well together and take Leo on quite the adventure through Siberia and Budapest. I did find some parts very confusing though partly because so much is happening very quickly and occasionally action seems to overcome explanation but this is very rare and sometimes I needed to re-read parts of the book. This is probably my own fault because in wanting to know what’s happening and finding it so addictive I was whizzing through the pages. If I had to compare them I would say Child 44 has the edge just because I love crime, however I did really enjoy the mix of personal drama and political thriller and still find the whole era in Russia’s history really interesting and cannot wait for the next one.

Oh and if you thought that the last one was gory and that this one not being about a serial killer it would be any easier you would be mistaken. There isn’t any cat killing in this one though, so cat lovers can sleep tight. My interview with Tom Rob Smith will be up the week after next (nearer the release of the book in just under three weeks) I can tell you he was quite lovely though.

Movie Potential

Oh the question from Booking Through Thursday is a really good one this week, well they are always interesting. This week it is this: What book do you think should be made into a movie? And do you have any suggestions for the producers? Or what book do you think should NEVER be made into a movie?

Part of me doesn’t want to have any of my favourite books turned into films, though some of them have, as they always get ghastly movie covers made, why do they do that with books to movie, cant they just keep the same ones? I have never seen a movie cover that I have liked. Here are some of the ones that had I not read them already would have truly put me off. Sorry just a strange issue I have there, moving swiftly on…

vs or vs

If I was too say which of all of my favourite books I would like to see in movie form it would be a huge massive production of The Woman in White (as long as Kiera Knightly doesn’t get to star in it) by Wilkie Collins, I know its been adapted by the BBC but I would love to see that on the big screen. I would say the Life of Pi but I think that is already happening. Oh I have thought of another Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White that would make a brilliant movie, so I guess that one. On the whole though I would rather my favourites were left alone in case they don’t live up to the book as I have translated it into my own head!

The most recent read that I would have made into a film would be Child 44 however that has already been optioned. I am actually interviewing the author Tom Rob Smith today so if anyone has any questions for him do let me know on here or here. It’s a fantastic book and will make an amazing movie.

Child 44 – Tom Rob Smith

I don’t know why I haven’t read Tom Rob Smith’s debut sooner as it’s a book I have been meaning to read for ages. Maybe I was worried that after all the brilliant reviews, and all the discussion on the Booker Nomination, that I might be left disappointed? It could also be the fact I had the hardback copy and they tend to be slightly put of when I am doing a lot of travelling, though I actually read this partly on a train journey. I think in all honesty I was slightly worried that I wouldn’t be able to grasp or be interested in Stalin’s Russia, boy oh boy was I wrong. I couldn’t stop turning the pages let alone put the book down.

Child 44 is set in the 1950’s Soviet Union. A child is found dead with what appears to be soil in his mouth and his family are sure that this is murder despite the boy’s body being found on the train tracks. Leo Demidov of the MGB is sent to cool things over and persuade the family that this is nothing more than a tragic accident, a job he does begrudgingly as he feels it is taking his time away from his more important work. However when Leo himself goes through some very changing circumstances and another body of a child with soil in its mouth is found he begins to realise that there may be a serial killer out there.

Behind what is a very intriguing, if gruesome and quite dark, storyline is also the tale of Russia in the few years leading up to Stalin’s death. Russia is a place plagued with paranoia where the innocent are guilty and bad can be innocent if they go about things the right (or technically wrong) way. I was shocked reading this novel at just how corrupt people where and just how many people were slaughtered needlessly and made guilty without any way of fighting to prove their innocence. Leo himself is one of the people who imposes the regime and believes in it, until the regime turns against him and those he loves. I know this is fiction but it is clear Tom Rob Smith has done his research meticulously as the setting was so well written I could feel the cold icy snowy air around me as I read the book, and no, I didn’t just have the windows open. It became all became very real to me and when I had finished the book I went off to do much more research on the era.

One thing I have to say is what a wonderful character I thought Leo was. I was determined not to like him in the first few chapters and especially after a torture scene. He is a man hardened to life who though he loves his wife and family is more loyal to his country than anything else or anyone else who gets in his way. You wouldn’t think that a character like that would become enjoyable to read. However soon enough I was on the breathless never ceasing adventurous journey with him. Adventure sums up this book pretty well too, and you can see where Tom Rob Smith’s own love for Arthur Conan Doyle comes in, it’s a page turner but not in an airport lounge shop sort of way if you know what I mean.

There is quite a lot of gore in the novel and a few very uncomfortable scenes but their needs to be for the story to work. I can’t say that a book about a child killer is an easy or enjoyable read as its not, but it’s an incredible read non the less. My only slight dislike was the speech in italics, I have never personally liked that though I found myself forgiving it and will undoubtedly do so in the next novel The Secret Speech which I am looking forward to enormously. I didn’t think that this was written like a film screenplay (though it is being made into a film) though if it had been it wouldn’t shock as that was what Tom Rob Smith did before he turned his hand to novel writing. I thought it was a sparse engrossing book that deserves all the awards its been put up for and more.

Now for some very EXCITING NEWS! I am going to be interviewing Tom tomorrow (at his house – what biscuits should I take?) and so I wondered if any of you have any questions for him? This is open to everyone whether you have read the book, heard about the book, or would just like to ask an author anything at all? If so leave your comments and I will see what I can do!

I’m Back… With More Books

So I had the break away which was very much needed indeed I love London but it really can be nice to get away. Did I buy any books while I was away? Not a single one. I came back and within a few hours ‘oh look’ I have bought three but I didnt intend to go and get them. I merely wanted to go and see if the new book shop that they have been promising to open down the road was actually open yet. It wasnt… and as I walked past the window of one of the other ones I saw a book I have been wanting to get for ages, Lady With Lapdog by Anton Chekhov. Ever since seeing The Reader I have been wanting to read it, if you’ve seen the movie you’ll know why if not then I wont spoil it.

The other books that I got were books that I *needed* or ones that are quite difficult to get. I have been looking for The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas for the last month or so as I am joining one of my friends book groups in Hertfordshire next week and that is what they are reading but its not that easy to get despite being Long Listed for the Man Booker. I told my Gran that I was going to read D.M. Thomas and she exclaimed ‘ooooohhhh I think his stuff is a bit racy… if it is let me know’ I am not sure whether that meant she would avoid it or read it!

The other book that I managed to get, and am thrilled that I saw out of the corner of my eye, was White Mischief by James Fox. After reading The Bolter about the life of Idina Sackville and all the shenanigans going on in the Happy Valley I have been wanting to find out more about the era and the characters in it. White Mischief is all about one of Idina’s five husbands who was mysteriously murdered out in the Happy Valley. I only thought this was a movie I didnt realise the book (which is non-fiction I gather) had come out first so I will be devouring this very soon.

Whilst away I didn’t manage either of the two books I asked you to guess I might take with me because I was a little too busy with these two…

I did manage to finish Child 44 with Tom Rob Smith which I shall review tomorrow. Oh which two books did I take? If only I could do a drum role, sadly I can’t so I shall just say Daphne by Justine Picardie and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I’ve come home and started something completely different instead… and autobiography am off to go and read it now. So what are you all reading and what have you all been upto? Three days seems like a lot longer, in a good way.

Oh I also forgot to add that while I was away I received an ‘I Love Your Blog’ award from the delightful Farm Lane Books so was very chuffed, what a lovely welcome back. Do check out Farm Lane Books as its great, we are both doing the Richard and Judy Book Challenge (to read all of them) and though we occasionally differ I love hearing all her reviews and thoughts.