Bookwitch

Well, I hadn’t expected that. I really am very un-interested in poetry, and the fact that Sophie Hannah is a poet had sort of left me cold. That was before. I actually carried home a thin volume of poetry after hearing Sophie read some of her poems. If the book doesn’t work, I’ll have to get her to come and read them to me. She did that very well. That’s Pessimism for Beginners, for your Christmas lists.

Because I’ve long been a fan of Adele’s, I wasn’t sure that Sophie would measure up to her mother. (I think it’s going to be very good for me to keep admitting here that I’m wrong about so many things.) As you may have gathered, I quite liked Sophie. She read from Hurting Distance so that I wanted to go out and get the book a second time. And as for having to wait until February for the next crime instalment… We’ll have to thank the Korean Buddhist monks for the inspiration for that story.

As I said yesterday, I worry about where Sophie gets it from. There was a strange tale of a painting policeman psychopath. And a family that has to live off pizza, because there’s no time to shop. And Sophie, you really must back up more of your work more often. Listen to your mother on that score.

Adele had some royal tales for us. She has an editor who lives in Windsor Castle, and she is so pally with the Prince of Wales that she sent him and his duchess a book. She told the young reviewers at Simply Books the background to her new book about Cleopatra, and also said how she’d love to write about Marie Antoinette. So, more royals. Frank McCourt’s crispy chicken turned up again, much to Adele’s confusion, but for someone willing to write a book about fish fingers, there can’t be much difference.

It’s fun to see a mother and daughter team do a book talk. Inevitably the parent is in a position to give some information about their offspring’s past. And they do read each other’s work in progress. The difference being that Adele briefly praises Sophie’s efforts, while Sophie points out everything that her mother should change. Typical parent-child relationship. We praise, they critcise.

One of them procrastinates and one is driven, when it comes to writing. Guess which way round it is!