Aly Monroe's Blog, page 11
August 25, 2010
Dimensions of Fiction and Reality: Peter .. and Jane
Our seventeen-month-old grandson lives in Madrid and, in between visits, we have been having regular Skype sessions, chatting, singing songs and playing games. His initial reaction to these sessions was intrigue. He began offering us toys or water through the computer screen and going into gales of laughter when we pretended to take them. On a recent visit with his parents – escaping from the heat of Madrid – he arrived and immediately initiated a game and requested songs that we had...
August 11, 2010
Blogging Has its Drawbacks.
I have, unintentionally I have to say, caused problems by blogging about a person who recently died and who provided some of the background to Peter Cotton.
A firm of lawyers, representing this person's daughter, has contacted me. I was aware that he had been married twice. Indeed, I met him shortly after the death of his second wife in 2005.
I also mentioned how his step-daughter Caroline had put me in touch with him.
New information, however, means I have to stop these blogs about my...
August 7, 2010
RIP Peter Cotton - 4
Recorded on the nine hours of tapes that I have of my conversation with the 'original' of Peter Cotton (1919-2010) are many of his opinions of and anecdotes about the Intelligence Services – and a number of what he called 'considerations'.
In the first two books of the series, The Maze of Cadiz and Washington Shadow, I have not used a single phrase of his, nor anything that happened to him. It was a point of pride with me - as was using real historical characters, but strictly as background...
August 5, 2010
August 1, 2010
The 'Real' Peter Cotton – 3: On Literary Violence
During my second interview with the recently deceased 'original' for Peter Cotton, he was decidedly relaxed.
As before, we spoke in his large study near Guadalajara in Spain. I am not good at compass points but I did notice that the largest window - almost the whole wall - faced North, overlooking a wooded valley, so that the view, rather than the window was sunlit.
He told me that Sir Peter Russell – on his birth certificate and in several Javier Marias' novels Peter Wheeler – was...
July 11, 2010
RIP 'Peter Cotton'-2: 'I Do Hope I Can Help You'
I had some intrigued reactions to my post last week about my meetings with the 'real' Peter Cotton – but they didn't start particularly well. I had three long interviews with him in his house in Guadalajara. All quotes from him come courtesy not of a remarkable memory but a tape-recorder and nine hours of tapes.
Three steps down from the main floor he had a long, rather narrow, room, with two walls of glass and two, one punctured by the steps, book lined. At the beginning he thought I had...
July 10, 2010
Washington Shadow Paperback
Less than a month to go before publication day (August 5th) for the paperback of Washington Shadow - available for pre-order from AmazonFor US readers, I'm pleased to say that amazon.com now has both paperbacks available for purchase (The Maze of Cadiz) and for pre-order (Washington Shadow).
July 4, 2010
R I P 'Peter Cotton'
I regret to say that the 'real' Peter Cotton – or an elegant flesh and bone version of my character - died on June 22nd, 2010 in his house in Spain. He was 91 years old. I am indebted to his step-daughter Caroline for information of his last days and for her permission to quote the following:
"On June 10, he slipped in the shower and broke his left leg – 'the one that hadn't been broken before' as he put it. It was a bad, multiple break, difficult to set and after a week in the excellent...
June 22, 2010
You Don't Speak Spanish, Do You?
Recently I watched Jim Jarmusch's film The Limits of Control, an enigmatic, dream-like play on the adventure of a hitman. I liked it very much indeed, but here I am not going to talk about the many allusions in the film – to John Boorman's Point Blank , Jean- Pierre Melville films like Le Samourai and a lot more - or the many jokes, such as the running matchbox McGuffin: the main character – the Lone Man (none of the characters have a name) - receives a matchbox, reads the small note inside...
June 3, 2010
Amazon Is Not The ACME Corporation
From time to time, writers leave their books and indulge in, sometimes furiously one-sided, spats. Wordsworth's poetic injunction – tranquility – disappears as fast as the Road Runner in Loony Tunes cartoons.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" ?>
Sometimes the difficulties of the job, a writer's reaction to a particular set of them and to his or her relations with the buying public (see sales) and other writers and critics, goes public and postal.
Recent examples include Alain de Botton who responded vehemently ("I will hate you...
