Win copies of A Brief History of Montmaray!

'A Brief History of Montmaray', North American hardcover

The paperback edition of A Brief History of Montmaray comes out in North America next week, and to celebrate, I'm giving away some copies of the hardcover and the audiobook. Each winner can choose either a signed hardcover edition or the lovely audiobook version on CD, read by Emma Bering. To enter, leave a comment below saying who you think should play the characters in A Brief History of Montmaray, if it were ever to be made into a film. You don't have to have read the book (it's probably funnier if you haven't), but you will need to know who the are. Please don't feel constrained by practical considerations, such as whether the actor is the right age or still alive.

To start you off, here are my ideas:

Veronica: Does Penélope Cruz have a much younger sister who went to boarding school in England? Because if so, Penélope Cruz could play Isabella and the younger sister could be Veronica. That would be awesome.

Sophie: Maybe Saoirse Ronan? I've only seen her in Atonement, but she was very good in that. Or Romola Garai, if she were ten years younger?

Toby: When I first started writing this series, I imagined Toby as a young Jude Law, but now . . . What about
Simon: Needs to be someone tall, dark and broodingly handsome. How about Ben Barnes?

Henry: I bet there's a little Fanning sister who could play her. Those girls can do anything.

King John: ALAN RICKMAN!

Rebecca: If only Helena Bonham Carter was about a foot taller, she'd be perfect. Who else is good at playing homicidal maniacs? Meryl Streep doing a Montmaravian accent? Miranda Richardson?

I'm sure you can do better than this. Off you go. Oh, here are the conditions of entry:

1. This is an international competition. Anyone can enter.

2. Make sure the e-mail address you enter on the comment form is a valid one, so I can contact you if you win (no one will be able to see your e-mail address except me). Please don't include your real residential or postal address anywhere in the comment. However, it would be nice if you could mention which country you're from (just to satisfy my curiosity about who reads this blog).

3. You can talk about one character or lots of characters.

4. Skill plays no part in determining the THREE winners, whom I shall choose using some random process I have yet to determine. If fewer than four people enter the competition, then "Everybody has won and all must have prizes", as the Dodo said to Alice.

5. Entries close on April 5th, 2011, the day The FitzOsbornes in Exile goes on sale in North America. Winners will be e-mailed then, and I will send off the winners' books or CDs as soon as possible after that.

Good luck!