Monthly Archives: May 2019

SISTER SCRIBES: MAY READING ROUND UP

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Jane:

My book club selection for May was Monica Ali’s Brick Lane. Now I know most of the world read it when it first came out in 2003 but it somehow passed me by – and I have to say that it’s aged very well. Which I suppose is the sign of a true classic.

It’s a book that threw me into a culture that was on my doorstep when I lived in London in the 1980s but I knew nothing of. It tells the story of Nazneen, a young Bangladeshi woman who comes to England in an arranged marriage to an older man and charts the changes both in her life and that of the immigrant community around her. It’s a richly painted tapestry of experiences which, while not surprising to me, were worlds – if not miles – away from my life. Sometimes that can be an uncomfortable experience, but the characters were so rounded and real the book was an absolute joy and I thoroughly recommend it.

By way of setting, Rosanna Ley’s The Lemon Tree Hotel was a complete contrast. Rosanna is one of my favourite authors so this book was always going to be a pleasure. The story wraps itself around the lives of four Italian women; a grandmother, mother, daughter and close family friend, and although there are secrets and love and a few surprises along the way, it is the bonds that unite – and divide – them, which give the story its impetus.

The relationships between the women in The Lemon Tree Hotel are real, not saccharine in any way. The issues that arise within families, the conflicting loyalties, the misunderstandings but overall the love, whether easily expressed or not. All these and more play out between the generations as change creeps into the beautiful village of Vernazza.

In many ways this book was as different as it was possible to be from Brick Lane, but in both the women stand centre stage across the generations and the skilful way their lives are played out by both authors is what keeps you reading to the end.

 

Susanna:

With A Sister’s Shame Carol Rivers has constructed a dramatic and involving plot in a detailed and atmospheric setting. There is an undercurrent of menace throughout and my fingers itched to give Vesta a good shake as, blinded by love and ambition, she threw herself headlong into the new life everyone warned her against.

This is also a tale of relationships in various forms – the bond between twins; long-lasting friendship that turns friends in family; and romance, both real and imagined, one leading to lasting love, the other to a relationship based on control.

Having read and enjoyed A Sister’s Shame some time ago, this time round I listened to it, read by Annie Aldington, who is an experienced and skilled narrator, who brings character and atmosphere to the telling.

 

Kitty:

This month I haven’t read as much I would like but I have discovered the joy of the audiobook, which I’m finding so addictive that I’m not getting much else done. That, of course, is Susanna Bavin’s fault for her excellent new book, The Sewing Room Girl, which I can’t stop listening to.

I did however have the pleasure of reading the second in Terri Nixon’s Penhaligon series, Penhaligon’s Pride and once again loved the way she describes the elemental nature of Cornwall and the strength of communities within it. A fabulous book.

I also read Mary Jane Baker’s A Bicycle Made for Two, a romcom set in Yorkshire and written with such sharp wit that she had me giggling loudly. She is now one of my favourite authors within the genre.

 

A PUBLISHER’S YEAR: MAY – CRIME, CONTRACTS, ASSISTANCE

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May saw Caoimhe and I head off to represent Sapere Books at our first ever CrimeFest in Bristol. Two of our lovely authors were speaking on panels; newly-appointed Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, Linda Stratmann, and co-founder of Crime Cymru, Alis Hawkins. The Friday evening saw the announcement of the longlist for the first ever Sapere Books Historical Dagger Award. I can’t wait to get stuck into them all! You can see the longlists for all of the CWA Daggers here: https://thecwa.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/CWA-Dagger-2019-Longlists-3.pdf

May saw the release of eight of our books: four books in Cora Harrison’s Victorian London Mystery series; Linda Stratmann’s latest mystery, THE GHOST OF HOLLOW HOUSE; the first in John Matthew’s historical thrillers, LETTERS FROM A MURDERER; the third Inspector Lintott mystery by Jean Stubbs, THE GOLDEN CRUCIBLE; and the penultimate cosy crime novel from Elizabeth Lemarchand, WHO GOES HOME?

We also signed two new authors to our family. We’ve contracted Sean Gibbons for a three-book deal of a series of crime books set in Galway City. We also signed a four-book detail with Natalie Kleinmann for her Regency romance novels.

And we can finally reveal our new Editorial Assistant! Natalie Linh Bolderston will be joining us from June 10th, and we can’t wait! We have lots of books in various stages of production, so she won’t be short of work – but we’ll try not to scare her off! Hopefully I can persuade her to check in with next month’s blogpost to let you know how she’s getting on!

 

Amy Durant

Follow Natalie on Twitter @NatBolderston

The Doll Factory: Historical Fiction for the ‘Me Too’ Era

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‘The Doll Factory’, by Elizabeth Macneal, is published by Pan Macmillan.

I’ve never really considered myself the jealous type. And yet, yesterday – having finished the altogether best book I have read in possibly years – I found myself to be unequivocally, admittedly just that. Jealous. But, also awed, inspired and (isn’t it always so with a favourite book?) almost satisfied.

Because, well, this. This is the kind of book I’d want to write. Because it’s exactly the book I wanted to read.

We follow Iris: twin, shop girl, would-be artist. Dreaming of escape from the drudgery of working-class respectability she feels imprisoned in. Enter Louis, a spirited young painter who could offer just that. But is that all she has to contend with? Silas, a taxidermist with an obsession, has developed other ideas. It is a tale of possession, power and intrigue, with just the right measure of romantic relief.

Set in the possibilities of 1850, smack bang in the time of the Great Exhibition, The Doll Factory captures all of the aspects of Victorian London that we are most familiar with. The poverty, the degradation, the prostitution. Charity, ingenuity, opportunity. The constant framework of class. And art. Lots of art. The nothingness and the excess.

Aside from personal penchant – as a long-time fan of neo-Victorian literature, this romantic thriller was bound to appeal to me – Elizabeth Macneal’s debut boasts all the ingredients of a stunning success. Compelling characterisation, clever plot lines, and the seamless blending of historical accuracy with imaginary detail. Macneal’s world comes vividly alive and the thrill is deliciously real.

And a success it is proving to be. Macneal’s novel won the 2018 Caledonia Novel Award, is a Sunday Times top ten bestseller, and the TV rights have already been sold. And it’s not even out in paperback yet.

But more than that. There is a very modern edge to this story. At its heart, it is a story of womanhood, it is a story of breaking bonds and forging new ones, and it is a story of escape. And of course, the universal themes; life, and death.

And it is perfectly on point for the post ‘Me Too’ consciousness that we are living in. One particularly poignant passage conveys the male power that Iris feels threatened by, the paradoxical standard that women are held to; one that women are pushing against even now, two centuries later:

 ‘… all her life she has been careful not to encourage men, but not to slight them either… an arm around her waist is nothing more than friendly, a whisper in her ear and a forced kiss on the cheek is flattering, something for which she should be grateful. She should appreciate the attentions of men more, but she should resist them too, subtly, in a way both to encourage and discourage, so as not lead to doubts of her purity and goodness but not to make the men feel snubbed.’

Macneal’s Doll Factory. It is romantic, it is considered, and it is thrilling. I’d go as far as to employ that feminist buzzword, ‘empowering’.

Yes. Must read.

Reviewed by Nadia Tariq

 

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: MERRYN ALLINGHAM ON HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF

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“Researching history… changes our perspective, makes connections.” Historical novelist Merryn Allingham tells Susanna Bavin what she found by delving into the story of the Ottoman Empire.

 

When several members of my book group announced recently they didn’t like historical fiction, I was disappointed. But stunned when one went on to say she couldn’t see the point of history. For me, discovering the past doesn’t just illuminate quirky corners of a bygone age but helps understand the world of today. When I set out to research the background for A Tale of Two Sisters, a novel set in Constantinople 1905 – 1907, it was the nationalism of President Erdogan that I heard in my head, declaiming that Turkey had once been a great power and would be again.

So began my burrowing into the Ottoman Empire, a regime that lasted over five hundred years. The Ottoman Turks were indeed a great power, wielding influence over territories stretching from the Balkan States to the Horn of Africa. A multinational, multilingual empire, that  ended only after the Great War, when it was partitioned and its Arab region divided between Britain and France – helping to explain something of the Middle East today.

My research wasn’t all political. I had my characters travel on the Orient Express – I’d been fortunate to journey on the train myself, to Venice rather than Constantinople. Cocooned in gleaming blue and gold carriages, art deco compartments and mosaic-tiled bathrooms, I stepped back a century. Today the long journey to Istanbul is a once a year event, but in the early twentieth century it was part of the regular timetable and I gave my heroine the chance of travelling alone for the first time time in her life and to an unfamiliar, exotic destination.

I enjoyed researching old timetables, calculating how many days, how many hours, between one beautiful capital and the next – Paris, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest – locomotives changing at every frontier, as one national railway system handed over to another. In all, the train covered a route of more than 1,700 miles before reaching Sirkeci station in Constantinople.

Topkapi Palace was my heroine’s destination and I still retain a vivid memory of my visit there. It was one of many Ottoman palaces in the city, sultans moving their court from palace to palace, often in response to external threat. Even though I saw only a small portion of Topkapi, I was overwhelmed by its opulence and beauty.

For this book, I wanted to dig deeper, wanted to know what life was like for the women who lived there around the  turn of the century. I’d read accounts by a number of intrepid female travellers to the Orient – Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Mabel Sharman Crawford, Mary Lee Settle – and been struck that, almost to the woman, their experience ran counter to the prevailing European stereotype of Turkish women as either decadent concubines or slaves.

Women spent most of their lives within the home, it was true, but within those four walls, they had absolute sovereignty. The harem was a sacrosanct space, not just a place where women were guarded, but a place of retreat to be respected. And if they ventured outside, always with a female companion, they were treated with courtesy. It was considered a sin to stare at women in public, for instance, and if a man behaved badly towards a woman, regardless of his position or religion, he would not escape punishment.

The truth, as always, is mixed. The Ottoman Empire was both civilising and brutal. Slavery continued until the last days of the empire, yet it was time limited for the individual and could be a means of social mobility. The children of the court were much loved, but in the early days of the empire, fratricide was frequent – the Ottomans did not practice primogeniture and male relatives seen as a threat to the potential sultan could be executed or imprisoned.

Researching history complicates that first simple ‘take’ on a culture and a period, changes our perspective, makes connections. And, crucially,  illuminates our own troubled present. Worth paying attention then!

Doo Doo Doo De Dooballs – Sweet Toys for the Littlest Little Ones by Dr Kathleen Thompson

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Is it me, or are baby toys getting cuter? I love these sweet ball-shaped animal rattles, suitable for babies from as soon as they can hold a toy.

The set of four balls, each with a different animal face and in different colours, will grab Baby’s attention for sure.  There is a cat, a rabbit, a panda and a bear – personally I love the rabbit, but I’m sure my grandson will enjoy the remaining three.

They are very light, so easy for Baby to hold, and nice and soft to chew or slobber over.  Each has a soft and distinct jingle when shaken.  They are made of a wipe-able fabric for easy cleaning and would make delightful additions to your cot’s soft toy community.

When Baby reaches the throwing stage they will continue to be fun too, hopefully without knocking over too many vases.

They are available at Baby To Love at just  £14.95 for the four.

 

By Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co.uk

Awards have been on our mind at Frost Magazine…

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Paul Vates

Such a thrilling time – Dr Kathleen Thompson, Frost Magazine’s medical correspondent, and I travelled to Newcastle to see Voltemand and Cornelius are joyfully returned, a play ‘wot Paul Vates, our drama critic and professional actor, wrote’ and entered for the People’s Play Award  which, hurrah, hurrah won.

It was a stunning first night performance with all the ingredients of a prize winning play in evidence. Humour, underpinned by a darker belly, all imbued with tension and a tear or two. Oh, Paul Vates, what a triumph of acting, stage design, lighting and sound, the distant rat – a – tat of the machine guns was particularly evocative.

Frost Magazine asked him his thoughts on such a great outcome.

              Image courtesy of Steve Hewitt

‘It was thrilling to see these characters come to life, that have for so long have only existed in my head. Artistically, was I pleased with the company’s choices of staging/casting/direction? Well, overall it was ‘different’. I fully accept that the play’s performances will never quite match the images I have for it, but should (touch wood) there be future performances, my joy, like this run, is in seeing how different creatives interpret the piece.

I did love watching it, revelling in the audience’s laughter and tears. One lady, afterwards, came up to me and said she found it ‘interesting’. I jokingly said ‘Oh, can’t you find a better word? Interesting is like saying it’s nice.’ She thought for a moment, then said ‘It’s fucked me up! My mind is everywhere, full of questions.’ That’s more like it…

 

And now to Dr Kathleen Thompson, Frost Magazine correspondent and author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows, who asks, Competitions? Are they worth it?

 

 

I was so excited that our Theatre Critic, Paul Yates, had won the prestigious People’s Play Award, for Voltemand And Cornelius Are Joyfully Returned and couldn’t wait to add my twopennyworth when Margaret Graham, our editor asked me to relate my own competition experience.

Always happy to talk about, well, me, here we go.  Frankly, the only cons are the effort of sending off the competition entry. The pros are numerous.

First, some background, when I developed breast cancer, even as a doctor I needed to absorb copious facts pronto – not easy when in a state of shock. You need to make choices about your treatment; sometimes to speak out if things are going wrong with your care; you have to pick out the truth from fake news ‘facts’ and understand how life style can affect your chance of long-term survival. So I wrote an easy-to-read book to guide people through what they needed to know.

A great idea but did I achieved my aim? And how could potential readers know my book was worth reading at a difficult time?

Nowadays social media experts are king. The quality of their book or product may not be great, but they know how to disseminate and persuade, meaning people will favour their item over others. So how do you raise awareness of your product?

Well a competition can help. Judges are independent experts and a win is validation of quality. The prize itself may include further publicity, and a judge may be so impressed that they want to take your work further.  You should feature any wins on your book cover, as a visual endorsement for potential readers, as I did.

I was proud to win first prize in the Words for the Wounded  book award in 2016. This charity helps war veterans in a very personal and considered way. The founders are big names in the writing world, and have access to top-notch literary judges, including best-selling authors, publishers, editors and agents. What better way to get your book in front of influential people, and guess what – they have to read it.

I was delighted to win the Janey Loves Platinum Award in 2017.  Radio 2’s Janey Lee Grace has a special interest in natural, eco, and organic products and services. Her annual awards promote products and books which help people. The judging panel includes Zoe Ball, Carrie Grant and of course Janey herself.  It was great to meet other winners and the judges at the award ceremony and I was thrilled when Janey commented very positively on my book.

Winning these awards reassured me that my book achieved what I worked for – confirming that it was well written and helpful, and should be out there.  If you have written a book, or play, or have an innovative product I would recommend competitions such as these – they are fun, provide validation and help promote your product.

Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q  http://faitobooks.co.uk

 

 

Jane Cable, Frost Magazine’s contributing editor, who won the inaugural  Words for the Wounded Award talks of a different competition

 

During the filming of the final of the Alan Titchmarsh Show’s People’s Novelist Competition I remember looking around the studio and thinking ‘enjoy this – it might be as good as it gets’. In terms of media profile I was probably right, but having reached the final and therefore being able to call on a cover quote from Jeffery Archer made all the difference to the level of interest when I self published the book two years later.

 

But the most important lesson from the whole experience was another of the judges, Sophie Hannah, taking me to one side and telling me although I had a great authorial voice the book needed a great deal of work. Up until that point I was completely untutored and I thought it didn’t matter – but it did, and because of those very special few words I’ve been able to up my game as a writer considerably.

Another You,  by Jane Cable published in June but available for pre-order.

 

Tracy Baines one of our favourite magazine short story writers and book reviewer for Frost Magazine also comments.

Being placed anywhere in a competition gives you a boost. It’s not your mum and dad, granny or best friend telling you that it’s good; it could be an industry professional, a published author or someone of influence that has validated your work.

The first writing competition I entered was one run by Carole Mathews in conjunction with Ford cars. The winner got the use of a Ford Fiesta (I think it was) for six months and the runners up received a collection of Carole Mathews books. I’ll never forget the day the box of books arrived, along with a card and a lovely letter from Carole. It was my first success with a short story.

Sales to magazines soon followed. A couple of years later I was one of six finalists for the Daily Mail Opening of a Novel competition. I won book tokens (oh joy!) but more importantly was invited to London for a winners’ lunch. We met at the HQ of DM and then went to lunch with Fay Weldon, James Buchan and Deborah Moggach. There were also editors and agents present and it was a chance to mix with industry professionals and realise they didn’t have three heads and scales. It was a networker’s dream and it was a massive boost to my confidence. I went home with a handful of business cards, and invitations to send my manuscript.

Comps are great because they give you many things – most importantly a deadline. They also provide a chance to hone your market knowledge. All comps have different judges, genres and audiences, they may even have a given theme.  If you do your homework you can up your chances. These things are important  to focus on when it comes to writing novels- you must know your audience and work to deadline.

It’s been great to have on my CV and it’s a way of catching the eye of agents and editors. Your writing must be of a certain standard to get placed.

Some people balk at paying entrance fees but if they were playing tennis, golf or doing a craft they would have to pay out for equipment, clothing etc. I’d say give yourself a budget of £50 – £100 per year (whatever you can afford) and use it to enter competitions. You are investing in your career and you’re worth it. There are also plenty of free comps to enter, so there’s no excuse.

If you win you can truthfully put that you are a prizewinning author on your website. Ok, so it might not be the Booker or the Whitbread but it’s a prize all the same.

Tracy’s debut saga will be published early next year by Ebury.

So there we have it. These illustrious writers have shared their experiences with you, and I, Margaret Graham/Milly Adams/Annie Clarke (who am I – who knows) endorse their hurrahs for the value of competitions..

When I was a green writer, working away on the kitchen table, though I still work on the very same table a great many years, and books later, I entered the Constable/North West Arts novel award. I wasn’t first, second or third, but I was one of the 22 best entries. I decided I was fourth, so plodded on. Finally that book was taken by my lovely agent, who saw the competition result on my CV, and had a look at my tatty, cut and pasted manuscript typed up on my Olivetti portable job, without a button for the O. She sold it to Heinemann. So so thrilling. Later, Barry Unsworth who won the Booker twice, reviewed it generously and kindly, and also made it his business to find out my position in the best entries.

Dear readers, far from being fourth, I was in fact, twenty second. So I nipped in just before the gate closed. But crikey, it was important to my confidence, and to those who received my appallingly presented manuscript. How could I? But I did.

My latest, Girls on the Home Front, written under the name of Annie Clarke, is published by Arrow next week.

The unanimous verdict is, enter, keep entering, to be placed even at number 22, it raises you above the parapet.

 

 

SISTER SCRIBES: KIRSTEN HESKETH ON LOCAL RADIO STARDOM

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I’ve been on TV and radio a number of times.

I’ve appeared on Flog It (in a filthy temper after the runner referred to my children as my grandchildren!). I’ve had a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance in a documentary about the Docklands. I’ve even been an extra in a comedy filmed at my children’s primary school starring Keeley Hawes no less (no, we haven’t stayed in touch!)

But I’ve never been in a real studio and I’ve never done anything linked to my writing.

Until today.

The lovely Claire Dyer asked if I would like to take her place as a guest panellist on Bill Buckley’s Reading Reads on Radio Berkshire.  I was enormously flattered and said yes before I had a chance to say no because it’s miles out of my comfort zone and Claire has very big shoes to fill.

The book we were reviewing this month was Life Death and Cellos by local author Isabel Rogers. I was sent a copy and duly read it, making notes as I went and feeling ridiculously important.  The book is a treat, BTW – a real laugh-out-loud ensemble piece with a big heart.

Panellists also recommend two others books and I plumped for The Girl Next Door, a taut and twisty psychological thriller by Phoebe Morgan and The Deserter’s Daughter, a saga set in 1920s Manchester by my fellow Sister Scribe Susanna Bavin.

The day itself was such an experience. To my husband’s despair and amusement, I started my day with a highly indulgent blow-dry; ‘it’s the radio, darling’.  Of course, no one took a single photo of me all day, but still; it’s how you feel about yourself that counts, isn’t it?

Radio Berkshire is set in an industrial park just outside Reading – the sort of place where your sat nav leads you to somewhere half way along a dual carriageway with no discernible building in sight. I arrived a trifle later and much more stressed than I would have like.

The regular panellist, David Barker, was already in reception and he was very kind and welcoming. He also explained exactly what to expect which was just as well because there is very little briefing or preamble; Radio Reads takes place half way through Bill Buckley’s afternoon show so you’re wheeled into the studio during a song, a few introductions and you’re off. At first I was very aware of the microphones and the production people behind the windows – they reminded me of the one-way mirrors when I am moderating focus groups, but Bill was so warm and friendly that pretty soon it just felt like a chat. There was even time, when songs were playing or the news was on, for Bill to explain his job and all the things he’s constantly juggling – like what to do when the traffic presenter went temporarily AWOL – whilst making it look oh-so-easy and effortless. It was all terrific fun and I was thrilled when Bill and David chose Susanna’s book as the book of the month.

All too soon it was over. I walked though reception on cloud nine, half expecting everyone to stand up and give David and I a rousing round of applause. Nothing. No one batted an eyelid. I switched on my phone. Daughter was feeling sick, could I pick her up from school? A reminder that I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. Husband had found a ring on the archaeological dig.

Life goes on … but what a blast!

Thank you, Claire Dyer, for the opportunity.

 

Dancing the day away: The Piano Works bottomless brunch

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As you might’ve noticed, here at Frost we have a penchant for prosecco filled bottomless brunches. What could beat it? A bottomless brunch with live music, of course. We headed to Farringdon to give The Piano Works ‘Brunch to the Beat’ a try and, whilst initially nervous as we first entered the lair, we quickly embraced the atmosphere and partied the day away.

At £50 per person, the bottomless brunch includes a two-course meal and two hours (none of that 90 minute malarkey) of unlimited drinks. Choose to wet the whistle with either prosecco, pink Italian sparkling wine, Aperol Spritz, Bloody Mary or mocktails.

You’d be hard pressed to find staff who support your quest for completely embracing the ‘unlimited’ part of the Brunch to the Beat experience too. Each time your glass is edging towards the dangerous ‘half full’ territory (yep, we’re eternal optimists), the suited and booted waiters are at your side, ready to serve and encouraging the party.

Although you can choose to purchase just the drinks at £35 a head, the quality of the food is not to be ignored. The chicken and waffles were the perfect mix of sweet and savoury and the crunchy, smokey batter that encased the chicken was packed with flavour. For dessert, it’s a modest list of options but they’re certainly fan favourites – sorbet, waffles, fruit salad or the pancake stack.

Above all else, it’s imperative we talk atmosphere. This bar is often packed with large groups of hens, stags and party people (which usually guarantees a good time) but the sheer brilliance of the on-stage professionals is something else. Music starts at midday with two piano vocalists, followed by a full band at 1.30pm. Once the band has bowled in, the party intensifies.

Playing only the audience requests with a fantastic jazzy twist to just about everything, the artists become the pied pipers, drawing crowds to the dancefloor with tantalising ease. To top this experience with the metaphorical cherry, it’s a no holds barred kind of affair, with all types of requests welcome. During our experience, we heard Ben E King, Jackson 5, Ellie Goulding and Lewis Capaldi – what more could you want!?

By the end of the session, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll be dancing like you’re 18 again on the dancefloor at 4am. Although, the reality is that it’s 4pm, the harsh light of day awaits outside and the hangover is starting to prepare for its inescapable appearance… we wish you luck.

To make a booking for The Piano Works’ Brunch To The Beat, visit the website.