What language do you read?

And I don’t mean whether you can manage Harry Potter in Chinese. Charlie Butler blogged about English versus English the other day. Very interesting. As a non-native reader I used to be foolish enough to believe that English was English. Yes, I know the British have something that differs from what the Americans swear by, but people can get by, can’t they?

Seems not. I remember the little witch looking at the Mrs something-or-other in Blyton’s Castle of Adventure. I went to Mother-of-witch and asked what Mmmrrsss meant. (I tried to pronounce those three letters.) It’s the same as Fru, in Swedish. Once I knew this, I knew this, and I had learnt a new word, and also how it’s meant to be pronounced. I felt cosmopolitan and clever. (I was about eight.) I can still remember what it means.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that I’m currently living in Britain because of that Mrs. Not because I turned into a Mrs myself. There was something so satisfyingly exotic about all things British. I coped admirably with shillings, and didn’t require them to be turned into öre. Miles can be confusing, but only because you have six British miles to a Swedish one.

Some years ago I read a book by Beverly Naidoo, set in South Africa. It would have been useful knowing how much a Rand is worth, but not essential. Could have looked it up, I daresay. But ‘translating’ it into pounds and pennies wouldn’t have helped. After all, how much is a knut?

You could have footnotes, but they can get a little tedious. A glossary is one solution, but not for too many words, or it’s tempting to skip looking at it.

Reading Agatha Christie can be tricky, because she sometimes uses French, which I don’t speak, and I think the reader is meant to. On the other hand, when I read Adrian McKinty’s Fifty Grand recently, I didn’t object to the Spanish he used. So it’s all relative.

Helen Grant’s The Vanishing of Katharina Linden is a nice proper British English book, except it’s set in Germany and Helen has put German phrases in her story. Words, and whole sentences! I think it adds a very nice flavour. The same goes for Caroline Lawrence using Latin all over her Roman Mysteries. ‘Euge!’ say I.

I think we need some foreign-ness in books. Not just random Chinese, obviously, but anything that belongs to the story. We often talk of dumbing down these days. Translating 50p to one dollar is dumbing down. That’s how people end up not knowing it’s different in the other place.

Just not too different, because we’re mostly he same. Except when we’re not.

Book Fairs and Festivals

Programmes have been perused at length. Why do they have to be quite so long? Could be because book events have a lot to offer, which is good.

I’ve had the printed programme for the Gothenburg Book Fair for a few weeks, and it’s made me see spots. Probably due to the cover being very spotty, in black and white, and I hope they’ll do something less dizzying next time. Might mean that the book bags and the water bottles available at the Fair will be spotty, too. Won’t find out, as I most likely won’t be going. If money grew on trees I would. The programme lists many of the usual suspects, like the archbishop and Mark Levengood and Henning Mankell. Plus lots of Spanish writers, as the emphasis is on Spain this year. ¡Hola!

Bath is also on in September, and usually clashes with Gothenburg in my diary. Bath is special, being children’s books only, so it’s right up my street. Except it’s a bit further away than that. The annoying thing with events spread over two weekends with a week in the middle, is that there is usually something particularly good on at each end of the thing, and you either go for too long, or have to go twice. Or, horror of horrors, you may have to choose.

Most of my recent muddling has been around the Edinburgh programme, which I’ve tried to decipher online, which is very green of me. Or maybe not, as I burn electricity every minute on the computer. It’s a lovely, long programme, covering three weekends with two weeks in the middle. ‘Luckily’ Daughter’s needs mean that the beginning and end of my available period is decided for me. So I have a shortlist of people I want to see. Except by now most events are sold out, so I have to hope that they will want to consider this outstanding (!) blog as press-worthy. Don’t know yet. But do feel free to tell them that you need to hear what went on in Edinburgh from me.

The Man From Pomegranate Street

Caroline Lawrence brings back one of Flavia Gemina’s old boyfriends in the last book of the Roman Mysteries, and then she adds old Floppy for good measure. We have known for a long time that Flavia was going to get married off in the last book, but to whom? Two suitors make for more complications than one, and besides, Floppy was engaged to someone else when we last saw him. Or might Flavia find a third candidate for marriage?

Whatever happens on the romantic front, Flavia decides she isn’t very good at this detecting business, after all. So, seventeen mysteries on, she hangs up her detectrix hat. In The Man From Pomegranate Street the child detectives look for Emperor Titus’ murderer, and bark up a good many trees. They also need to clear their good names with Domitian, who has been known to double cross before. There is quite a lot of double crossing in this story, and you just don’t know where you are with anyone.

Nubia needs to find happiness, too, but her beloved Aristo has had his eye on so many women, that it’s hard to know what will happen. And now that some of them have found Christianity, will they be any happier?

Back in January Caroline promised me that she’d tie up as many lose ends as possible in this book, and she has tied pretty well. I hope that she can continue tying a little more in her planned trio of books, set in the future, relatively speaking.

Caroline has taken the reader from Enid Blyton to Mills & Boon in seventeen steps, and I mean that in the best possible way. Few authors claim to have been inspired by romantic fiction, whereas many crime writers do mention Blyton as an early inspiration. Add a good dollop of history, and you’ve got the whole series of the Roman Mysteries. Personally I have learnt a lot about the brief period that the books cover, and I was never one for Roman Emperors. My geographical knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean countries has improved, too.

If I didn’t have Caroline’s new series to look forward to, now would be a good time to howl with frustration. I’ll just hold on for a bit and see.

Red House Children’s Book Award 2009

Red faces at witch headquarters for still not having got round to reading anything at all by Sophie McKenzie. She seems to be winning almost every award these days, so she’s doing something absolutely right. I have a Sophie fan under my roof, so I know what a keen McKenzie reader is like. We own two books by Sophie, and I will just have to do what every self-respecting fourteen-year-old in the country is already doing: Sophie, you’re coming on holiday with me!

My own fan got started when another of her favourites, Caroline Lawrence, simply sent us a book by Sophie. I remember staring at the book as it popped out of the jiffybag, thinking that I can understand authors sending people their own books, but posting out work by others? That’s friendship, for you.

As all my intelligent regulars will have guessed, Sophie has just won the Red House Children’s Book Award for Blood Ties. I have a special affinity for Red House, having had a past (long ago, though) hosting book parties. They relieved me and my friends of a fair bit of money, but then my local rep was a very lovely sales lady.

Congratulations Sophie!

Cover mystery

Whoever heard of children who actively want to attend revision sessions at school on a Saturday? Daughter has just trotted off for clashing sessions in Geology and Lord of the Flies. Meanwhile her older Brother has covered my floors with all his books. He’s decided to rearrange his bedroom, while on a three day visit. So yesterday we went to the Swedish furniture retailer for a bed, and today he is moving the bookcases from this wall to that. They are the same shelves of books he and I sorted through at Christmas. The books will be beside themselves with all that attention.

Anyway, what I wanted to do was make use of Caroline Lawrence’s kind offer of complimentary tickets to hear her speak in Bollington today. But the revision and the fact that the car has gone on a First Aid lesson, means the witch is stuck at home.

To mark Caroline’s visits to these shores, I’ll show you her new book covers. There are eight books out with new clothes now, and the next eight come in August. The as yet unpublished book 17 is out with old style cover (thank you, Orion, for letting me finish my collection in one style!) in June, and the new in December.

Here are the old ones, which I really like. Some more than others, obviously, and the more purple the better. Note the design of book four.

Caroline has sent me samples of the new, which look like this.

And here is a close-up of one from the next batch, The Fugitive from Corinth. Really great, I think.

Someone who has researched book covers a little, is Karen from Eurocrime, and she came up with this.

There’s something about men under covers. And those tall round things you can hide behind so well.

Prize for Roman Mysteries

The Classical Association has awarded Caroline Lawrence its 2009 prize, which they will hand over at their annual conference in Glasgow tomorrow.

“The prize is funded by an anonymous benefactor and is awarded for ‘a significant contribution to the public understanding of Classics’. ‘The Roman Mysteries’, with their exemplary combination of entertainment and education, thoroughly fulfill this criterion.”

It’s good that such a ’serious’ sounding association will consider rewarding a writer of children’s books, and I feel they are entirely correct in their opinion that Caroline has achieved great things.

The Caroline Lawrence interview

I don’t know how Caroline Lawrence feels about cats. I suppose I should have asked her. But that’s what she reminded me of, when we were talking. It’s the way she sat, curled up on her chair, by the desk in her study.

She is one of the most organised writers I’ve come across, with a far better memory or filing system than I ever had, even in my younger days. Over the years Caroline has remembered everything about the witch family, and she often sends us stuff in the post, for no apparent reason at all. Signed posters for Daughter, copies of books that her friends have written, and so on. Often emails to me with information on something new that I might want to know about.

And she travels and reads and goes to the cinema, and she still has time to write books. I think that’s 17 Roman Mysteries in about ten years, plus the extras. And all the school visits. In this interview Caroline explains why she is still not going to sit down quietly and rest.

The Prophet From Ephesus

Caroline Lawrence’s penultimate Roman Mystery is the best of the bunch. Trust me. And the others have all been good, so that should tell you something. What’s more, the cover is purple, so the whole book is “me”.

The four detectives have upset Titus, and there is a reward for their capture and they need to leave Egypt somehow, and go somewhere else without getting caught. They go to what is Turkey today, on the trail of the child thieves who first turned up a few books ago.

And there is love in the air, and Caroline is so good with romance. Floppy is back, and there are spanners in wheels, and Nubia pines and so does Aristo. Flavia feels miserable and Jonathan feels worse, and even Lupus is more depressed than usual. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

A bit cliffhangery towards the end, in more ways than one, and I already need to read the last book.

Seeing Caroline Lawrence

We made it! Battling in the face of adversity and all that (=British trains), Daughter and the witch managed to get to London on Saturday, and thanks to the witch’s suspicious nature we were on a really early train, which meant that a delay by over an hour didn’t ruin our plans. At all. So there.

The very kind Caroline Lawrence met us at her local railway station, making sure we didn’t get lost (we wouldn’t have..!) en route to her lovely riverside flat. (Mind you, Caroline has her iPhone to help her wherever she goes, and very nearly sold me on the idea of one.) Tea followed a guided tour of the flat, along with the interview in Caroline’s study. Very comfortable, and with views to kill for. 

Then Caroline made a salad for lunch, before lending us some DVDs and signing our books and marching us back to the station, in time for us to get to the Southwark Playhouse for our afternoon play.

Daughter eventually got her promised dinner, before we traipsed back to Euston with time to spare. That was a good thing, since we inadvertently ended up on the last train to Manchester, getting in late, but at least getting in, which is always nice at the end of a long day.

How we love rail travel! (I mean, we do, but it’s getting to be more like the love for a slightly mad, older relative.)

If we get there

we have several interesting things to do in London today. But it’s probably the witch who put a spell on train services again. We’ll simply have to see how it goes…

The whole witch family is intending to travel to London, for a change. Daughter and I are meeting Caroline Lawrence to talk about Roman crime and other things. Hopefully also a little Roman romance, as Caroline’s new book, out in two weeks’ time, is very romantic. Just the thing for a pining witch.

While we chat, Son has to look after the Resident IT Consultant and keep them both out of mischief, and then rendezvous with us ladies for a matinee of Philip Pullman’s The Scarecrow. It’s also time for me to honour a long standing promise of dinner in a particular restaurant, as Daughter is beginning to think I never meant it.

And if we get there, it could be that we will also be able to travel home at the end of the day. But you never know.