My new novel: out this autumn
13/05/13 18:46
My new novel, At Break of Day, tells the story of four very different men from four very different backgrounds who find themselves brought together on what was probably the most terrible day of the Great War, and arguably the day on which the dreams of the modern world died in a cataclysm of immeasurable violence: the first day of the Battle of the Somme, on the 1st of July 1916.
It will be published in November, simultaneously in the UK and USA, though the American title will be The First of July. You can order it from your local bookseller, via the links below, or from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.
I’ll be having more to say about it as publication approaches...
It will be published in November, simultaneously in the UK and USA, though the American title will be The First of July. You can order it from your local bookseller, via the links below, or from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.
I’ll be having more to say about it as publication approaches...
All Roads Lead (Back) to Rome
13/05/13 17:56
A few years ago I spent a blissful, and exhausting, summer in Rome, living in Marconi’s old and beautiful apartment in the via Giulia, overlooking the Palazzo Farnese while researching a guide to the city. This summer I’ll be back there -- though perhaps not in quite such elevated (literally and metaphorically; the rooftop terrace was spectacular) surroundings -- to research the next novel in the Laurence Bartram series. Laurence finds himself in Rome at the time of Mussolini’s seemingly inexorable rise to power, where he discovers that the British Foreign Office is perhaps not quite as detached about things as they would have liked us to think.
This is, of course, the fun part of writing: a long way removed from sitting hunched over my MacBook, weeping quietly because the thing just won’t come out right (and, of course, because of the pains in my neck and shoulders from sitting hunched over my MacBook, weeping quietly because....)
But one thing is certain: no €16 gelati for me from the Tredicine ice-cream mafia. It will be a large granita at L'Angolo dell'Artista, right by the church of Santa Barbara dei Librari (patron saint of booksellers and of death-by-lightning), built on the ruins of Pompey’s Theatre in the Largo dei Librari -- and right opposite Dar Filettaro, possibly the most unexpected, and elegant, fish-and-chip shop in Europe. I can hardly wait (or perhaps that should be “weight”). Sometimes business and pleasure really do combine...
This is, of course, the fun part of writing: a long way removed from sitting hunched over my MacBook, weeping quietly because the thing just won’t come out right (and, of course, because of the pains in my neck and shoulders from sitting hunched over my MacBook, weeping quietly because....)
But one thing is certain: no €16 gelati for me from the Tredicine ice-cream mafia. It will be a large granita at L'Angolo dell'Artista, right by the church of Santa Barbara dei Librari (patron saint of booksellers and of death-by-lightning), built on the ruins of Pompey’s Theatre in the Largo dei Librari -- and right opposite Dar Filettaro, possibly the most unexpected, and elegant, fish-and-chip shop in Europe. I can hardly wait (or perhaps that should be “weight”). Sometimes business and pleasure really do combine...
The independents fight back...
12/05/13 17:42
On the subject of independent booksellers... hitting that One-Click™ is so easy. Maybe just too easy. But the independents booksellers who have, over the centuries, done so much to promote and encourage authors and readers alike, are fighting back. We can, and should, support them via The Hive Network or Local Bookshops UK.
Forty Years of Virago
10/05/13 17:33
Hard to believe, for those of us who remember its first, far-from-tentative, emergence onto the publishing scene, Virago (my own UK publisher) celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year. The business of publishing – the business of books – has changed almost beyond recognition in that time, so it’s doubly pleasing that, among their celebrations, Virago is marking the occasion with a book: Virago is 40: A Celebration. It’s a collection of forty pieces by forty authors on the theme of.... 40, and I’m honoured to be one of the contributors. It will be available from Amazon and, of course from your local independent booksellers who deserve your support.
