My interview With Dan Richards author of Climbing Days
AMR: Dan Richards meets Paul Cheney in our AUTHOR MEETS REVIEWER series
Category: Book Musings (Page 31 of 31)
Until now, Neil Gaiman has been best known as a fiction writer, giving us delights like Neverwhere and American Gods and is the creative force behind the equally amazing and disturbing Sandman series of graphic novels.
I first came across him in the collaboration with Terry Pratchett that is Good Omens. When I first read it I hated it as it wasn’t Pratchett enough for me. The second time I came across him was when the book group was reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane. This melancholy story is an adult fairy tale as a man relives the moments of his childhood with the strange happenings that went on. It blew me away.
Since then I have read lots of his books; lots and lots. I like the twists he adds to classic fairy tales, his children’s books enthral and scare at the same time. Best of all he has an imagination that literally knows no bounds. His latest book, The View from the Cheap Seats is his first foray into non-fiction. It was to be launched in London with an evening with him and the author Audrey Niffenegger.
And I had a ticket.
The evening started with him bringing his son, Ash, out onto the stage to see everyone. Then Amanda Palmer, his wife, sung one song with her father, before he re-appeared on the stage for the main event. Niffenegger begun by asking how the book came into being. He described how he sent every single piece of writing off to a friend, Kat Howard, who chose the best and suggested the order it should go in; naturally he disagreed on the order, but it gave an initial shape to the book. He reads his own audiobooks and it was a poignant moment when he was telling us just how hard it was to read the introduction that he wrote for a Slip of the Keyboard by Terry Pratchett. The audience and those following on Twitter were allowed to ask questions and he told us that even if he has a plan for the characters, he doesn’t always know where they will go. His razor sharp wit and subtle humour meant that the discussion was often accompanied by a fair amount of laughter. He read twice from the book; his distinct, clear voice talking about what he believes and what he thinks.
He says in the first line of the book that he never went into journalism because he wanted the freedom to tell the truth without ever having to worry about the facts. But inevitably as a writer he ended up writing non-fiction as he was commissioned to write essays and obituaries, introductions and speeches. This book has drawn the finest of those together in one place, and it was great to hear him talk about it in person.
I’m not sure if you have heard of the author Melissa Harrison, but she has written the haunting beautiful books, In Hawthorn Time and Clay as well as the new non fiction natural history Rain. She is well worth reading, and here is a little interview i did with her.
The longlist for the Wainwright Prize has just been released:
Being a Beast by Charles Foster (Profile Books)
Coastlines: The Story of Our Shore by Patrick Barkham (Granta)
Common Ground by Rob Cowen (Penguin Random House)
Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane (Penguin Random House)
Landskipping by Anna Pavord (Bloomsbury)
Rain by Melissa Harrison (Faber & Faber)
Raptor: A Journey Through Birds by James Macdonald Lockhart (HarperCollins)
The Fish Ladder by Katharine Norbury (Bloomsbury)
The Moth Snowstorm by Michael McCarthy (John Murray)
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot (Canongate)
The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks (Penguin Random House)
Weatherland: Writers & Artists Under English Skies by Alexandra Harris (Thames & Hudson
Have read 11 of them so far!
Went to a World book night event last night and managed to collect two new books:
The Hurley Maker’s Son by Patrick Deeley
The Running Hare: The secret life of farmland by John Lewis-Stempel
And was given one of the new Bard is my Bag Tote bags too.
The last time I went to Olympia it was for the great British Beer Festival, but this was the first time for the London Book Fair, and it was an experience, and very different from the Beer Festival!
There are hundreds of stands there, right from the tinies publishers with one self of books right up to the behemoths of publishing Penguin Random House with their huge stand. It is set over two floors with the smaller companies and organisations around the balconies looking down on the main event.
I arrived shortly after 10, and promptly got lost, even though it wasn’t that busy at the time. I had made a list of publishers that I wanted to visit, and after I had oriented myself, I started wandering up and down trying to find them. The main reason for going though was to meet up with the lovely people from nb magazine and Nudge. More on that in another post.
You are not able to get on the large publishers stands unless you have a prior appointment. The smaller publishers though were great, they were welcoming, interested in why I was there and managed to get my details in front of a few PR types. Also managed to meet a number of people I have only known in the virtual bookworld up until now including Marc from Angry Robot. Great guy.
Wasn’t sure what to expect with regards to book samples. Did manage to get three though:
Drake by Peter McLean
Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty
Granta 133
I also collected a number of bookmarks and the owner of Little Toller gave me a fantastic tote bag. One for the library books. I also have a substantial number of new catalogues from numerous publishers; my already out of control TBR is not going to get any lower…
Would I go again? Yes, well worth the trip, and as my name gets out there it would be good to meet more people next time.
I am off to the the London Book Fair tomorrow. First time I have ever been and I am really looking forward to it. #LBF16
Here we go then, my first venture into blogging.
I am a reader, who is very active on Good Reads. I have just made it onto the top 100 list, and then received an email this week with this on:
I was stunned! There are 20,000,00 users on there, but I am still stunned.
I read nigh on 200 books every year, and my favourite genres are travel and natural history. I do read all sorts of other things too, contemporary fiction, science, science fiction, and lots more.
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