Gina Collia-Suzuki's Blog

Three new dates have been added to the book signing calendar:

May 2nd, 2009, 11:00am-1:00pm
Waterstone’s Booksellers, 30-34 High St., Wells, BA5 2SG.
Tel: 01749 677 881

May 16th, 2009 11:00am-3:00pm
Waterstone's Booksellers, 14-16 Brunel Plaza, Swindon, SN1 1LF
Tel: 01249 446 760

May 30th, 2009, 10:30am-3:30pm
Waterstone's Booksellers, Borough Parade Shopping Centre, 29 Borough Parade, Town Centre, Chippenham, SN15 3WL.
Tel: 01249 446 760

Do pop in and say hello if you are in the area.

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A while back, I asked you nice chaps to post questions for the Guppys. Well, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who posted here... as promised, an undercover agent was sent in, posing as a talent-spotter for a seaside variety show, and here's what she found out:

Questions for Pat Guppy:

Q: Pat, what was your favorite thing about Benjamin?

A: Nobody could prune a bush quite like my Benjamin. He spent hours, nay days, tending to bushes all over the neighbourhood. Mrs Palmer had hers trimmed twice a

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I've just returned from a book signing at Waterstone's, at the Galleries in Bristol, and I had an excellent time. Once again, I met some lovely people (and some slightly fruity ones), and heard about more mad neighbours and the utterly outrageous things they get up to. I was on the news on Heart FM Bristol this morning, and that brought visitors to the signing (thank you, you lovely Hearty folks!). The store was very busy... we may be going through a recession right now, but books were flying o

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There are times when I do wish I had Worzel Gummidge's unique ability to swap his head whenever the need arises. Instead, I've only managed to acquire his passion for cake.

Writing both serious art historical books and satirical fiction at the same time isn't difficult in itself. I start work on a book and slip into the right frame of mind, and if I'm working on more than one project at a time I just pop back and forth. The problems only arise when I am speaking to people about my work. Now, I do

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Recently, I've become somewhat obsessed with The Arnolfini Portrait, by Jan van Eyck. I'd seen reproductions of it for years, as it's a famous image and seems to pop up in all sorts of places, but I'd never seen the real thing... something I decided to finally address. So, with the aim of seeing this one solitary painting, Ryoma and I set off to visit the National Gallery yesterday afternoon. It's strange... over the years the Louvre has seen so much of me that there really should be a room name

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My favourite Muppet song (and my latest ringtone)... Mahna Mahna... just for the fun of it!

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I had my radio interview this afternoon, and it was actually a lot of fun. I was nervous to begin with, but once you get going it's pretty much like having an ordinary conversation on the telephone. Although it began with details about the book, the main focus of the interview was the real-life situation which inspired me to write The Wonderful Demise of Benjamin Arnold Guppy... the shenanigans of my own horrid nightmare neighbours and the effect they had upon my health. I'm finding that this is

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You haven't heard from me for a while... I've been busy promoting all things Guppy to the globe. I was in the local newspaper during the week, which was excellent, and today I was at Waterstone's in Weston-super-Mare, signing copies of the book. I was particularly looking forward to this signing because it's my local store and I do love Weston. It's been a nice day for it too... the sun is shining and the birds are singing. I would have stayed there all day, but at about three o'clock the store

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Having commented recently that we have so many books now that it's getting increasingly difficult to get out of bed without toppling a book tower, my husband and I decided to do the only thing one can do in such a situation... take a trip to Hay-on-Wye to buy some more! If you've never heard of Hay-on-Wye (you poor soul!), it is the town of books... haven of bibliophiles... with around twenty-six bookshops to choose from, one of which is Hay Cinema Bookshop (see photos below), housed within the

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In addition to working in oils and acrylics, I do like sketching and drawing in ink, and I am rather dotty about dots. I've been using Rotring Rapidographs for years, since I was at art college, because they're perfect for going dotty. This is a picture of Uphill Church in Somerset, or at least what's left of it, that I did about six years ago, when I lived within spitting distance of it in the village of Uphill. I used to be able to see it clearly from my study window and it was particularly at

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