The Guardian's Blog, page 23
January 25, 2016
A lonely story: the perils of writing in solitude
It worked for George Orwell and Henry Thoreau – but for Adrian McKinty, a retreat deep in rural Australia was a very sad tale indeed
The life of the professional novelist is an agreeable one: you make your own hours, you do your best work in your pyjamas and Ugg boots, and no boss glares at you when you have crisps and Guinness for lunch. The only occasion when things can get a little tricky is when the dreaded writer’s block comes a-calling. I’ve always liked the Charles Bukowski solution: “Writing about writer’s block is better than not writing at all.”
Unfortunately, that doesn’t really work when you’re a mystery novelist. Last August I had a deadline looming and the solution to the ending of my book was nowhere in sight. I decided that I wasn’t the problem: the problem was my family, with their annoying requests for daddy time, food and so on.
To add to my hunger, cold and lack of sleep, I began to hallucinate.
Related: Why writing doesn't have to be a lonely struggle
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Poem of the week: Chainsaw by John Kinsella
Close focus on the raw machinery of cutting wood ramifies to a much grander meditation on humanity’s treatment of the natural world
Chainsaw
The seared flesh of wood, cut
to a polish, deceives: the rip and tear
of the chain, its rapid cycling
a covering up of raw savagery.
It is not just machine. In the blur
of its action, its guttural roar,
it hides the malice of organics.
Cybernetic, empirical, absolutist.
The separation of Church and state,
conspiracies against the environmental
lobby, enforcement of fear, are at the core
of its modus operandi. The cut of softwood
is deceptive, hardwood dramatic: just
before dark on a chill evening
the sparks rain out — dirty wood,
hollowed by termites, their digested
sand deposits, capillaried highways
imploded: the chainsaw effect.
It is not subtle. It is not ambient.
It is trans nothing. A clogged airfilter
has it sucking up more juice —
it gargles, floods, chokes
into silence. Sawdust dresses boots,
jeans, the field. Gradually
the paddock is cleared, the wood
stacked in cords along the lounge-room wall.
A darkness kicks back and the cutout
bar jerks into place, a distant chainsaw
dissipates. Further on, some seconds later,
another does the same. They follow
the onset of darkness, a relay of severing,
a ragged harmonics stretching back
to its beginning — gung-ho,
blazon, overconfident. Hubristic
to the final cut, last drop of fuel.
January 23, 2016
Guardian and 4th Estate BAME prize reaches out to untapped talent
The new short story prize will be open to black, Asian and minority ethnic writers in the UK, encouaraging greater diversity in the industry
“Where are the brown people?” asked novelist Nikesh Shukla recently, kicking off a season of soul-searching about the lack of diversity in publishing.
“In publishing circles, I’m often the only person of colour in a room and I’m made to feel very aware of that. If we are to tackle this problem, people like me need to feel welcome,” said Shukla. “Everyone keeps saying ‘I am not prejudiced, or racist’, but they won’t say it is my responsibility as well to try and do better.”
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January 22, 2016
George Weidenfeld’s death marks the end of a publishing era
Last year, Lord Weidenfeld joined his Hachette colleagues in moving to a shiny new HQ overlooking the Thames. Still regularly putting in office shifts, the nonagenarian co-founder and chairman of Weidenfeld & Nicolson was awarded a single privilege: he had the sole enclosed office in an open-plan setup, nicely symbolising his one-of-a-kind status as both brand and editor, a publisher continuing (though part of a multi-division behemoth like Hachette) to head the list he had established.
Weidenfeld was then the last man standing out of a group of Hitler refugees, also including André Deutsch, Paul Hamlyn and Tom Maschler, who came to Britain in the 30s and became publishers after the war. Among their rivals in late 40s and 50s London were the children or grandchildren of fugitives from earlier tyrannies, such as Victor Gollancz, Fredric Warburg (of Secker & Warburg) and Manya Harari (co-founder of Harvill), as well as the present incumbents at long-established British family firms.
Related: Publishing giant George Weidenfeld dies aged 96
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From Folio to Hatchet Job: the book prizes we have lost in 2016
For those who enjoy the “posh bingo” of book awards, this is an unusually bleak midwinter. A year ago, denizens of the Westminster lobby and the book world gathered in London’s giant Imax cinema for the Paddy Power political book awards, and a week later the Folio prize shortlist was unveiled. Neither will take place in 2016 because the sponsors have respectively come to the end of their agreed term and pulled out (among those disappointed will be Lord Ashcroft, also a backer of the Paddy Power awards, whose David Cameron biography has been denied its chance of silverware). Organisers talk hopefully of reviving both awards under different names, but there are few precedents for a comeback after such a hiatus.
Another winter casualty appears to be the Hatchet Job of the Year prize, last given in February 2014, but the thinning out is happening in the warmer months, too. The Independent foreign fiction prize will also disappear as a name and separate entity, as it is being incorporated into the Man Booker International prize. Jim Crace, the 20th winner of the €100,000 International Impac Dublin literary award in 2015, could well be the last as Impac and its trust fund are no more (though the prize retained the same name last year, Crace’s cash was from Dublin alone). “There is absolutely no sign of a [new] sponsor whatsoever,” said a city councillor at the time of the ceremony.
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January 21, 2016
Don’t read classic books because you think you should: do it for fun!
A new poll shows Britons are weighed down with regret over novels they haven’t found ‘time and patience’ for. Why do we shame ourselves over entertainment?
Is there something in the human soul that makes us want to castigate ourselves for not having read the books we feel we should have? A couple of years back, Amazon gave us a “bucket list of books to create a well-read life” (or at least to make us feel bad about not having read anywhere near enough of them). Last week, Sian Cain laid herself bare by admitting she hasn’t read Ulysses (nor have I, although I own two copies, which surely puts me a little closer to the goal of completing it).
This week, YouGov tells us that only 4% of Brits have read War and Peace, although 14% wish they had; 3% have read Les Misérables, although 10% want to; and 7% have read Moby-Dick, with 8% aiming to.
We really need to stop making people feel stupid because they haven't read certain things deemed classics. Nonsense. Read what you like.
TITUS ANDRONICUS "OMG srsly it's like REALLY disturbed" THERESE RAQUIN "DRIPPING. WITH. LUST." TALE OF TWO CITIES "Waargh such a romp"
I mean haven't we all been there? <halfway through Moby Dick or whatever> "Wait. This is....this is like a REALLY GOOD BOOK." *baffled face*
@SarahGPerry Wuthering Heights: Fifty Shades meets Location, Location
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Food in books: frittelle from Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
After speeding through Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, Kate Young is inspired to make a traditional Venetian Carnival treat
By Kate Young for The Little Library Café, part of the Guardian Books Network
When the famous frittelle arrived, the girls were elated, and so was Pietro, they fought over them. Only then Nino turned to me.
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Elena Ferrante
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Stephen King’s short story competition: our nightmarish finalists
After screaming and shuddering through more than 800 entries, we have settled on six finalists to put before the gothic grand master – and found some sinister patterns
• James Smythe: ten things a learned about writing from Stephen King
Three months ago we teamed up with Stephen King’s UK publisher to launch a short story competition inspired by his latest collection, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. More than 800 stories later we have chosen the six that will be sent off to be judged by the master.
I have to admit that the prospect of ploughing through dozens of wannabe Carries and second-rate Shinings seemed like the roundabout route to Misery, even though – as one of the selectors who came in at the second stage, along with King’s editor Philippa Pride and independent judge Kate Lyall Grant– I only had to read a longlist of 20.
Related: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King review – dark stories with moments of magic
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January 20, 2016
Why a non-white Nancy Drew could be amazing
The biggest cracker in crime-fighting won’t be Caucasian in a new TV adaptation – which might mean she’ll also acquire a personality
One summer 15 years ago, I went on a book binge of unprecedented gluttony: I had discovered serialised fiction. A family friend had dug out a huge box of tatty, mouldy Trixie Belden detective novels that I gorged upon at a rate of two a day. When the back catalogue of Belden was exhausted, I returned to Enid Blyton and gobbled down Famous Five, Secret Seven, the Adventure series, then started on the Hardy Boys. My parents viewed this wild bender with happy bemusement and silently thanked the powers above for libraries.
Then I was given Nancy Drew: and I hated her. In my first foray (The Clue of the Leaning Chimney), Nancy was pleasant and inoffensive; offensively so. She was a mashup of ideals that made her feel very fake; a Mary Sue who was popular, pretty, athletic, artistic, all the while loved by everyone who met her. She had none of Trixie’s grump or boisterous clumsiness or the Famous Five’s British charm: Nancy was so devoid of flaws that she was devoid of personality. As a podgy Australian 10-year-old, all this perfection was very jarring; after 12 or so Nancy Drews, I tossed her out and read something else.
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The best music to listen to while reading – or is it sacrilege?
Tune into our crowdsourced playlist of great background music for your reading – or don’t, as some of you hate the idea of mixing both arts. Where do you stand?
Tune in again next week, where we’ll couple books with specific songs
When we asked what music you listen to while you read, your suggestions came thundering in. We have now put together a crowdsourced playlist for soothing background music that, according to you, goes well with any read at all. Have a peruse below, pop your headphones in and let us know how it goes.
But lots of you simply cannot even conceive the idea, as this small sample of replies proves:
@GuardianBooks Shome mistkae surely? How can you listen to music *and* read? I'm not being facetious - I'm genuinely curious.
@GuardianBooks @guardian Only the music of worlds weaving in the space between me and the pages.
@PublishersWkly Page turning
@GuardianBooks No music! Both demand (and deserve) your full attention. You cannot indulge one without neglecting the other.
@GuardianBooks @Mum_Reader Read AND music? No,no,no! Can't be done
@guardian @martabausells Crikey, that's a multi-tasking challenge that I can't manage! I'd be re-reading the same page forever.
@GuardianBooks I preffer the sound of silence and purring of fridge.
@GuardianBooks none? Too distracting! Used to be able to listen to springsteen but can't anymore. Just instrumental stuff now. 4 seasons.
@guardianculture I quite like Beethoven or Bach #reading #music - predictable, but a good pairing nonetheless
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