Just as I expect Francesca Simon’s guests on Thursday evening could manage to be both happy for her success and envious that their own sales aren’t quite as good, it’s interesting to observe authors and see and hear what they say, or don’t say.
Some only talk about their own work, and don’t even seem to be too modest to say how good they believe they are. Thankfully not many are like this. And there’s Henning Mankell, who as I pointed out the other day, doesn’t even recognise his own work when he sees it.
Many authors go out of their way to suggest other writers and books that they think I’d like. Sometimes they are wrong, but often they are quite right and I’m grateful for ideas. Linda Newbery has been known to send emails with suggestions.
Tim Bowler spent ages during a school talk some years ago “selling” Melvin Burgess’ book Doing It. I think Tim almost forgot his own books while explaining quite how hilariously funny and worthwhile this controversial book of Melvin’s is.
Adele Geras is also very helpful and recommends books she likes in her website newsletter. Meg Rosoff is forever pointing me in the direction of her friends’ books. Do you people think I have unlimited time for reading?
Then we have Son’s “party trick” of asking every author he meets what they think of Philip Pullman. He even has me do it for him if he’s not there. Whether the authors he asks are always honest I don’t know, but they tend to have good manners, so will usually say something positive. And I’d say that most of the time it sounds as if they mean it.
When Lionel Shriver got the Pullman question, her answer was of the more unusual variety. She said “Who?”
24 responses so far ↓
krissnp // January 20, 2008 at 12:41
interesting blog.
medinger // January 20, 2008 at 12:51
I’m actually curious how that conversation with Lionel Shriver continued!
And by the way, I’m very pleased to have come across your blog a few months ago (probably through one of your Guardian pieces, can’t recall). I admit that am quite the Pullman admirer and have a number of posts about his visit to the US in the fall and movie stuff too at my blog, educating alice (medinger.wordpress.com). Oh, do know my blog is not all Pullman though; I’d like to think it is a bit more like yours, actually. Hope you stop by.
bookwitch // January 20, 2008 at 13:44
Hello! I recognise your name from the Rutgers emails. Will check your blog.
That conversation? Well, it went from bad to worse. We did try to clarify in case she really didn’t know PP, but the conclusion I drew after a while was that there was only so much limelight, and she wasn’t prepared to share. She can’t not know. All I can say is that far greater names than Lionel Shriver, and smaller for that matter, don’t mind heaping praise on a colleague. The comments are often quite detailed and personal, which makes it fun.
Meg Rosoff // January 20, 2008 at 20:58
HA! That fits so perfectly with my opinion of Lionel Shriver! Which, if you happened to be one of the independent booksellers up at Penguin the other day, you know all about. But that was me at my most indiscreet.
bookwitch // January 20, 2008 at 21:02
This won’t do. We need to be told. In detail.
Julie Bertagna // January 21, 2008 at 11:49
Oh, this dreich (that’s dreary and rainsodden for non-Scot but dreich says it best) Monday morning could do with a bit of writerly gossip to lighten the gloom - go on, Meg (no one here will tell) : )
But the number of times when, speaking in schools and asked who my favourite/ most inspirational authors are, I’m aghast at the Shriver-like blankness on the face of teachers when I mention Philip Pullman. Less so recently, but still….
Typically classy piece here from Mr Pullman from yesterday’s Telegraph (hope this rather lengthy link works…): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml;jsessionid=RU4UZHCCCGTQ3QFIQMGCFFOAVCBQUIV0?xml=/earth/2008/01/19/eapullman119.xml
Lee // January 21, 2008 at 14:33
Though I’m no blind advocate for Lionel Shriver, I’m flabbergasted by the adulation with which Pullman is regarded - and not on religious grounds, I should add.
Julie Bertagna // January 21, 2008 at 15:04
Lee, ten years ago when I published my first YA book, accepted wisdom among children’s book editors (and I had a great one) was that 200 pages was the absolute max for any young fiction, and it should preferably slot neatly into the ‘grit or glitter’ category. Young fiction was locked in a boxroom. Of course PP is not faultless or godlike, but as a writer I owe him and his visionary editor a debt - back then he was groundbreaking because his work not only opened imaginative doors for me, but Northern Lights (not Harry Potter, that was slightly later) made it possible for a lot of writers like me to persuade their editors to let us be more ambitious in the kinds of books we wrote and the way we wrote them, and to believe that there would be young readers with an appetite for them. It felt like being let out of prison!
HP made publishing accountants wake up; PP woke up the writers.
hope // January 21, 2008 at 16:03
I’ve also been stopping in since reading one of your Guardian pieces– on reading the children’s classics, I think. Tit for Tat, my reaction to this post is who’s Lionel Shriver? I will google the name, but I think I might learn more if you answered.
hope
Lee // January 21, 2008 at 16:40
Julie, no problem with what you say at all. It’s only that so many people seem almost afraid to criticise his work. He’s a good storyteller amongst many other good (or better) storytellers - I’ll leave my views of his analytical and philosophical powers for a post on my own blog - but it’s the sense of coerciveness that I find particularly disturbing.
As to what editors and publishers will and will not do: well, there are trends in everything, and that’s why I prefer my independence.
Julie Bertagna // January 21, 2008 at 17:40
Fair points, Lee - I’d be genuinely interested in reading what you think. I’ll look up your blog.
Pullman does get his share of criticism, though? I was taken aback by the gush that greeted the last Potter - actually, full-on gush was expected by lit. editors which was why I refused to review it.
Anyway, I salute your independence! : )
bookwitch // January 21, 2008 at 20:20
Girls, girls, no fighting!
Hope - Lionel Shriver is an American writer living in London. She’s most famous for her book from a few years ago, We need to talk about Kevin, which is about an American school shooting. Some people swear by it, whereas I hadn’t had time to read it before we met. And I’ve felt disinclined since… She also writes for the Guardian occasionally. Just like Philip Pullman. She doesn’t do modesty, much, but has some decent opinions on other things.
hope // January 22, 2008 at 1:21
Thanks. I did learn the titles of her books fairly easily, but didn’t know she wrote for The Guardian. I’ve gone to look at a few pieces, and feel I now know all I need to about Lionel Shriver.
Julie Bertagna // January 22, 2008 at 9:28
Not fighting, bookwitch, not really, just Black Monday work avoidance! : )
Meg Rosoff // January 22, 2008 at 11:21
When I worked in advertising, there was a very ordinary northern girl who changed her name from something very ordinary and northern to Tiger Savage. Lionel always had one strike against her (as far as I was concerned) in the same vein.
bookwitch // January 22, 2008 at 12:22
I know, Julie. Just trying to get you lot even more excitable.
I have someone in the house who also says dreich. Nice word.
Ian // January 22, 2008 at 14:46
You do raise an interesting point Lee, about the adulation that Pullman often garners, particularly from people such as myself. I guess the reason there’s a lot, writing aside, is that he’s saying a lot of things that do need to be said, and the like. However, if you ever drop by bridgetothestars.net/forum you’ll find a lot of our members are big fans of Pullman’s writing, but not his politics. The two don’t necessarily have to be mutual.
The Golden Compass | Obsessed with Pullman? | His Dark Materials | BridgeToTheStars.Net // January 22, 2008 at 15:00
[...] a couple of interesting entries with a Pullman-related theme. Bookwitch firstly wrote about ‘What authors say‘ and an incident when a well known author had denied knowing who Philip Pullman was led to an [...]
bookwitch // January 22, 2008 at 15:20
This set me thinking of Sara Paretsky. I can work myself into a bit of an obsession over her, too, except that so far I haven’t read all her books. But, like PP, Sara has integrity in other things she says and does. Maybe that’s it?
Lee // January 22, 2008 at 16:43
Ian, there is some good writing in HDM, and some trite, unsubtle stuff as well; he is particularly weak, or heavy-handed, in relationship to teenage love; emotional depth altogether.
bookwitch // January 23, 2008 at 8:28
He’s a man, and of a certain age. Maybe that counts against him.
But then lots of parents of young readers, at least in Britain, have serious concerns over anything in books about love and young people. Perhaps Philip censored himself?
hope // January 23, 2008 at 18:12
I think he was just being coy.
Julie Bertagna // January 23, 2008 at 20:00
Or romantic, in an old-fashioned kind of way. Which moved me, flaws and all.
bookwitch // January 23, 2008 at 20:44
Well, there must be something there, surely? I cried at the end of The Amber Spyglass.
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