Categories
- Articles
- Awards
- Blog
- Book Reviews
- Crippen
- Events
- Festivals
- Films
- Interviews
- Mutiny On The Bounty
- Next of Kin
- Noah Barleywater Runs Away
- Publications
- Radio
- Random
- Readings
- Short Stories
- Striped Pyjamas – The Movie
- The Absolutist
- The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas
- The Congress of Rough Riders
- The Dare
- The House of Special Purpose
- The Telegram Man
- The Terrible Thing That Happened To Barnaby Brocket
- The Thief of Time
- Travels
- TV Shows
- Uncategorized
- Videos
- What I Read
Archives
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
Category Archives: Blog
Body of Work
Last night I attended the launch party in London for BODY OF WORK, an anthology of writing edited by Giles Foden to celebrate 40 years of the creative writing M.A. at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, to which I have contibuted an essay.
I was a student on the course during ’94/’95 and returned as Writing Fellow a decade later in ’04/’05, while I was editing the book that became The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. It was one of the extraordinary, difficult, enjoyable, painful, creative, emotional years of my life but, of the 12 students on the course, four went on to be full time novelists with a lot of books to their name: Richard Beard, Janette Jenkins, Toby Litt and I.
Writers from many different years of the course have contributed essays to this new anthology, exploring our experiences of Norwich, of UEA, of the creative writing course and of how it helped us (or not) in our pursuit of publication, including Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Anne Enright, Rose Tremain, Glenn Patterson, Andrew Miller, Joe Dunthorne, Jane Harris – and me.
It’s available to order from Full Circle Editions, Waterstone’s and Amazon.
Antwerp
Backstage at Antwerp with my interviewer before the 2nd leg of the Crossing Border festival. I was speaking about DE WITTE VEER / THE ABSOLUTIST.
Crossing Border Festival
Another weekend, another trip. This time to Holland and Belgium for the Crossing Border festival, a neat little fest that zips between The Hague one night and Antwerp the next. Writers and musicians gather, do their thing, then shuttle off together to the next city
Istanbul Book Fair
Hello blog readers! So here I am in Istanbul, Turkey, for the annual Istanbul Book Fair. I’ve never been to Turkey before so it’s a real treat to get to visit, courtesy of my Turkish children’s publisher Tudem, who publish ‘Boy’ and ‘Noah’. (‘The House of Special Purpose is also available in Turkish, courtesy of Dogan publishing house.)
Book fairs are a funny business. Very different from literary festivals, where I get to hang out with readers and writers all the time. At book fairs, you spend a long time at the publishing stand signing books and doing interviews, which is all very well, but you also get to run around the (massive) halls and look at the jackets for books and authors you like in their foreign translations. I’m fascinated by jacket design so this is always fun.
Postcards From The Edge
The Ireland Literature Exchange has produced a series of 8 postcards, each featuring an Irish writer, with photography by Richard Gilligan. The writers are John Banville, Sebastian Barry, Marina Carr, Anne Enright, Hugo Hamilton, Claire Kilroy, Colm Toibin and me. And I think they’re very good! The launch was Wednesday night.
Noah Barleywater on the Carnegie
Very pleased that NOAH BARLEYWATER RUNS AWAY has been longlisted for the 2012 Carnegie Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s publishing in the UK. I was previously longlisted in 2007 for The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. The full longlist can be seen here.
More from the Helsinki Book Fair
-
- With my Finnish translator Laura Buck
Helsinki Book Fair
I’m in Helsinki for the next few days, courtesy of my Finnish publisher Bazar, to attend the Helsinki Book Fair where I will be giving interviews, readings and doing various bits of promotion for the recently published TARKOIN VARTIOITU TALO (The House of Special Purpose) and NOOA NOTKONIITTY KARKAA KOTOA (Noah Barleywater Runs Away).
If you happen to be in Helsinki and would like to hear one of the readings, public interviews or just get your book signed, check out the times on the website.
The Entertainments Jar
My first published short story, The Entertainments Jar, was published in The Sunday Tribune newspaper in 1992 as part of the monthly New Irish Writing pages. This has now been running for 40 years and in celebration of that fact, The Irish Independent, where the writing now appears on the last Saturday of every month, publishes a special supplement today featuring many of the writers first published there who have gone on to literary careers, as well as some new voices who will surely be publishing novels in the years ahead. It features writers such as Sebastian Barry, Glenn Patterson, Colum McCann, Joseph O’Connor, Dermot Bolger and my own first short story, republished for the first time in almost 20 years. In 1993, the story was shortlisted for a Hennessy Literary Award.
Crippen
My third novel, CRIPPEN, is re-published today by Transworld / Black Swan with a jacket design to match those of THE THIEF OF TIME and THE CONGRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS, which were re-published earlier in the year.
Here’s what it’s about:
July 1910: a gruesome discovery has been made at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden. Buried under the flagstones are the remains of Cora Crippen, former music-hall singer and wife of Dr Hawley Crippen.
No one would have thought the quiet, unassuming Dr Crippen capable of murder, yet the doctor and his mistress have disappeared, and now a full-scale hunt for them has begun.
Across the channel in Antwerp, the SS Montrose has set off for Canada. And slipping in among the passengers, almost unnoticed, a Mr John Robinson with his son, Edmund…
You can buy a copy here.
