Authors Electric

Happy Easter! Griselda Heppel channelling her inner  Maggie Smith as Professor MacGonagall from Harry Potter. World Book Day has been and gone and I can now reveal my costume, having kept you in suspense for a whole month. I know. Lucky me, I found this splendid Professor MacGonagall outfit online and have been channelling my inner Maggie Smith ever since (soon to move on to the Dowager Countess What is a weekend? Grantham from Downton Abbey ). I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable it was and reckon these Hogwarts wizards and witches know a thing or two about Practical Wear for Muggle Workshops (Spells, Charms and the Magic of Books Part 1, for instance). I’ve never before given author talks on each of my books all in one day (including two separate ones on The Fall of a Sparrow ) and I did wonder if I’d end up muddling all 3 of them (oops) or conking out altogether. Fortunately the stories are each so different in theme and background, and the Christ Church Cathedral S...

'The Silver Pigs' - Davis (Long blog warning. Sorry, couldn't curb my enthusiasm.) Got any book tokens left over from Christmas? Just in case, I’ll pass on this advice, which was given to me, at regular intervals, by my good friend, Karen Bush. “Read the Falco books.” Karen, excellent editor and avid reader, put me onto many great reads: most notably the ‘Song of Fire and Ice’ sequence by George R. R. Martin, and the wonderful ‘Six Duchies’ books of Robin Hobb. Also, Hobb’s lesser-known, but excellent ‘Soldier Son’ trilogy. Karen and I often exchanged notes about what we were reading (both of us were always reading something ) and then she’d demand, “Have you read the Falco books yet?  No?— Well, read them .” Karen had regularly proved that she  knew a good book when she met it, but still, I never got around to Falco. I think I'd got it into my head that they were an Ancient Roman version of the Brother Cadfael series: that is, 'murder-mysteries' set i...