tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post9206437993743443323..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Ann EvansKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-16231416693653396802011-12-13T19:41:49.821+00:002011-12-13T19:41:49.821+00:00Linda - what a weird coincidence. I bet a shiver r...Linda - what a weird coincidence. I bet a shiver ran down your spine when you spotted that name on the gravestone. Thanks for the Christmas Day tip. Will try and see that.<br />Karen - One day I'll get up to Sunderland a take a walk around the churchyard, to see if there are any Carrolls buried there. That'll definitely clinch it!<br />And Marianne, how lovely to see your book there with Shirley Jacksons as staff Christmas read.<br />Thank you all for your comments.Ann Evanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09310566139408774783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-48054629125465018922011-12-13T16:58:15.810+00:002011-12-13T16:58:15.810+00:00Hi Anne, thanks for post. It was fun. It's a g...Hi Anne, thanks for post. It was fun. It's a great thing to feel one belongs and shares a connection with others. That said, I really had to think about a writer i felt a 'connection' with – I admire (and have been influenced by) so many, but a connection? I was beginning to feel a bit out in the cold to be honest but then I thought about Shirley Jackson. I recently reread her wonderful We Have Always Lived In The Castle and then, as it happens, today I saw my book (The Blue Suitcase)on the same shelf as Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (not as good as We have Always Lived in The Castle in my opinion, but no matter ...) in Waterstone's West End branch, Edinburgh. Both are staff Christmas recommended Reads. It has made my Christmas even though I know it's not really a connection, but you are absolutely right, Anne, a girl can always dream :)Marianne Wheelaghanhttp://www.writingclasses.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-68369243189726734072011-12-13T16:15:45.281+00:002011-12-13T16:15:45.281+00:00I loved reading Alice too, Ann, and I also like to...I loved reading Alice too, Ann, and I also like to wander around graveyards and look at the names and inscriptions written on them.Karenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11716058361689251073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-85534767128510425472011-12-13T13:23:31.921+00:002011-12-13T13:23:31.921+00:00Loved this! I think it highly likely the source of...Loved this! I think it highly likely the source of the Carroll pen name came from the graveyard. Don't all authors look there for names? <br /><br />When I was trying to come up with one for yet another ill-fated attempt to find a new publisher for my - ahem - "debut" novel (my fourth actually), I was contemplating "Harriet Crawford". Visiting Stratford, I sat down to rest in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church and for some reason, turned round to read the gravestone behind me. It was worn and rather hard to read, but it definitely said "Harriet Crawford".<br /><br />Btw on Christmas Day at lunchtime there's a ballet version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND on TV. As a passionate lover of ALICE I was sceptical, but I recommend it wholeheartedly. Wonderful family entertainment.Linda Gillardhttp://www.lindagillard.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-35200950355067175102011-12-13T12:58:39.521+00:002011-12-13T12:58:39.521+00:00Thank you for your comments Roz and Dan. Really en...Thank you for your comments Roz and Dan. Really enjoyed reading them. I do think that Lewis Carroll has played a big part in lots of people's lives. I haven't read his Rhyme and Reason, I must look that out. Likewise the Patti Smith memoirs.<br />Thanks. A.Ann Evanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09310566139408774783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-21308348003600851842011-12-13T09:14:18.598+00:002011-12-13T09:14:18.598+00:00It's amazig how many people are so drawn to Al...It's amazig how many people are so drawn to Alice. I was an undergraduate at Christ Church so the first thing I remember at University was being given a rather earnest tour and being shown "the Alice tree". Furthermore I started off studying Classics so I spent almost every day with the Liddell (Alice Liddell's dad) & Scott dictionary.<br /><br />There are several authors I feel a deep affinity with. Virginia Woolf and Colette I think because I grew up immersed in their worlds because of my mother. More recently Patti Smith, whose Just Kids is the best memoir in many years - reading her sense of being part of but not part of the tail end of both The Factory and The Beat and the beginning of punk felt like I was reading someone who'd transcribed my thoughts, and her heartbreaking descriptions of the way she spent years desperately trailing around supporting Mapplethorpe and trying to use art to steer him away from self-destruction touched so many nerves. Through Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, William Burroughs, CBGB, she was at the creative heart of New York whilst always feeling an outsider in the lifestyle that went those movements. Whilst, ahem, our pasts are hardly virgin snowfields, many of my closest collaborators are teetotal (although my love for pudding wine and ancient rioja means I have a glass 2 or 3 times a year) yet everywhere we go on teh performance circuit the lifestyle seems, superficially, to be more important than the art and many's the time we've felt like a bunch of rather square schoolkids hanging around awkwardly on the edges while the frat boys and sorority girls play drinking games in the middle. That's exactly what comes across with Patti.Dan Hollowayhttp://danholloway.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-15299084077458195902011-12-13T08:55:14.397+00:002011-12-13T08:55:14.397+00:00I had a special fondness for Lewis Carroll too, th...I had a special fondness for Lewis Carroll too, though not because of any name similarity. What I liked was his oddness. After I'd digested the Alices I went on to his verse - a slim red volume called Rhyme and Reason that included, among other wonderful daftness, Hiawatha's Photographing. Years later when I did my English degree, I insisted on slipping him into my answers on Victorian poets.Roz Morris aka @Roz_Morris . Blog: Nail Your Novelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10088813423467048081noreply@blogger.com