First you have to decide which Helen I am talking about.
Fine, then. I’ll help you. It’s Helen Grant. She very kindly drove all the way to Stirling when we were in Bloody Scotland weekend before last. She came just to see us. Actually, there was some kind of sleeping bag on the agenda, but mainly she was wanting to share tea and cake and trilogies.
Those being some of my main skills in life, it seemed like a good idea. Although, I always forget that whereas Helen really is a lovely person, her books feel very, sort of, menacing? She scares me more than most, and the way she taps into spooky German places, and now spooky Belgian places is, well, spooky.
Helen has recently moved to Random House, and I like their cover for the new book. Which incidentally, and sadly, won’t be with us until some time in spring 2013. As I said, it’s a trilogy, and I’m not sure I felt reassured by the way Helen suggested the end might be a bit gruesome. Or at least, not all sunshine and happiness.
But I am looking forward to Silent Saturday, since I have every reason to believe it’s going to be as fantastic a read as Helen’s previous novels.
She seems to be out of step with the places she is being scary in. As her first German book arrived on the scene, she moved to Belgium, and it’s only now that she’s back in Britain, that her Belgian novels are ready.
So my wait for some bloody Scottish novels could be a long one.
The tea was pleasant. Despite Stirling doing its best to close tearooms as it saw us coming, we found a new one I’d not tried before, and it was good. Tea with flavour for a change, and home made quality cake. Copies of the Encyclopaedia Britannica lining the walls. Really proper for a literary chat.
Helen even brought me postcards from Gent, where the trilogy is set. I’m already worrying about someone falling off the tower. Not sure which tower exactly, but I happen to know she has done some high-up research, and someone is bound to fall off some tower or other.
