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David Nicholls at the Oxford Literary Festival
8th April 2011 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
“If you’re after a brilliantly-written love story that never slides into sentimentality David Nicholls’s One Day is just the ticket. Nicholls trained as an actor before switching to writing - his first novel, Starter for Ten, was made into a film starring James McAvoy and Rebecca Hall and he wrote the recent TV adaptation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles. His third novel is a funny ‘“will they, won’t they?’” romance...
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“Never trust a man with two mobile phones”
11th February 2011 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
I once had to spend a month lying on my right-hand side after an eye operation. I couldn’t read, use the internet or watch TV but funnily enough, the days flew by – mainly thanks to the novelist Marian Keyes.
To pass the time, my daughter downloaded hours of audiobooks for me to listen to. And that’s when I discovered the wonderful Keyes. I stopped worrying about my eye as I... -
Poet Jo Shapcott wins 2010 Costa Book of the Year
26th January 2011 | 1 comments | 1 person likes this
“We were captivated by the poetry in this special, original, compassionate, uplifting and accessible book that readers will go back to again and again.”
That’s how Andrew Neil summed up the 2010 Costa Book of the Year judges’ admiration for this year’s winning book - Jo Shapcott’s Of Mutability. His praise was richly deserved but even so, Shapcott’s triumph took the literary world by surprise. For a start, it’s the second... -
My favourite books of 2010
6th January 2011 | 1 comments | 2 people like this
January is always a dreary month – but it’s even worse than usual this year. VAT’s gone up, it’s freezing cold outside and most of my time is spent chivvying my teenage son to revise for his impending exams. If you’re fed up with January and dread the thought of yet more snow, then the most cheering answer to the winter blues is to draw the curtains, light the fire and...
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A modern family Christmas – India Knight’s insightful new novel
2nd December 2010 | 1 comments | 2 people like this
On the last day of November every year I hang a faded purple velvet advent calendar up in the kitchen and fill the 24 pockets with sweets. My daughter’s at university now and at 16 my son thinks advent calendars are babyish, but I’m still doing it. And he’ll gobble up the sweets before he leaves for the school bus every morning.
I’m not particularly keen on tradition most of the... -
Cocktails, handbags and designer heels – celebrating the RNA’s 50th birthday
4th November 2010 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
Which romantic novelist helped Jews to escape from Nazi Germany? What did WAG mean back in 1974? Who was the first man to win the Romantic Novel of the Year award?
These are just some of the thorny questions posed in Fabulous at Fifty, an enthralling history that’s just been published to celebrate the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s 50th anniversary. From Barbara Cartland through to chick-lit, the book scrutinises the fans, the... -
Hooked on Lynda La Plante
8th June 2010 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
Crime has never been my favourite fiction genre. I’m absurdly squeamish and hate reading anything gory.
But over the last three years I’ve become hooked on Lynda La Plante’s compelling Anna Travis stories. I was gripped the moment I read the first one, Above Suspicion, and read the rest the moment they were published.Silent Scream, out in paperback this week, is the fifth in the series. And yet again, despite the gruesome... -
Hearts and flowers
24th March 2010 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
Romantic fiction often gets a bad press – and it’s not fair. “People think it’s Barbara Cartland swooning on a chaise longue dictating to her pug,” says writer Lucy Dillon, who last week scooped the 2010 Romantic Novel of the Year award. “But it covers so many aspects of people’s lives. Heartbreak and the struggles of making relationships work are pretty universal, whether they’re set in Regency London or modern-day...
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Tough choice for the Costa judges
27th January 2010 | 4 comments | 3 people like this
Goodness knows how the judges, an eclectic bunch who included the likes of model Marie Helvin and Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, decided between the five writers vying for the 2009 Costa Book of the Year Award. Somehow they had to weigh up the respective merits of a novel set in 1950s New York, the account of a young Bangladeshi fleeing an arranged marriage, the biography of a physics genius, an...
CONTRIBUTOR
Emma Lee-Potter
Emma Lee-Potter is a journalist and author of four novels. She has two teenage children and spends her spare time worrying about the ramshackle farmhouse she bought in the south of France. The wreck has half a roof, assorted wildlife and an alarming damp problem but her friends assure her it all be perfect by 2020. She writes a weekly blog for Easy Living magazine.
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