Booktime - WIN! A Pinch Of Nom apron and cookbook, Extraordinary Birds and more! - Bertram Books
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FREE!
ISSUE 118
Make time for books
Booktime
MARCH/APRIL 2019
✱ WIN! A Pinch Of Nom apron and cookbook, Extraordinary Birds and more!
Contents
04 & 05 17 26
The Snakes Striking Reads Joe Quinn’s Poltergeist
06 & 07 18 27
March & April’s Choice Do You Dream Of Terra-Two? Young & YA Reads
08 19 28
The Gentle Art Of Tramping Non Fiction Midnight At Moonstone
09 20 29
Machines Like Me Bookclub Review: Nevertheless The Sea
She Persisted
10 & 11 30
Pinch Of Nom 21 Roald Dahl’s Rotsome Words
Extraordinary Birds
12 30
Social Butterflies 21 Children’s Non Fiction
The Cosmic Atlas Of Alfie Fleet
13 31
Literary Places 22 Puzzle Time
Books For The Very Young
14
Queenie 23
Scavengers
15
The Forest Of Wool & Steel 24
Bloom
16
Wakenhyrst 25
Progress with Oxford
Front cover: Editor Ruth Hunter Booktime is produced by:
Bertram
Books
Cover illustration from Scavengers Design Jimmy Scofield
written by Darren Simpson
published by Usborne Books
Editorial Patrick Daniel & Rebecca McKay All prices and book details were correct at their time of going to press
but may change without prior notification. The prices listed in this
Cover Illustration by Tom Clohosy Editing Steph Sykes magazine are the Sterling published prices and may be adjusted to
Cole © Usborne Publishing Ltd, 2019 reflect currency fluctuations outside the UK.
2 info@booktimemag.co.uk
Milo
w !
meo
Welcome to March & April Booktime!
In this edition, we have lots of author interviews. Ian
McEwan tells us more about his new novel Machines Like
Me, which is set in an alternative version of the 1980s (see
page 9). We interview Sadie Jones, award-winning author
of The Outcast, about her new novel The Snakes (see pages
4 & 5) and Michelle Paver, bestselling author of Dark Matter,
reveals all about the inspirations behind her latest gothic
tale Wakenhyrst (see page 16). We also interview two debut
authors, Candice Carty-Williams, whose novel Queenie
depicts the life of a young British Jamaican woman in
contemporary London (see page 14), and Temi Oh, whose
novel Do You Dream Of Terra-Two? is an epic tale about an
elite group of teenagers who have been selected to travel
to another planet (see page 18). And we interview author
Lara Flecker and illustrator Trisha Kruass about their new
children’s book set in a costume museum (see page 28).
We also take a look at a newly translated bestselling
Japanese novel (see page 15), and a series of modern
classics with beautiful new designs (see page 17). There’s
also a literary travel guide (see page 13), a book about
harnessing the positive side of social media (see page 12), a
vintage guide to hiking (see page 8), and a new cookbook
of tasty and healthy recipes (see pages 10 & 11). For younger
readers, we feature a new novel about a boy who grows up
as a scavenger (see page 23), the tale of a girl who discovers
H
some unusual seeds (see page 24), a frightening graphic i! My name is Milo, I just
recently moved to a little town
novel about a poltergeist (see page 26), and a beautifully called Beccles after being
illustrated guide to the wonders of the oceans (see page 29). rescued by my stepparents and given
a new home in the country. I’m still
settling in but I am enjoying playing
We hope you like Booktime – why not get in touch with us on with my new family, especially the
smallest human, she’s fun. There
info@booktimemag.co.uk? Or write to us at Booktime, No 1 are lots of books at home, so many
Broadland Business Park, Norwich, NR7 0WF I can’t keep track! My favourites are
The Guest Cat and The Travelling Cat
Chronicles but if I need a little giggle,
Follow us on Twitter @Booktimemag and on Facebook, The Cat in the Hat. Puuuurfect!
Booktime Magazine. Interview and photos by Milo’s human
Rebecca McKay, Bertram Books
Please note: Booktime is available exclusively from independent
bookshops and libraries, please do not contact us for copies.
Please do not send us unsolicited books, manuscripts or
reviews, as all material is chosen and written in-house.
@Booktimemag 3
On
The
Slide
From the author of The
Outcast, Small Wars and The
Uninvited Guests, this new
novel explores the corrupting
influence of wealth and
privilege in contemporary
society. Set in Britain and
France, it’s a literary thriller
about a rich but dangerously
aberrant family.
D
an and Bea live in a small flat in We interviewed Sadie Jones When I see or read stories of violence I am
London. Bea is a psychotherapist to discover more about her very defended against them. I need to know
and Dan is an estate agent, a job he it’s earned before I let myself be affected. As
hates as he really wants to pursue a career writing process and the ideas a writer, if you’re doing your job well you’re
in art. Bea’s father Griff is a businessman which inspired The Snakes: inside people’s heads. To be lascivious
and the family are very rich, but Bea wants would be wrong, and I show only enough to
nothing to do with them and Dan has only tell the story. It might sound silly, but I also
met them once. Feeling oppressed by their How different was it to write a feel a degree of responsibility towards the
city routine, Dan and Bea decide to take a contemporary novel, compared with characters, not to dwell on their pain.
few months out travelling round Europe, the historical novels you’ve written in
and rent their flat out while they’re away. the past?
Bea sees this as a good opportunity to call
on her younger brother Alex, who lives in
At the beginning it felt liberating, I didn’t
have to travel so far to find the book. Then “A suspenseful,
and runs a hotel, owned by their parents, in I realised the present is as much a foreign
the south of France. country as the past. The research was of a
different kind – real people, instead of old
beautifully written
But when they arrive at the hotel, they find
it dilapidated and empty, with snakes in
newspapers, that kind of thing – which was
in a sense more difficult.
thriller about the
the attic, and Alex, who has a history of
addiction and mental illness, seems not to Bea resists the extreme wealth and power corruption of money
be coping well. Then Bea’s parents, Griff
and Liv arrive, and tensions start to run
of her corrupt parents, whereas Dan is
tempted by it. Do you think it’s possible and abuse within a
high. Dan soon realises just how wealthy to have wealth and power and not be
Griff and Liv are, and wonders why Bea is
so opposed to taking any of the money they
corrupted by it?
I think it’s close to impossible. Some very
dysfunctional family”
offer, which would solve all Dan and Bea’s wealthy people become saint-like rather Guardian
financial worries. When a terrible tragedy than despotic, but that’s a statement of
occurs, darkness overtakes the family and power in itself. I think not to be corrupted
bitter secrets come to the fore. Can Dan takes a degree of self-delusion; Bea closes Did you draw on your own experiences
and Bea survive the snakes of the past, the the door on her wealth, knowing letting it living in France to write the parts of the
corruption of the wealth on offer, and the out would be dangerous – which of course book based there?
dangers it opens them up to? it is. I didn’t know Burgundy well before writing
the book. I did a lot of research into French
The novel tackles the subject of abuse in a police procedure, which was ironic as
sensitive way. Was this a difficult thing to the book makes a point of being ‘anti-
write about, and do you think it should be procedural’ – the family are in the dark all
explored more in fiction? the time. I had to know a lot in order not to
tell, which is often the way.
4 info@booktimemag.co.uk
“The Snakes is superbly
written, each sentence
punctuated by a
drumbeat of menace,
each word placed with
a master’s touch.”
Elizabeth Day
The Snakes
by Sadie Jones
HB • Chatto & Windus • £14.99
ISBN 9781784742553
Published 7th March
In this extract, Bea’s parents arrive at Alex’s to connect them. It was as if they were
hotel in France: made of different material. They were
both fair but there was no red in Bea’s
Griff and Liv Adamson’s huge, bright hair, it was just pale, unbrightened
red, four-wheel-drive Porsche Cayenne blonde; both were small but Bea the
drove through the gates at six o’clock taller of the two, and in outline she
the next evening. Bea and Dan watched had a mother’s shape, her mother had
from a window as it pulled up between a child’s. But, he realised they had the
the battered Peugeot and Alex’s black same heart-shaped face. If the flesh were
Renault. The driver’s door opened, trees stripped from Bea’s face, you’d have
sliding from the glass. Liv’s, everything about her was polished
‘Bonsoir! Bienvenue! Willkommen! ’ to a point.
Alex cried, bounding out to meet them, ‘We couldn’t believe it when Alex said
long legs flailing like a sunset shadow you would be here,’ she said. ‘Wow! What
Was the decaying French hotel which Alex of himself. do think of our project?’
runs based on a real place? ‘You all right?’ said Dan to Bea. ‘It’s good,’ said Bea, going to Alex’s
It was an amalgam. Hotel Paligny has a lot She crossed her arms over her side, but her mother reached him first.
of what I both love and hate about Europe, stomach. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Darling, I missed you,’ she said,
our own country included; the ancient, The three of them had cleaned up all putting her arms around him.
the crumbling, the damp and in need of the mess, Alex was contrite and hung- He ducked away and smiled.
repair, it’s in many ways a place left behind. over, and Bea was quiet, dread settling ‘We stopped for lunch near Versailles
The Snakes is a post-European story, and like frost. yesterday,’ said Griff. ‘It was horrific.’
a forgotten hotel in rural France was the Striding across the gravel, Griff ‘You know, that five-star awful,’ said
perfect place to tell that. stuck out his hand to grasp Alex’s, and Liv sorrowfully.
with the other arm he pulled him into ‘Total bullsh**t. I don’t know why she
The snakes of the book are literal, hidden an embrace. Liv bent to collect her booked it. It was disgusting.’
in the loft of the hotel. Do they also have handbag, tugging at her pashmina ‘You drove down?’ said Bea.
a metaphorical meaning, representing which fell forward as she reached into ‘They always drive,’ said Alex proudly,
repressed feelings and traumas? the footwell. Griff and Alex went for the infantilised.
It’s the human snakes which are dangerous. suitcases, and Liv came towards the ‘I sold the jet last year,’ said Griff. Bea
Bea is never scared of the real snakes, but front door with her girlish step, flat shoes saw Dan start, and looked at Griff with
struggles to get out of the snake-nest that and strawberry-blonde hair landing sudden focus. ‘It cost an arm and a leg to
is her past. Snakes bring to mind the bible, lightly on her collarbones. She was get it off the ground, and it was always
and sin, and all of these deep myths and sixty-three and five foot five; she often a palaver trying to find a runway long
fears, but in real life they are just animals, announced these facts as though they enough anywhere. We’d have had to
largely oblivious to us. were a virtue. leave it at Dijon, so what’s the point?’
‘Yay,’ said Bea tightly. ‘Let’s do this.’ ‘The crossing is fine,’ said Liv. ‘And the
The ending of the novel is rather shocking. And they went out to meet them. drive down is so beautiful. We always
Did you always have this in mind as ‘Dan!’ Liv’s huge handbag dangled love it.’
an ending, or did it emerge whilst you from her bone-thing forearm. ‘Bea! What ‘I can’t stand rented cars,’ said Griff.
were writing? a surprise. I’ve almost forgotten what ‘They’re always completely disgusting,
I always know the ending of a story – long you look like.’ and collecting them is a nightmare.’
before I know where to begin. I often dread Griff kissed his daughter’s cheek and ‘Come in, come in. Let’s go in–‘ said
the ending, but it’s inevitable because it grabbed Dan’s hand, slapping his back. Alex, breaking a sweat.
has to be a definitive statement of what the ‘Good to see you,’ he said. ‘Dan?’ said Bea.
book is about. There was never any other Liv stood on tiptoe to air-kiss Dan, He was startled from his thoughts.
way for it to end. first one side, then the other, so just her He smiled at her but his smile was false.
perfume and fingertips touched him. ‘Coming’ he said.
‘Dan, so thrilled.’ She wanted to say something but there
He looked from his mother-in-law was no time.
to his wife, searching for something
© Jonathan Greet 2014
@Booktimemag 5
March & April’s Choice
This original An oral history Set against the
debut novel is a of a fictional backdrop of the
historical thriller legendary 1970s First World War, this
set in 19th century band The Six and remarkable novel
Birmingham. Cora their unforgettable follows the life of
Burns was born in Californian singer Midhat, a young
gaol and raised in a Daisy Jones. But Palestinian who sets
workhouse, and has just what happened out to become a
always struggled back in 1979 medical student in
to control the when the band Montpelier, France.
violence inside her. dramatically split? He soon discovers
She starts a new Taking us through that he’s not the
life working as a the story of the band only one looking for
servant for scientist chronologically, a place to belong,
The Conviction Of Thomas Jerwood, Daisy Jones & The Six from their founding The Parisian and as he moves
Cora Burns and befriends a by Taylor Jenkins Reid in 1960s Pittsburgh by Isabella Hammad to Paris love turns
by Carolyn Kirby young girl, Violet, HB • Hutchinson • by the Dunne HB • Jonathan Cape • to loss and friends
PB • No Exit Press • who seems to be £12.99 brothers, to the £14.99 become enemies.
£12.99 the subject of a ISBN 9781786331502 creation of their ISBN 9781911214427 Taking in the
ISBN 9780857302946 living experiment. Published 7th March songs and albums, Published 11th April Palestinian struggle
Published 21st March But Cora soon starts to the love/hate for independence,
to suspect that relationship between singers Daisy and the tangled politics of era and the devastating
she, too, is being studied, as memories of a Billy, it will have you wishing they were a impact of a global conflict, it tells Midhat’s
terrible crime come to the surface. real band! story in an original and contemporary way.
An intriguing crime Following Autumn This novel from
novel set in Japan, and Winter, this is the award-winning
as Englishman the third book in the author of the
Ray finds himself Seasonal Quartet memoir Maggie &
dragged into the from the award- Me is set in South
‘floating world’ of winning Ali Smith. Africa, and follows
corrupt politicians, The time we’re two stories set
yakuza, sumo living in is changing a hundred years
wrestlers and call nature… will it apart. In 1901, at the
girls. Working change the nature height of the second
as a teacher in of story? Spring is Boer War, Sarah
Tokyo, he begins the great connective van der Watt and
a relationship which unites her son are taken
with the beautiful Katherine Mansfield, to a concentration
Falling From The Tomoe. But when Spring Charlie Chaplin, You Will Be Safe Here camp where the
Floating World Tomoe’s father is by Ali Smith Shakespeare, Rilke, by Damian Barr English promise
by Nick Hurst found dead, Tomoe HB • Penguin Hamish Beethoven, Brexit, HB • Bloomsbury • they will be safe.
PB • Unbound • £8.99 is convinced it’s Hamilton • £16.99 the present, the £16.99 In Johannesburg,
ISBN 9781783526314 murder and sets ISBN 9780241207048 past, all points of ISBN 9781408886083 2010, 16-year-old
Published 7th March out after the killers. Published 28th March the compass, a man Published 4th April Willem just wants to
Ray has no choice mourning lost times be left alone with his
but to act, and is soon pulled into a desperate and a woman trapped in modern times. In a books and dog. But his ma and her boyfriend
adventure that echoes his dreams of Tokyo’s time of walls and lockdown, Ali Smith opens send him to the New Dawn Safari Training
feudal past. the door to tell an impossible tale of today. Camp, where they ‘make men out of boys’.
A chilling thriller Set in Belfast, this A magical story
from the author debut novel follows about a British
of The Kind Worth two very different schoolgirl Perdita
Killing. Hen and fathers. Sammy Lee and her mother
Lloyd move into a is a middle-aged Harriet, who appear
new neighbourhood family man with a to be a normal
and visit their dark past, who is family, but, beneath
neighbours worried that the the surface, strange
Matthew and Mira violence in his blood things are afoot.
for dinner. But Hen also lurks in his They live in a gold-
sees something son. Meanwhile, Dr painted seventh-
suspicious in Jonathan Murray is floor flat, and their
Matthew’s study struggling to single- gingerbread is
which convinces handedly bring up very popular in
Before She Knew Him her that he’s a The Fire Starters his daughter, and Gingerbread Druhástrana, the far
by Peter Swanson murderer. As Hen by Jan Carson fears that she is by Helen Oyeyemi away and possibly
HB • Faber • £12.99 has a history of HB • Doubleday • not as harmless HB • Picador • £16.99 non-existent land of
ISBN 9780571340644 mental illness, she £14.99 as she seems. The ISBN 9781447299417 Harriet’s youth. As
Published 7th March knows that neither ISBN 9780857525741 city is in flames and Published 7th March we follow the Lees
Lloyd nor the Published 4th April the authorities are through encounters
police will believe her when she voices her losing control, but with jealousy, ambition, grudges, work,
concerns. Meanwhile, Matthew knows that as the lines between fantasy and truth and wealth and real estate, gingerbread is the one
Hen is on to him, but is he the killer she thinks right and wrong begin to blur, who will these thing that reliably holds a constant value…
he is, and if so, what is his motivation? two fathers choose to protect?
6 info@booktimemag.co.uk
A debut novel from A heartbreaking love The ‘Knepp
an award-winning story following the experiment’ is a
short story writer life of newlyweds pioneering rewilding
and poet. Bonnie is Celestial and Roy, project in West
a concert pianist, who live in the south Sussex which uses
still reeling from of the USA. He’s a free-roaming grazing
a terrible trauma. young executive, animals to create
She retreats to a and she’s an artist new habitats for
cliff-top house on beginning an wildlife. In this new
the edge of England, exciting career, but book, Isabella Tree
where she can hear then Roy is arrested tells the story of
the sea murmuring and sentenced for how she and her
on the edge of a crime Celestial husband Charlie
consciousness, knows he didn’t Burrell accepted that
Find Me Falling but she’s haunted An American Marriage commit. Separated Wilding intensive farming
by Fiona Vigo Marshall by memories and by Tayari Jones by circumstances by Isabella Tree on the heavy clay of
PB • Fairlight Books • broken dreams. PB • Oneworld • £8.99 beyond their control, PB • Picador • £9.99 their land at Knepp
£8.99 When a road ISBN 9781786075192 Celestial finds ISBN 9781509805105 was unsustainable,
ISBN 9781912054220 sweeper, Dominic, Published 7th March herself bereft and Published 21st March and decided to
Published 7th March who is visited by takes comfort in step back and let
a different kind of Andre, her childhood friend and best man at nature take over. After the introduction of
hauntings of his own, gives Bonnie a ring their wedding. Can Celestial’s love for Roy free-roaming cattle, ponies, pigs and deer, the
he finds on the street, elemental forces are hold on until his release from prison? 3500 acre project saw an increase in wildlife
unleashed that neither is able to control. numbers and diversity and their land became
a functioning ecosystem once more.
A mythical new From the author of
novel which blends The Wood and The Endorsed by the
a mystery in the Glorious Life Of The Wildlife Trusts
present with the Oak this beautiful and the RHS, this
folklore of the past. new book is the easy-to-follow
Lanny has moved seasonal story of gardening guide
to a village with his the wild animals has a strong focus
parents, where he and plants that live on the different
begins art lessons in and around the types of wildlife
with the reclusive pond. The pond is you can attract to
Mad Pete. But the the moorhen’s home your garden. Each
village doesn’t just the frog’s breeding Wildlife Gardening For chapter explains
belong to those place, the kill zone Everyone & Everything what different
who live in it, it of the dragonfly, by Kate Bradbury groups of species
Lanny also belongs to Still Water and more than a PB • Bloomsbury • require to thrive,
by Max Porter those who lived by John Lewis-Stempel hundred rare and £14.99 what their role in the
HB • Faber • £12.99 in it hundreds of HB • Doubleday • threatened fauna ISBN 9781472956057 garden is, and how
ISBN 9780571340286 years ago. Dead £14.99 and flora depend Published 18th April they contribute to
Published 7th March Papa Toothwort ISBN 9780857524577 on it. Reflecting an its ecosystem. From
has woken from his Published 14th March era before the water pollinators, birds and amphibians to insects
slumber in the woods, and he listens to the was polluted with and arachnids, there are plants and projects
gossip of the village. Told in several different chemicals and the land built on for housing, that will be relevant to all, whatever the size
voices, it’s an innovative work from the author this is a loving biography of the pond, of your garden. Once you have created the
of Grief Is The Thing With Feathers. and an alarm call on behalf of this space, you can relax and observe the habitats
overlooked habitat. in your garden through the year.
A Victorian mystery
novel featuring a In this new book A fun collection of
female detective, following The 25 knitting projects
Bridie Devine, as Nature Of Autumn to create a woollen
she takes on her and The Nature Of farmyard, complete
toughest case yet. Winter, Jim Crumley with hens, sheep,
Christabel Berwick, considers the rebirth horses, cows,
a child who is not and rejuvenation ponies, ducks,
supposed to exist, of spring in the tractors and the
has been kidnapped. highlands and farmhouse itself!
In London in the islands of Scotland, You can create
mid-19th century, as climate chaos and characters such
anomalies and its unpredictable Knitted Farmyard as the farmers
curiosities are in weather brings high by Sarah Keen and farm workers,
Things In Jars fashion and fortunes drama to the lives PB • GMCP • £14.99 and accessories
by Jess Kidd are won and lost The Nature Of Spring of the animals he ISBN 9781784945183 including bales of
HB • Canongate • in the name of by Jim Crumley observes. From the Published 7th April hay, sacks of grain,
£14.99 entertainment. As HB • Saraband • £12.99 badgers and foxes apple trees and a
ISBN 9781786893765 Bridie fights to ISBN 9781912235377 of the countryside scarecrow. All the pieces can be played with
Published 4th April recover the stolen Published 4th April to the seabirds and on a large playmat, which is also included as
child, she enters a seals of the sea, a pattern, and there’s a techniques section
world of anatomists, surgeons and showmen, and the raptors of the air, Jim chronicles too, so both beginners and experienced
and Christabel may well prove the most the wonder, the tumult and the spectacle of knitters will be able to tackle the projects.
remarkable spectacle so far. From the author spring as the dark days of winter yield to light
of Himself and The Hoarder. and warmth.
@Booktimemag 7
Best Foot
Forward
If you thought that a delight in
taking to the road was a modern
phenomenon, think again. This
book, first published in 1926,
is a stirring guide to the art of
‘tramping’ by a British journalist
and travel writer, and is now
available in this beautiful
new edition.
S
tephen Graham (1884-1975) was an The Gentle Art Of Tramping
enthusiastic traveller, who wrote by Stephen Graham
about his tramps in pre-revolutionary HB • Bloomsbury • £12.99
Russia and his journey to Jerusalem with ISBN 9781448217243
a group of Russian Christian pilgrims. In Published 4th April
The Gentle Art Of Tramping he gives advice
to would-be wanderers on all aspects of
exploring the world on foot. From donning journalistic occasion, set forth to the in the noontide; you climb into caves
the right boots, clothes and knapsack, to discovery of Rutland. Instead of going, to cool and dry. The green roof of the
carrying money, finding shelter, making a like Kennan, into the wilds of Siberia for mole’s track is to be followed till you find
fire or a bed, to finding food and cooking, a year or so, you may decide to go across the gentleman in velvet in his home. The
to choosing a companion and where to the New Forest during the Whitsuntide sound of the tapping of the woodpecker
explore, wild swimming, map reading, weekend, a little voyage au tour de ma shall guide you to the loose-barked tree
sketching and even singing, this is a where with watchful eye a bird of
practical guide to hiking which is as beauty is hunting the unmannerly
relevant today as it was when it was
first published.
“Quality makes good woodlouse. You shall approach
gently the deer who, in a group,
It offers an insight into the period
tramping, not quantity.” wait for you with startled eyes. They
run from the crashing and speedy –
it was written, and the author’s they can be won by the gentle. Wild
own travels, as he reminisces about his chambre. There are thrills unspeakable Nature is not so wild as we think, or we
experiences whilst giving advice to the in Rutland, more perhaps than on the are wilder – it is not so far from us, and
novice tramper to be open to new ideas road to Khiva. Quality makes good we are nearer.
and discoveries. He also draws on a wealth tramping, not quantity. You can enter a wider family if you
of literature and poetry, from Browning The virtue to be envied in tramping are gentle. The rabbit which tempts
to Thoreau, Ruskin and Dostoevsky. is that of being able to live by the way. your stones will come and smell at your
The foreword was written by Alastair In that indeed does the gentle art of toes, the birds will hop on you and sing
Humphreys, the bestselling author of tramping consist. If you do not live by as you lie in the grass, even the alleged
Microadventures and National Geographic’s the way, there is nothing gentle about it. ferocious animals, such as bears, will
Adventurer of the Year, and he writes about It is then a stunt, a something done to come and take bread from your hands –
what the book has meant to him since he make a dull person ornamental. I listen if they feel you are near to them.
first read it in 2011. with pained reluctance to those who
claim to have walked forty or fifty miles a He prayeth best who loveth best
This extract considers the art of idleness day. But it is a pleasure to meet the man All things both great and small
and taking things slowly: who has learned the art of going slowly,
the man who disdained not to linger in means he liveth best. Pan is indeed more
The world is large enough, or is only the happy morning hours, to listen, to truly our god than Diana. The chaste
too small, as takes your fancy or speaks watch, to exist. Life is like a road; you Diana, the great huntress, is a romantic
your experience. But blue sky by day hurry, and the end of it is grave. There is figure – but not one of us. She would
and fretted vault of heaven by night give no grand crescendo from hour to hour, not have us with her, we will not have
you the foil of the infinite, making your day to day, year to year; life’s quality is in her with us. We will keep company with
petty exploit a brave adventure. After moments, not in distance run. wood nymphs and satyrs, and will help
surveying the map of the world, thinking Fallen trees are to be sat on, laddered to turn the animals another way when
on this country and on that with gusto of trees to climb, flowers to be picked, nests we hear Diana’s horn resounding in the
a Marco Polo, you may modestly decide to be looked into, songbirds to hear, forest. She shall go on and find the world
to take a little trip to Hertfordshire, like flacons to be watched. The river invites a wilderness in front of her – the living
Mr Wyndham Lewis, who, on a certain you to strip. You sit under the cascade and the loving all slipping behind.
8 info@booktimemag.co.uk
Early Adopter
The Man Booker Prize winning
author Ian McEwan returns with
this imaginative novel set in an
alternative version of the 1980s.
When Charlie buys a newly
developed android, Adam, his
relationship with his neighbour
Miranda is thrown into doubt.
We interviewed the author to
find out more.
The figure of Alan Turing is central to the Machines Like Me
novel – his survival ushers in the internet by Ian McEwan
age at a much earlier date, and leads to the HB • Jonathan Cape •
rise of AI. Do you think that his influence on £18.99
our own world is underestimated? ISBN 9781787331662
No, I think he’s received his magnificent Published 18th April
due. As the digital age has reached into
every corner of our lives, we look back at the course of events and are shaped addresses. Either way, I doubt that we will
the theoretical work Turing did in the 1930s by them. They sometimes surprise be able to resist making such machines.
and have grasped how insightful and far- their creator. In Machines Like Me, the
reaching it was. Then, of course, his work narrator box-ticks his way through to the Much of your fiction includes science and
at Bletchley has earned him another kind creation of Adam’s personality. Later he crime, and yet it can’t really be categorised
of renown. Some think that he did more learns that Adam comes with all sorts as science fiction or crime fiction. Are you
than any individual to shorten the war inspired by any sci-fi or crime writers?
– perhaps shortening it by two years. I don’t read much genre fiction,
That’s a large claim, unverifiable of
course. Finally, Turing as a gay man,
“This is new and exciting even though I know there are riches
to be found. I’ve read some of the
suffering under the laws of the early
1950s, and his suicide in 1954 have
ground for McEwan.” Esquire sci-fi classics: Wells, Huxley, Lem,
Wyndham, Le Guin and others. The
brought him fame or martyrdom that more apocalyptic it gets, the more
no one would want. The state that owed of pre-dispositions, and also, wired-in people start moving around the universe
him so much, drove him to his early death. machine-learning – experience that will at multiples of the speed of light, so the
guide and shape him. Parents often human interest fades, is my sense of things.
Would you have preferred the 1980s to fool themselves that they mould the
have been as you imagine it in the book? personalities of their children. There’s In this novel, the Beatles have reformed,
There were many people at that time who little evidence for that, as anyone who and some famous works of literature have
wouldn’t have minded Tony Benn being has had more than one child can testify. unfamiliar names. Did you enjoy imagining
blown up in his bed. I’m not one of them. this different world of art and music, and
The Falklands War was a great tragedy, Do you think we are close to creating an AI were there any other works that didn’t
barely remembered now, even as a victory. like Adam in reality, and if so do you think make it into the novel?
But it did lead to the collapse of a vicious this will be a good thing? The premise was that if science is in a
fascist state in Argentina. My aim in the I think we are a very long way off. We don’t different place in 1982, then politics,
book was to make the 80s different rather even have an efficient way yet of storing literature and everything else will be shifted
than better or worse. The present always electricity. Adam can run 17 km in two too. Enjoyable, but I tried to keep this trope
feels so inevitable, but we know, in our hours. To propel a 165 pound robot through to the background, otherwise it would
hearts, how contingent it is, how easily it that distance would need a huge and heavy drown out the central moral issue – a rape
could be otherwise. battery. The human brain, at just over a and its consequences – that are at the heart
litre, with perhaps a 100 billion neurons, of the novel. So – practically the whole
In the novel, the narrator Charlie and his and an average axon spread to 10,000 world, real or imagined didn’t make it into
neighbour and lover Miranda are both synapses firing 10 times a second – and my pages.
involved in the creation of the AI Adam’s all of it running without overheating on 25
personality, and he then takes on a life watts – the power of one dim light bulb – Will there be a sequel to the novel set in
of his own. Would you draw a parallel what a piece of work! Nature has a more the same world? I’d love to know what
between this act of creation and the way than 3 billion year start on us. But my Adam happens next, and what today would be
you create the characters in your fiction? and Eve will come one day. Perhaps sooner like in that universe!
Characters in fiction evolve. In a loop, than we think. Whether it’s a good thing I’ve never produced a sequel in fifty years
that’s hard to describe, they both drive or not is, in part, what Machines Like Me of fiction writing. Perhaps it’s time to start…
@Booktimemag 9
Good Taste
This new cookbook from
Pinch of Nom, the hugely
popular online slimming blog,
is full of easy, affordable and
healthy recipes, which show
that it’s simple to lose weight
while creating and eating
great food.
Pinch Of Nom
by Kate Allinson & Kay
Featherstone
K
ate Allinson and Kay Featherstone HB • Bluebird • £20.00
owned a restaurant together in the ISBN 9781529014068
Wirral, where Kay was head chef, Published 21st March
before they began sharing healthy recipes
online with the Pinch of Nom blog. It’s
now the UK’s most visited food blog with
a community of more than 1.5 million
Here’s a tasty recipe from the book:
“Brilliant, easy to follow
followers. Each of the 100 recipes in the Shakshuka
book has been tried and tested by twenty recipes that help me
members to ensure that it’s healthy, tasty This North African dish is quite simply
and easy to make. They are all labelled with
helpful icons so you can see which ones
a tomato-based stew made with onions,
garlic and peppers, with eggs poached
feel like I don’t have to
will suit you best, letting you know how
many they will serve, how long they take to
in the mixture. It’s a home comfort-style
meal that’s easy on the calories with a
miss out.” Lena Barksby,
prepare and cook, and how many calories slight chilli heat. Serve it with some new online fan
they contain. potatoes and green vegetables, or just on
its own as a light meal. Spray a large frying pan with some low-
With recipes including Mediterranean calorie cooking spray and place over a
Chicken Orzo, Bacon & Onion Potato Prep 10 mins medium heat.
Bake, Cajun Dirty Rice, Cumberland Pie, Cook 25 mins
Mexican Chilli Beef and Cheesecake- 242 kcal per serving Add the onion and peppers and cook
Stuffed Strawberries, there’s something for for 4–5 minutes until they have started
everyone, whether you want something Veggie; Gluten-Free to soften. Add the garlic and continue
vegetarian, have a large family to feed or cooking for 4–5 minutes. (This should
have limited time to spare. This cookbook Everyday Light take 8–10 minutes in total.) Add the
can help novice and experienced home cumin and chilli powder and stir for a
cooks enjoy exciting, delicious and Serves 2 minute or so, then stir in the tomatoes,
satisfying food. Every recipe is compatible sweetener and lemon juice. Cook for a
with Slimming World and Weight Watchers. low-calorie cooking spray couple of minutes, stirring occasionally.
1 onion, sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced Stir in the spinach, then turn the heat
1 yellow pepper, deseeded down to low, cover and cook for 5
and sliced minutes. Season to taste with salt and
“I don’t follow a 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
or grated
pepper.
diet as such, I ½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp mild chilli powder
Sprinkle half the parsley or coriander
over the tomato mixture, then make four
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes or wells in the mix and crack an egg into
follow Pinch of cherry tomatoes each one. Sprinkle the eggs with some
pinch of granulated sweetener salt and pepper, cover with a lid or foil
Nom instead. Lost 1 tsp lemon juice
100g spinach
and simmer over a low heat for 8–10
minutes if you like your eggs runny, or a
2 stone so far, love sea salt and freshly ground
black pepper
bit longer if you prefer them firmer.
all your recipes!” handful of chopped fresh parsley
or coriander
Remove from the heat, sprinkle with
the remaining parsley or coriander
4 medium eggs and serve.
Sarah Walker, online fan
10 info@booktimemag.co.ukWe have five
WIN!
copies of Pinch
Of Nom along
with five Pinch
Of Nom aprons
to give away! For a chance
of winning, just answer
this question:
Q Orzo is a variety of
which staple food?
See page 31 for details on how
to enter this competition.
“Pinch of Nom keeps me
focused. When I’m bad
it gets me back on track.”
Kay Phillips, online fan
@Booktimemag 11Spreading
Your Wings
This new book from two
behavioural scientists looks at
how we can take control of our
social interactions and instincts
in the digital age, to achieve our
most important goals. With
new research and case studies,
it provides a fascinating insight
into the modern social world.
Social Butterflies
by Michael Sanders & Susannah Hume
HB • Michael O’Mara • £18.99
ISBN 9781782439578
Published 18th April
O
ver the past few years, online social to market research to find out what the So Buell and two of his colleagues,
media has become central to most customers wanted, or what the main Tami Kim and Chia-Jung Tsay, set out
of our lives, and has been a great competitors were. Ryan is a behavourial to close the social distance between the
tool for keeping us connected with the rest scientist, so he looked straight at the chefs and their customers. They rigged
of the world. But, with it, our opinions and motivations of the chef. up iPads in the kitchen and cameras
beliefs have taken on a new power, outside in the restaurant, and set up
and our basic human need to belong a videoconference between the two,
sometimes overcomes our better
judgements. The prevalence of ‘fake
“Engaging, fact-filled and so that some of the time the chefs
could see the people whose food
news’ and accusations of online
manipulation has led us to mistrust
profoundly illuminating.” they were cooking (but not interact
in any other way) and sometimes
each other and question real news Cass Sunstein they couldn’t. They found that
and events. How can we overcome when the cameras were on and the
these negative aspects of social Think about a restaurant – perhaps the chefs could see the diners before the
interaction, and reclaim the positive power last one you went to. You go in and get meal was cooked, they worked harder,
of social networks? taken by a waiter to a table. You look at producing food faster, which was then
your menu, and eventually you decide rated by diners as tastier. You might
Social Butterflies is written by Michael that you want the duck l’orange. You tell wonder about the logical next step –
Sanders, Chief Scientist at the Behavioural your waiter, and fifteen minutes later it what happens when you let the diners
Insights Team, known as the Nudge Unit, arrives – you eat it and enjoy it, you pay see the chefs as they work?
the world’s first government institution and you leave. When Buell and his colleagues set
dedicated to the application of behavioural There’s been plenty for you to enjoy up the experiment so the diners could
science; and Susannah Hume, a former in the process – the environment, the see the chefs (but the chefs couldn’t
Research Advisor for the Nudge Unit. In it, friendliness and manner of the waiter, see the diners) they found that the food
they reveal the fundamental drivers behind the company of your dining companion, was appreciated more by the diners
our decision-making, and how we can use and of course, the food itself. Now than when they couldn’t see the chefs,
them to change our lives for the better. spare a moment’s thought for the chef. but this difference wasn’t statistically
They’re out the back of the restaurant. A significant. But when both parties could
This extract describes an experiment in slip of paper appears at the pass, asking see each other, the diners thought their
a restaurant: for a duck á l’orange, or a steak, or a food was even better, and valued it
mushroom risotto. They make the food, more highly. The fact that chefs work
Another example in the workplace they place it on the pass, and a waiter harder, and make better food, when
comes from Ryan Buell, a professor at spirits it away thought the kitchen’s they can see the customers but the
Harvard Business School. Ryan worked swing doors. They probably like cooking customers can’t see them suggests
with a campus restaurant at Harvard to (you’d hope so) and they maybe have that this is more about an increase in
see if they could improve the quality of friends among their colleagues, but their motivation to do their job well
their food. But Ryan isn’t a chef, or even they’re completely isolated from when they feel closer to the customer
particularly foodie. He didn’t look at the an important part of their job: your than it is to do with monitoring.
freshness of the ingredients, or even experience of the food.
12 info@booktimemag.co.ukBooked Up
A new traveller’s guide, ideal for
any book lover, Literary Places
takes you to the most fascinating
places of the best and brightest
authors, movements and moments
in literature. Complemented with
beautiful hand-drawn artwork
by Amy Grimes, it allows you
to explore the world through a
fascinating bibliophile’s lens.
Literary Places
by Sarah Baxter & Amy Grimes
HB • White Lion Press • £14.99
ISBN 9781781318102
Published 7th March
© Amy Grimes
T
ravel journalist Sarah Baxter outlines Do you hear the people sing? The once wrote, ‘He who contemplates the
the history and culture of 25 literary angry men, demanding to be heard? depths of Paris is seized with vertigo.
places throughout the world, and Once, before these elegant boulevards Nothing is more fantastic. Nothing is
explains how they intersect with the lives ploughed through the congested slums, more tragic. Nothing is more sublime.’
of the authors and works that make them this city screamed with revolution; tight-
significant. From the plans of Don Les Misérables contains all
Quixote’s La Mancha in Spain, to the of those qualities. One of the
wild Yorkshire moors of Cathy and
Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights
“These streets are elegance and longest novels ever written,
it charts the travails of Jean
to a view of Central Park, New York,
through the eyes of J.D. Salinger’s
amour incarnate. But once Valjean, beginning in 1815, as
he’s paroled after nearly two
antihero Holden Caulfield from The
Catcher In The Rye, these fictional they flowed with blood...” decades in prison for stealing
a loaf of bread, and finishing
characters are firmly placed in their in the aftermath of the 1832
real locations. These places are not just packed, disease festered alleys clogged Paris Uprising, when Valjean finds
backdrops to the tales told, but characters with barricades and voices yearning redemption on his deathbed.
in their own right. Whether you’re planning for liberté, égalité, fraternité. Now, the
a trip to your favourite book location, or if avenues are wide, bright, brimming During this period, the city was still the
you simply want to draw in the atmosphere with bonhomie; the noise is of coffee ‘old Paris’ that Hugo loved, a labyrinth of
from the comfort of your armchair, this is cups chinking on enamel tabletops, narrow, intertwining streets, courtyards
an inspired literary travel guide, and follows breezes rattling the neat plane trees. and crannies where characters could slip
the success of Spiritual Places. These streets are elegance and amour easily into the shadows. However, the
incarnate. But once they flowed with city was also overcrowded, unhealthy
blood... and increasingly disillusioned: despite
This extract considers Paris, the world-upending 1789 Revolution,
the setting for Les Misérables By the 1850s – when Victor Hugo was France seemed to be sinking back
writing Les Misérables – Paris was quite into aristocratic ways. Hence the
by Victor Hugo: literally the City of Light. Around 15,000 Uprising. On 5 June 1832 around
newly installed gaslights illuminated 3,000 Republican insurgents briefly
Paris the French capital. Night-times became controlled eastern and central Paris,
safer; citizens were drawn to the streets an area spanning from the Châtelet to
Which? Les Misérables by Victor Hugo at all hours – a pavement culture that the Île de la Cité and Faubourg Saint-
(1862) endures today. But just a few decades Antoine; barricades rose in the streets
before, when Les Misérables is set, off rue Saint-Denis. But by 6 June the
What? French City of Light, squalor, the city was a far darker place. Paris reinforced National Guard had stamped
revolution, égalité and Enlightenment may have birthed the 18th-century’s out the rebellion. Around 800 people
intellectual Enlightenment but, for the were killed or wounded.
impoverished majority, it was still rife
with inequality and despair. As Hugo
@Booktimemag 13Ruling Queenie
by Candice Carty-Williams
HB • Trapeze • £12.99
Class
ISBN 9781409180050
Published 11th April
This debut novel sees young British
Jamaican Queenie Jenkins try to
navigate through her life in London after
separating from her boyfriend. Read our
interview with Candice Carty-Williams to
find out more. video of the iguana to my group of friends
once a week), share pictures of Tracee Ellis
Ross looking once again other-wordly in
the latest picture she’s posted on Instagram been left where it began, when World
and moan about some boy who’s trying to War II ended. It’s taken a long time for us
hold my belongings hostage in exchange to understand that our mental health is
for nudes. just as important as our physical health.
The generation coming up below us have
Queenie has to deal with both racism such a vast understanding of how helpful
and misogyny in the office and in her talking through negative feelings is, while
personal life. Was any of this based on the generation above us still think that a
your own experiences? good cup of tea will solve everything. Sorry
It was only as I got older that I began to grandma, PG Tips isn’t going to stop my
understand the toll micro-aggressions (and imposter syndrome!
© Lily Richards
macro-aggressions) were taking on me both
physically and mentally. This was before I Although the novel deals with a wide
started dating and navigating the hell that range of serious issues, it’s full of warmth
Queenie finds that her home turf of Brixton is dating apps. But it’s not just me and my and humour. How important do you think
is becoming increasingly gentrified. What experiences that have inspired Queenie’s humour is in fiction?
do you think can be done to prevent story, it’s the stories of my friends trying Something has to make me laugh in
gentrification in London? to navigate white spaces, and the tales I’ve some way to pull me in, and I knew that
My short answer? Nothing. My long heard growing up of the generations that through exploring some very heavy topics
answer? The people who are contributing came before me and what they had to do to in Queenie, I’d have to make people laugh
to gentrification don’t seem to realise what fit in when they arrived here from the along the way so as not to completely
they’re doing. I’ve known people who live West Indies. traumatise them. I did my first reading at
in Brixton in houses their parents bought a conference in Albuquerque, and even
“Something has
for them who complain about trendy new though the passage was preeetty bleak, the
coffee shops opening down the road. All I audience laughed throughout. That was
can do is nod and smile. nice. Mission accomplished.
Queenie uses a lot of social media threads
to make me laugh Jojo Moyes and Kit de Waal are both fans
in its narration. What impact has social
media had on the way young people live
in some way to of Queenie. Are you inspired by any other
contemporary authors?
their lives and form relationships today?
I can wile away so many hours on Tumblr pull me in.” I’m inspired by so many authors. Too
many. There are those who have paved the
laughing at a video of an iguana falling off way for me, like Bernardine Evaristo and
a dinner table and spilling his assigned You’ve worked in publishing for many Diana Evans, who continue to contribute
bowl of salad captioned ‘dinner date didn’t years, and set up the Guardian and 4th great literature to our shelves. And I have
go as planned’, but then actually the very Estate BAME Short Story Prize. Do you to mention the genius that is Roxane Gay
same platform showed me the chaos that think that attitudes in the publishing whose words crash into me like great
was the Ferguson Riots, and the tragedy industry towards BAME authors have waves and pull me under (in the best way
that was the murder of Sandra Bland while changed at all in recent years? possible). I’m also in love with the writing
she was in police custody. I wasn’t seeing I often fear that all creative industries and of Alexia Arthurs. How to Love a Jamaican
that stuff on the news. Social media has their inclusive initiatives are playing to is a beautiful collection of short stories.
brought so many of us together, made us an audience through new schemes and
laugh, allowed us to learn and understand prizes, but this time it feels like change Will there be a sequel to Queenie or do you
and engage in personal politics that we is meaningful. Now, we need more have any other books planned?
might not have access to when moving underrepresented people working in these There may well be a sequel to Queenie,
in our work and social circles. And I am industries so that the work is being done in but it’s not coming any time soon. I think
eternally grateful for the groupchat. While an authentic and knowledgeable way. poor Queenie needs a bit of a rest for now;
our lives are increasingly busy, or we it’s safe to say that things aren’t going to
might just need more time for ourselves Queenie’s family are opposed to any kind go smoothly for her in books to come. But
(As Audre Lorde said, ‘Caring for myself is of counselling or therapy. Do you think a new book is coming; very different to
not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, there’s a generational gap in how therapy Queenie, but just as character led, with a
and that is an act of political warfare.’) I can is viewed by older and younger people? cast whose story took twists and turns I
send memes (effectively, me sending that ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ should have didn’t know I had in me.
14 info@booktimemag.co.ukA Delicate
Art
The winning novel of the Japan
Booksellers’ Award 2016 arrives
in a taut yet vivid translation
from major translator of Haruki
Murakami’s work Philip Gabriel.
An apprentice piano-tuner attempts
to make sense of his craft, of his
craft’s place in relation to the music
itself, and – by extension – of
his own place in The Forest Of Wool & Steel
the world. by Natsu Miyashita
HB • Doubleday • £9.99
ISBN 9780857525185
Published 25th April
I
n a fateful case of being in the right (common of a small-town adolescence), the young man was smiling, just like the
place at the right time, the mild- and the struggle to know what to take boy in the photograph. Before I had a
mannered and unassuming Tomura – a and what to leave from the examples of chance to feel his delight properly in my
boy who people tend to ask to do things the adult role models at hand. Told with heart, he’d turned back to the piano and
– witnesses the school piano undergoing the plainspoken and concise lyricism started playing.
a tune-up. He proceeds almost at once of Japanese poetry, and committing Decked out in his grey jogging
to become aesthetically enraptured with stylistically to the values of subtlety, good bottoms and hoodie, his tousled locks
the intricacies of piano-tuning and with humour and keeping it simple that the sticking out in all directions, he leaned
the instrument-to-instrument forward with his large body
variations and nuances of and began to play. His tempo
pianos themselves. Taken on
as a student at a piano-tuning
“No story came through from was so slow. I didn’t recognize
it at first, but soon realized
operation, Tomura goes out on
jobs with three tuning experts
the music at first, but gradually a it was Chopin’s ‘Little
Dog Waltz’.
who endeavour to fix him with
differing senses of how best little dog came into focus.” No story came through
from the music at first, but
to approach the task at hand. gradually a little dog came
Sometimes the advice deploys bizarre best of its characters espouse, The Forest into focus. I’d started gathering up my
analogies from everyday life, with Mr Of Wool & Steel makes for an evocative, tuning tools and turned in surprise to
Yanagi’s evocations of well-boiled eggs and breezy and meditative read, with the look at the man. This wasn’t a little dog,
divisive cheeses causing Tomura to wrack action of tuning a piano proving to have it was a big dog. Chopin’s dog was based
his brains about how best to apply the idea. endless potential as a way of talking more on some small breed like a Maltese,
Other times, the advice is given callously generally about becoming your own but the one summoned by the young
or dismissively, as is the case with the person, or producing literature itself. man was something larger and a little
curmudgeonly Mr Akino. ungainly, more like an Akita or a golden
retriever. The tempo was too slow and
Tomura and the tuners fall into the orbit
In this extract, Tomura the notes uneven, but it was clear that
of an identical pair of piano-playing twins, gets a sense of the fruits the young man, just like a boy or a little
Kazune and Yuni, whose markedly different dog, was enjoying playing. Occasionally
approaches to expressing themselves
of his labour after an early he’d bring his face close to the keyboard
through the instrument reinforce for unsupervised tuning job he and appeared to be humming.
Tomura an educative sense of artistic So there are dogs like this, too, I
beauty being in the eye or the ear of the
had initially been having thought. And pianos like this.
beholder. The fascinating world of piano mixed feelings about: Watching from the far side of the small
tuning becomes a lens through which room, I listened to the young man’s
Tomura interprets the experiences typically From his seat, the young man looked playing with all its intensity of emotion,
contended with by a person coming of over his shoulder at me. and when the piece ended couldn’t help
age: attraction, frustration, the thwarted ‘How is it?’ from breaking out in a heartfelt round
longing to blaze your own trail in the world I didn’t need to ask. He was smiling – of applause.
@Booktimemag 15The Suspense
Bestselling author of Dark
Matter and Thin Air Michelle
Paver tells us all about the
inspirations behind her new
gothic novel Wakenhyrst, set
in Suffolk in the early 20th
century, a haunting tale of
murder and ancient mysticism.
Wakenhyrst
by Michelle Paver
HB • Head Of Zeus • £14.99
ISBN 9781788549561
Published 4th April
I
was in a remote Suffolk hamlet doing That image of a man finding something table. I’ve drawn on this and more to depict
my utmost to see a ghost. I’d arrived in astonishing in a graveyard became a pivotal the twists and turns in Maud’s fraught
thick fog on the night of Hallowe’en, and scene in my Gothic novel, Wakenhyrst. relationship with her father.
after dumping my bag at an appropriately It shatters the complacency of Edmund
ancient inn, I’d set off alone in the dark Stearne, a wealthy Edwardian who until But you may be wondering how the magpie
across the haunted Common… fits in? In the story, Maud rescues
Not surprisingly, the ghosts saw a magpie, and he plays a crucial
me coming and stayed away; but I
didn’t mind, it was the experience I
“Once or twice something role. This was also inspired by
real life, because a few years ago,
was after. The whisper of the reeds,
the smell of decay... And once or behind me rustled, and I I rescued a magpie. I’d heard an
odd splashing noise in the alley
twice something behind me rustled,
and I nearly jumped out of my skin. nearly jumped out of my skin.” beside my house, and on going
outside, I was horrified to find
a young magpie drowning in a
Next morning the fog cleared and large rain-filled flowerpot which
I walked several miles over the marshes now has managed to repress the demons I’d stupidly left uncovered. After fishing
to study the thing that had brought me of his past. Wakenhyrst is partly the story him out and wrapping him in a teatowel, I
to Suffolk in the first place, and sparked of Edmund’s haunting – or his mental rushed him to the nearest wildlife hospital,
the idea for a novel. It hangs in St Peter’s unravelling, if you wish to read it like that. where they cleaned him up and pronounced
Church in the village of Wenhaston, and But the beating heart of the book is his him none the worse for his ordeal. Next
it’s a Doom: a medieval painting of the Last daughter Maud. A lonely child growing up day I brought him home and set him free;
Judgement, with a huge green Satan in without a mother, she must find a way to but like Maud, the experience affected
ragged knee-breeches, and hordes of lesser save her beloved fen, while surviving her me profoundly. I didn’t want to tame ‘my’
demons dragging naked sinners into Hell. father’s increasingly obsessive rule. magpie, but I did want to bring his wildness
a little closer. Luckily for me, that didn’t
But what really attracted me to the Doom Much of what Maud goes through (although have quite the same outcome which it does
was how it was discovered. After the not the Gothic parts!) derives from a very for Maud.
Civil War the Puritans hadn’t bothered to personal source. My Belgian mother is
destroy it, they’d simply whitewashed it in her late eighties and her sister is in I hope this gives you a flavour of how
into oblivion and left it hanging on the her nineties; and over the past few years Wakenhyrst came about. Into the witch’s
wall. There it remained, forgotten in the they’ve told me things about their mother cauldron of the imagination I stirred
church for over 300 years, until in 1892 the which I’d never heard before. Like Maud, some deeply felt family history, my own
Victorians tore down what they thought my grandma was born at the turn of last experiences of squelching around marshes
was some grubby old planking and chucked century, and like Edmund, her father was and ancient churchyards, as well as the
it in the graveyard. They planned to burn it a man who ‘didn’t like children, but liked haunting folklore of the fens. I wrote
the following day, but that night a rainstorm making them’. He was extremely religious, Wakenhyrst to entertain and to frighten:
rinsed off some of the whitewash. A sharp- repressive and violent. As a child, my to make you deliciously afraid to look out
eyed parish clerk spotted patches of colour grandma was so terrified of him that when of your window at night. I really hope you
- and saved the Doom from the bonfire. he came home she used to hide under the enjoy it.
16 info@booktimemag.co.ukYou can also read
