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This week I've been staying with my son and his family in Brussels, One of the very many nice things about doing this is that I get the opportunity to read lots of new books. It starts on the journey over there. I travel from Bristol to London by train or bus, and then usually on the Eurostar, so there's plenty of time to read, and my Kindle allows me to take a good supply of books along with me. This time I finished the second book of The Flaxfield Quartet by Toby Forward, which is a fantasy about wizards (but not at all like Harry Potter). It's very good, and I'll be reviewing it soon over on Abba Reviews. Then I began The Storm Bottle, an unusual adventure story set in Bermuda, by fellow SAS author Nick Green, who knows so much about dolphins that I suspect he may have been one in another life. I'll finish that later today on the journey back.

Then I have a treat in store - Mary Hoffman's David, which is about the model for Michelangelo's famous statue. Mary Hoffman is another SAS person, and I first heard about this book when she talked about it at an SAS conference, just before it was published a few years ago. I've been meaning to read it ever since, and now the right moment has arrived: yesterday, I went to an exhibition in Brussels about Leonardo da Vinci, with my son and eldest grandson, Oskar. There were models of many of Leonardo's inventions - here's Oskar trying one out - and a film about his life and about the re-creation of some of his designs: notably an early parachute which an English adventurer with a gleam in his eye decided to try out - and survived to tell the tale! Anyway, there were hints of a not-very-friendly rivalry between Leonardo and the much younger Michelangelo, so I'm hoping Mary might have something to say about that. Even if she doesn't, I just want a pass into the world of fifteenth century Italy, and I know her book will give me that. 

Richard and Joanna are great readers, so there are usually lots unfamiliar books for me to read here - though nowadays Richard mostly uses his Kindle: apart from the convenience, it's much cheaper to buy English books in Belgium that way. Still, I was able to read Ian Rankin's latest, Standing In Another Man's Grave, in which crotchety detective Rebus makes a welcome return from retirement, and also a book called Train Dreams, by an American writer called Denis Johnson. I'd never come across this author before. The book, which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, is very short (only 116 small pages), but it packs quite a punch without wasting a word. It's about an ordinary man, Robert Grainier, living in rural America in the first half of the 20th century, and it reveals how the extraordinary can be found inside the apparently ordinary: Robert is an unassuming, kindly man who endures some terrible things, and just keeps on. Despite being so short, it somehow manages to have an epic sweep.

Joanna is Polish, and she lent me a book of poetry by a poet called Wislawa Szymborska, called Tutaj/Here. The poet was 85 when this book was published, but her quiet, ironic, amused voice is ageless. I particularly liked a poem called Thoughts That Visit Me on a Busy Street, which ponders the possibility that Nature recycles faces: 

These passersby might be Archimedes in jeans
Catherine the Great draped in resale,
some pharoah with briefcase and glasses.

Then there are the books I read with my grandchildren. Oskar has been 'doing' Julia Donaldson at school, so we read several of hers, and also a book I'd taken over for him - Vivian French's Hedgehogs Don't Eat Hamburgers, which is a rhythmic, funny delight. Casper is only sixteen months old, but he already has his favourites: Rod Campbell's flap book, Dear Zoo, an Usborne nursery rhyme book which plays the tunes, and two French board books which he knows will play sounds if he presses a finger in the right spot. I took him a book by Jack Tickle called The Very Silly Sheep, which has brilliantly engineered pop-up animals. Casper loves it, as you can see, but I'm not sure how long it will survive intact!

This is my last post for the time being; I decided it was time to stand aside for a while. You'll see some exciting new blogsters joining us over the next month, namely Damian Harvey, Lari Don, Saviour Pirotta and Anna Wilson. I'll continue to review over on ABBA Reviews, and to post on The History Girls. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you over there!

www.suepurkiss.com

Just wanted to let you know that this week things will be short and sweet on the blog. Last week’s Librarithon was lots of fun, but left me short of time for other (blog related) projects so this week, whilst there will be a couple of posts this week normal service will resume next week.

In the meantime here’s the most beautiful book we discovered last week on our Librarithon :

Here’s the book that got us itching to get back in the garden with the arrival of spring:

And here’s the book that not only made us laugh out loud, but also made our stomachs churn…

Each of these books is brilliant. Astonishingly beautiful, interesting, funny, disgusting, breathtaking – a great mix! – and you’ll be doing yourself a favour to track down a copy of any of them for your own families

Vivian French is the UK author of over 50 books. Her newest US release is The Robe of Skulls, a quirky, crazy fantasy about Lady Lamorna, a woman with a disturbing desire for a robe made of skulls.
I recently had the honor to interview Vivian...I hope you enjoy it!

Where did you get the idea for The Robe of Skulls?

I was getting a bit desperate, actually. I couldn't think of any ideas at all, but one evening I was in my kitchen, and I heard a voice on the TV talking about EVIL. I couldn't see who it was, but I recognised the voice, and remembered I'd seen her in a play years and YEARS before. When I saw her in the play she was wearing a long black velvet dress, and sweeping to and fro in front of a castle. (Isn't it weird how a voice can send a memory popping into your head?) And I thought, YES!!! I'll write a story about someone evil who really REALLY wants a new black velvet gown ....

When did you first decide you wanted to be a writer?

It all happened rather unexpectedly. I never thought of being a writer when I was young; I wanted to be an actor or a long distance lorry driver. And I did get to be an actor, which was good fun (I mostly worked in schools) and gradually that developed into story telling. It was after I'd moved to Bristol, England, that I met a children's author quite by chance, and she suggested I try writing stories. I think I was more surprised than anyone when my first story was accepted by Walker Books!

You acted in a children's theater for 10 years. How did your experiences as an actor affect your writing? And what did playwriting help you out with once you started writing novels?

The trouble with being an actor is that you don't get to put in descriptions, or the 'he saids' and 'she saids' at all. It took me quite a while to feel comfortable doing that, and I hardly ever describe my characters. I'm much more likely to try and give them their individuality by the way they talk, or move. On the other hand I absolutely love dialogue; one of my books has been made into a play, and it hardly needed any changes at all.

How did you get started as a storyteller and what kind of stories do you tell? Do you make up your own or retell tales you've heard/read before?

I started as a storyteller when the other actors failed to turn up, and I was faced with a whole school to entertain. I used to tell traditional tales, but put my own spin on them; these days I don't do much telling. Only to very small children.

You've written in just about every genre out there. Do you have a favorite? One that is easier or hardest to write?

I have to confess that I never think in terms of genre; sometimes I get asked this in schools, and I always look horribly blank. (And the teachers look very disappointed.) For me the important thing is the story. If you asked me to group my books into different genres I'd go wobbly at the knees and run away. I find the story dictates what kind of style I use; sometimes I have to play around with all kinds of different voices before I find the right one for the tale I want to tell.

What are you writing at the moment?

I'm writing The Heart of Glass, which is the third book in the Tales of the Five Kingdoms series. The Robe of Skulls in the first. Oh, and I'm also writing a book about earth worms. Did you know they have five pairs of hearts?

What's your favorite thing about being a writer?

Erm .... learning new things? Sometimes I'll write something, and surprise myself when I read it back later. And I love the idea of making people laugh, and maybe think of stories in a different kind of way. And it means I can daydream without feeling guilty ...

Thank you so very much, Vivian!