Oxfam Bookfest reading

Well, it wasn't a disaster, my Oxfam Bookfest reading last night, in view of the fact that I clashed with the Spain-Germany football match. It certainly wasn't a crowd, but there weren't so very few that it was embarrassing or anything - there were about 10 altogether. I talked about the fact that having The Birth Machine reissued in October has made me look back over my work to see whether my preoccupations have changed or whether there has been a thread developing right from the start. Really, it seems that I have always been interested in issues of knowledge, power and language, and above all with the issues of certainty/uncertainty attached to them. So I read the oldest story in Balancing, 'Who's Singing?' (first published in the Literary Review and broadcast on Radio 3) which is very much concerned with some of the same issues as those in Too Many Magpies (which I also read a piece from) - in particular that of climate change, and in the instance of 'Who's Singing?' with the dangers of too much certainty. We discussed how I'd tackled these issues in this story in view of the fact that they weren't as acknowledged when I wrote it as they are now. Finally I read a new story, 'What Do You do If' which is newly published in Issue 4 of online Horizon Review, and is one of a series I'm writing quite consciously on the issue of uncertainty.

The audience was lovely, and contributed lots, we had a very interesting chat about all of these issues. Thank you to them all for coming, and thank you to Wendy for hosting the event.

Tonight's event in Didsbury Oxfam is Adele Geras, which I recommend, as she always creates a lovely warm evening.

Reading at Oxfam

I had a lovely time at my reading last night in Oxfam Didsbury - there was a really great audience with lots to say and contribute, and I only hope they enjoyed it all as much as I did. Thank you to everyone who came, and thank you to Oxfam for holding the event. And I sold LOADS of books!!!


Tonight it's Cath Staincliffe, author of, among others, the televised Blue Murder series. Kick-off at seven, venue details in the sidebar above.

Readings at Oxfam Didsbury: me tonight, Tom Fletcher and Nick Royle last night

Tonight it's my turn at the Didsbury shop for the Oxfam Bookfest. We start at seven. 778 Wilmslow Rd, Didsbury, Manchester M20 2DR 0161 434 5380.

Last night it was Thomas Fletcher and Nicholas Royle. I went, but for the second time recently I forgot my camera (don't know what's up with me!), so I'll just have to rely on words to report. (The pic of Tom is from Facebook.) Tom read from his forthcoming debut novel, which he has written under Nick's mentorship (a writing prize he won), and which turns out to be written in quite stunning prose. The novel will be published next July by Quercus. Tom also turned out to be a stunningly good reader, po-faced yet ironic, giving the audience a real chance to savour his words which are often blackly funny. He also read from a collection of work by four writers in which his work appears. I'm really sorry but I can't remember the titles of either of these books - the second is something to with rain, I think (and it's a bright-green book: I do remember that). Damn! I'm losing my brains! (And if I'd had my camera I'd have had a pic of it, title and all). I'll look it up when I go back tonight, and edit it in: it's now on sale in the shop.*

*Edited in: Hooray, Sarah Hymas, the editor of Tom's earlier book informs me in the comments that the book is called Before the Rain (see, I remembered the rain). His co-writers are Peter Wild and Mollie Baxter. Thank you, Sarah.

**Edited in Thursday 9th: Tom's forthcoming novel is called The Leaping.

Nick Royle is the author of hundreds of short stories and several novels including The Director's Cut and The Matter of the Heart. His writing has a real signature style. With often dead-pan prose conveying the mundane but vivid details of everyday life and places we know (for the satisfaction of this audience he read a piece which began in the very room in which we were sitting, the Oxfam bookshop, and wended its way across Didsbury to my favourite cafe, The Art of Tea, and the second-hand bookshop at the back of it), Royle makes you thus identify closely, but then edges towards the mysterious and surreal, and in this way his stories are truly spookily affecting. He read us stories and extracts from his novel in progress, which I don't think has a title yet, so it's not just me failing to register that...!

Anyway, better go and prepare my own event for tonight. I'm on my own of course, and it's an awful long time to read on your own, so I guess I'll get some audience participation going at some point...

Do come along if you're around and have a spare evening. Maybe you'll get to see my brains disintegrating!