Authors Electric

Terry Pratchett      Books bend space and time.  One reason the owners of those aforesaid little rambling, poky second-hand bookshops always seem slightly unearthly is that many of them really are , having strayed into this world after taking a wrong turning in their own bookshops in worlds where it is considered commendable business practice to wear carpet slippers all the time and open your shop only when you feel like it.  You stray into L-space at your peril.       Terry Pratchett. I'm a long-term fan of Terry Pratchett, and recently experienced the thrill of venturing into L-Space myself.       It happened because - as a wandering writer of rags and patches, who travels over hill and dale to earn a crust by speaking in schools and libraries - I recently stayed the night with Authors Electric’s Whippet-Queen, Karen Bush.      Kare...

As I was driving home recently it occurred to me just how rich the beautiful neck of the country I am lucky enough to dwell in is in writers and writerly stuff: Enid Blyton used to live just down the road from here, while in the opposite direction Milton laid low from the plague whilst scribbling the end of Paradise Lost. And close by, a walk I enjoy with my whippets takes us over Whiteleaf Hill, the inspiration for Kevin Crossley-Holland's Tumber Hill in his Arthurian trilogy, and of course ex-Bucks resident Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising is stuffed to bursting with local landmarks. I love it when a book I'm reading is written by a local, and even more when it refers to an area I know, and which I can visit: it creates an additional special link for me. Another fabulous writer who grew up around here was of course, the brilliant Terry Pratchett ... and very close to where I live is the bookshop which is credited as having been the inspiration for his creation of L-space* ...