Reading Matters

An evening with Thomas Keneally

You know that game where you name 10 people, living or dead, you'd love to invite to a dinner party? Well, I've decided that Australian author Thomas Keneally needs to be on my list.

He is probably best known for his novel Schindler's Ark, which earned him the Booker Prize in 1982 and was later turned into a film by Steven Spielberg, but his back catalogue is staggering in breadth and length — 32 novels, 17 non-fiction books and four plays.

I saw him at an event at Foyles Gallery last Thursday evening, which was part of his promotional tour for his latest novel, The Daughters of Mars. The book, which I'm yet to read, is set during the Great War and tells the story of the Durance sisters, who leave their home in rural Australia to work as nurses on the battlefields of France.

He did two short readings from the book before being interviewed by Robert Collins, deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times, and pretty much everything he said was fascinating or funny — or both.

He had a lot if interesting things to say about war and why so many of his books revolve around it. His father fought in the Second World War and he remembers receiving a little package in the post containing Nazi memorabilia from him. This instilled an endless fascination with war — and as a writer he loves to explore the ways in which humans behave during times of conflict.

He has also spent some time in war-torn Eritrea (for journalistic reasons) and was constantly amazed and shocked by what he saw.

He wrote The Daughters of Mars because he wanted to explore war through the eyes of women. "I wanted to write a story about the New World [Australia] and the Old World [Europe], and how women deal with stress," he said.

What gave him the right as a man to do that, he was asked. The response? He was raised by women (while his father was at war), has daughters and is deeply interested in (and knowledgeable about) aboriginal culture in which "aunties" hold their communities together.

"Australians are myth-ridden about World War One, but politicians talk absolute bollocks about it," he said. "War is a test of courage and morality."

And the reason so many Australians signed up to fight abroad? "Australians will do anything for a trip!" he said, with a twinkle in his eye. "But I think it was mainly a hunger to see the old world and its glories."

Afterwards, I joined a long, slow-moving queue and waited patiently to have my book signed.

Turns out many of the people ahead of me had brought along their entire collection of Thomas Keneally novels to be signed. The elderly couple immediately in front of me, for instance, had at least a dozen hardcovers in two tote bags — they had waited 31 years to see him (he was last in Foyles in 1982), so I think they were genuine fans and weren't doing it to stick them on eBay!

Please accompany me to the pre-publication party of 'The Tale of Raw Head & Bloody Bones'

Over the course of my blogging career I've attended several book launches. These can be wildly varied affairs. Usually they are held in a book shop and the author makes a small speech or does a short reading and then those present (typically a mix of journalists, book sellers, publishing staff and the author's family and friends) enjoy a glass of wine and a chat.

Sometimes they are grander affairs and the publisher puts some time and money into making a memorable splash — the event might be held in a special venue and there will usually be a lot more people in attendance, including famous guests, and there will be plenty of food and drink on offer.

Last night I attended one of the more interesting — indeed, probably the most interesting — book launches I've ever attended since I've started getting invited to these things. Let me take you with me...

First, we have to ventured to the back streets of Southwark, in South London, just a short walk from London Bridge tube station. It's cold, dark and wintry, but now that we've found the address, it's time to push open the red door... and struggle up the tiny spiral staircase (36 steps! Count them!)

We then emerge into what turns out to be a tiny bookshop crammed with all kinds of books and souvenirs, many of them with a medicinal or anatomical theme. There are, for instance, a lot of skulls.

But we haven't quite reached the venue yet. There's another (tiny) staircase to encounter (you don't suffer from vertigo or claustrophobia, do you?)

Ah, we are here now. It appears to be a big barn-like space at the top of the building, with lots of interesting objects on display. Alas, there's no time to look at them now. We are being ushered into another room, via a tiny little passageway...

And here we are! Can you guess what this room is? It's the Old Operating Theatre,  the oldest in Britain, and there's a trio of musicians, known as The Bookshop Band, playing classical music while we file in and take our places.

The editor and author now make their grand entrance — and Jack Wolf (the author) stands at the head of the operating table and reads from his yet-to-be-published first novel, which is set in 18th century London and tells the tale of young man, Tristan Hunt, who studies anatomy and surgery at St Thomas’s but has a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde type complex.

The Bookshop Band swing into action once again and perform a curiously beautiful but very weird song inspired by two of the characters from the book. The bassist's voice is particularly ethereal. Can they perform a few more songs, please? They are very entertaining. Oh? There's drink and a heart-shaped cake on offer in the museum. Well, we can't miss out on that now, can we?

Um, the heart-shaped cake is, well, literally a heart-shaped cake — complete with arteries (all nicely labelled) and appears to be oozing a rich, dark red blood. I might give that a miss; how about you? I know it's red velvet cake or devil's food cake or something delicious inside (with whole raspberries, too), but I can't stop thinking that the blood just looks too lifelike...

I'll just takea glass of wine and admire the exhibits instead. Yes, I know this is a real brain, but it doesn't look as creepy as that bloody cake.

This exhibit is pretty interesting too. Turns out we are in the Old Operating Theatre Museum, which is housed in the roof of St Thomas's Church...

Apparently this room is called the Herb Garret and was used in the 18th century to store and dry herbs as part of the St Thomas's Apothecary.

But enough history about this place (you can look it up online later — the official website is a bit clunky but there's loads of info on there).

Let's have a chat with our hosts, who work for book publisher Random House. The aprons are a nice touch, aren't they?

And let's admire the book display — and do note the alligators keeping guard on the shelves behind!

Don't forget to take a copy and get it signed by the author. Wasn't that a fun way to spend a couple of hours?

The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones will be published in the UK by Chatto & Windus in January. There are more photographs of the launch part on the official Facebook page.

A round-up of literary festivals for September and October 2012

What's the collective name for a group of literature festivals? A collection? An archive? A library?

Whatever it's called, in the UK there are loads of literary festivals coming up in the next month or two. Here's just a handful of the ones I know about:

SEPTEMBER

9-11 Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival, London

12-26 The Blenheim Palace Literary Festival, Oxfordshire

13-16 Guernsey Literary Festival, Guernsey

14-16 Chiswick Book Festival, London

24-30 Henley Literary Festival, Oxfordshire

27-30 Manx Lit Fest, Isle of Man

OCTOBER

5-14 Cheltenham Literature Festival, Gloucestershire

8-23 Manchester Literature Festival, Manchester

13-30 Durham Book Festival, Durham

Are you planning on going to any of these festivals? Have I missed your festival? Then do let me know in the comments below...

Giveaway: win a pair of tickets to the 'Writing Britain' exhibition

Remember my post about Writing Britain, a fabulous new exhibition at the British Library, which I was lucky enough to visit last month?

Well, the library has kindly offered a pair of tickets, worth £9 each, to give away to one lucky reader of this blog. Whether you live in London or are planning a visit some time before 25 September 2012, then this is an exhibition not to be missed.

You can find out more about the exhibition via the official website.

To enter, simply leave a comment below.

Entries close at 22.00 GMT on Monday 25 June, 2012.

I'll then choose the winner based on an online random number generator (or some such).

The competition is open to anyone, regardless of where you live (although clearly you and a friend need to be able to visit the British Library before the exhibition closes in September), but you can only enter once. And please note, I cannot accept entries by email, Twitter or Facebook. Good luck.

Writing Britain: an exhibition for literature lovers

If you live in London you could be forgiven for thinking that the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympics were the only big events happening this summer. But lovers of literature haven't been forgotten: for the next four months the British Library is staging a spectacular exhibition that showcases treasures from the nation's English language heritage. And what an exhibition it is!

I was recently invited to go on an exclusive curator-led tour of Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands and more than a week later I'm still mulling it over.

There are so many incredible items on display that I came away feeling totally overwhelmed. I'm not sure what impressed me most — that there were so many books and manuscripts on display, some of which have never been seen by the public before, or that it was so cleverly arranged in themes, rather than chronology. Its breadth and scope, which covers everything from William Shakespeare to JK Rowling — and everything in between — is equally breath-taking. 

There are more than 150 literary works on display divided into six different themes — rural dreams, dark satanic mills, wild places, Cockney visions, beyond the city, and waterlands — relating to various British landscapes and environments.

Exhibition highlights

There are (literally) dozens of highlights — and if you're a fan of the English classics you won't be disappointed, because it's stuffed to the brim with Brontes and Hardys and Conan Doyles et al. But given my preference for 20th and 21st century literature, I was delighted to see:

• Kazuo Ishiguro's manuscript for The Remains of the Day

• Angela Carter's manuscript for Wise Children

• George Orwell's manuscript map, diary page and letter illustrating his experiences in the north of England, later published as The Road to Wigan Pier
  

• JG Ballard's manuscripts for Crash and Kingdom Come
  

• Ian McEwan's typewritten manuscript for On Chesil Beach

• Daphne Du Maurier's early plan for Rebecca, which was used as evidence when the author was unsuccessfully sued for plagarism. (See the US District Court stamp in the photograph above.)

• JK Rowling's original manuscript for her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which she famously wrote in a cafe in Edinburgh. Interestingly, the curator confessed that the last time they borrowed this manuscript from the author, it was simply popped in the post, but this time around it came via special delivery!

I found it particularly fascinating to see the handwriting of so many famous writers and the notebooks or type of paper they chose to write in: Charles Dickens' was particularly messy and full of scribbles; Arthur Conan Doyle's was scrupulously neat and tidy; Angela Carter had a preference for yellow legal pads; and Lewis Carroll drew amazing pictures and had perfect print-like writing.

How to book a curator-led tour

If you fancy visiting the exhibition, it runs until 25 September 2012. I would recommend giving yourself at least an hour, possibly two, to check it out. As well as letters, photographs, manuscripts, notebooks, maps, drawings, poems and song lyrics to look at and admire, you can also listen to sound recordings and watch a short film.

For a limited time visitors can get a curator-led tour for the normal ticket price of £9 — I highly recommend this as it helps to have someone explain what you are looking at and why certain items were chosen or acquired.

The curator-led tours take place every Tuesday evening between 6.30 and 7.15pm — the first one is tomorrow, June 7 — and every Thursday between 3.30 and 4.15pm until 5 July. The special tour tickets can be booked online or at the British Library box office. Don't miss it!

Chinese author Bi Feiyu in conversation at the London Book Fair

About 18 months ago I developed an interest in Chinese fiction, mainly because I was planning on visiting the country for a month in November 2010. (You may have seen my journal entries on my other blog or seen the post I wrote about a visit to a bookshop in Beijing and another bookshop in Beijing on this blog.)

One of the authors who has been on my radar since then is Bi Feiyu. And even though I still haven't managed to read his award-winning Three Sisters, I was excited to hear he would be speaking at the London Book Fair on Tuesday morning, which is one of the reasons I decided to attend. (That and the free ticket and the one-mile walk from my house.)

I have been to many author events in recent years, but this is the first one I have attended where the author has required a translator. It initially felt a bit stilted and slow, because Rosie Goldsmith, the chair, would ask a question in English; then the translator would ask it in Mandarin; then Bi's reply would be in Mandarin; then this would be translated back into English — by which time it felt like half a day had flown by. Of course, I'm exagerating, but once I got used to the "time delay" it was fine, plus it gave me plenty of time to take notes. (I'm now convinced I need to learn Mandarin; I felt homesick for my trip just listening to the sing-song cadences of the Chinese language, the only word of which I remember is "nǐ hǎo", which means "hello".)

Despite the possibility of things "being lost in translation" it became clear that Bi Feiyu has a wicked sense of humour. When Rosie Goldsmith asked him why there was so much sex in his novel, he replied: "Whatever you lack in your life, you write about!"

He then went on to explain that sex was one thing the Cultural Revolution could not destroy. "Westerners associate the Cultural Revolution with politics," he said. "But to Chinese people it destroyed our bodies. Sex was a bad thing. When I was at school, to talk to women was improper. It was like medieval times. We were taught that the features and smell of your body was ugly. The Cultural Revolution placed restrictions on the body, but sex cannot really be restricted. Deep down in the heart there are storms going on."

He suggested that in modern China people are more free to talk about sex than they are in the UK. And this prompted Rosie Goldsmith to ask the question I'm sure everyone in the audience was thinking: Do you feel free to write what you want in China?  

His answer? "Not really. There isn't really any author who has this freedom. Everybody can read from when they are very young so they can form their own opinion. Aesthetic interest is most important as an author. A very serious and responsible writer should respect aesthetic. I may not be free to write certain things, but I [as a person] am free. And I will find a way to do it. As long as you have passion you will find a way to express. Never underestimate the power of expression of an author."

When Rosie pressed him on the controversy that the London Book Fair had generated — the 21 Chinese authors in attendance were "approved" by the Chinese Government — he was diplomatic.

"Controversy is always good. It is inhumane to stop others criticising you. China being selected as the market focus [at the London Book Fair] is the right thing in 2012," he said.

My first visit to the London Book Fair

Yesterday I tootled off to the 41st annual London Book Fair to see what it might offer a blogger making the trip for the first time. The event is held over three days and bills itself as "the global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels".

In other words, this is a fair for people who produce book content, market it and sell it in all its many varied forms. It's not really a fair for those who consume this content, by which I mean readers and bloggers.

The first thing that hits you when you walk through the front door of the venue is the sheer size of the fair. I've been to Earls Court many a time — it's just a little over a mile walk from where I live — but usually it's been to see concerts or attend the Great British Beer Festival. The London Book Fair seems to be on a different scale altogether, because not only does it use every square inch of the floorspace on the ground, it also uses the upper levels for seminars and events.

To say I was overwhelmed would be a bit of an understatement.

There were so many exhibition stands that it was a bit like wandering through a rabbit warren, not knowing which direction to turn next. Some of the stands were huge, especially for the big name publishers such as Random House and Harper Collins, and everywhere you looked there were people sitting at tables having discussions or scribbling away in notebooks, so that it felt like I had gate-crashed the world's biggest meeting.

After about 30 minutes of wandering around and getting my bearings and trying not to look like I didn't know what the hell I was doing (and I didn't), I headed to safer, more reading-focused territory: the English PEN Literary Cafe to hear the "author of the day", Bi Feiyu, in discussion with Rosie Goldsmith. Bi is Chinese and his visit is part of the fair's "market focus" on China (which has attracted its fair share of criticism — this article in The Independent provides a good summary) and was one of the reasons I wanted to attend.

I've had Bi's novel Three Sisters sitting in my to be read pile for more than a year —  it has since won the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize — and he was as gracious and as quietly spoken as I thought he would be. (I will write more about his session in a separate post.)

It was then time for a coffee and another wander around — mainly in the deathly quiet China section. I stopped and listened to a session on "publishing and music dialogue" for about two minutes until I realised the whole event was being done in Chinese and I couldn't understand a thing — although the slides were in English. It all felt a bit stilted and official and wasn't helped by all the participants and audience members being dressed in suits.

I was momentarily distracted by this clever "word mash" sign hanging above the China Pavilion and then I spied an exhibition on the history of publishing in China, which was worth a look. Apparently the Chinese invented movable type, paper, the compass and gunpowder — but the exhibition focused on the former two.

I wonder if you can guess what this is? It's actually a replica of the world's first movable type type-setting roundtable. It was designed in 1298 by agricultural expert Wang Zhen. The table is filled with individual movable type characters, carved in wood. The table can be revolved, to speed up the process of selecting the correct characters to use. So much better than keeping them in a chest of drawers, as the old newspaper I once worked on used to do!

Here's some more movable type made out of tin. The display also featured movable type made out of wood and porcelain.

But enough of that!

Back to the English PEN Literary Cafe to hear Caitlin Moran talk about her book How to be a Woman, only to find I'd turned up about half an hour early, which was a good thing: the event was hugely over-subscribed so I was one of the lucky ones to have a seat.

Caitlin was in fine form — incredibly witty, self-deprecating and intelligent. I love that she tells her two daughters, aged eight and 11, to pity, rather than idolise, all the scantily-clad female pop singers in videos. "Poor Rhiannon," she tells her girls, "she must really need a cardigan, don't you think?"

After this, it was time for more wandering — where I bumped into this shy lobster (see left), promoting this Dutch book, due to be published by Atlantic later this year.

I then tried to figure out how I could fill more than two hours before the next session at 4pm — on the importance of world literature — only to discover that I couldn't. I was worn out, I had a thumping headache and there was nowhere to sit down — unless I wanted to listen to people giving seminars on things I really wasn't interested in such as "successful self-publishing" and "smartphone tablet publishing without coding".

That's when I figured I should probably cut my losses and go home.

I'm glad I visited, but I don't think the fair is designed for people like me. But if you are an author, a publisher, a publicist, a bookseller or want to get into the trade, then the London Book Fair is a definite must. My suggestion would be to wear flat shoes and maybe take your own fold-up chair!

A visit to Belgravia Books, London

Frequent visitors to this blog will know my penchant for visiting book stores in far flung places and writing about them here. But occasionally I like to showcase some of the more interesting shops in London, and for that reason I visited Belgravia Books, a longish stroll from Hyde Park Corner, for a bit of a look around today.

I've been meaning to visit the shop — which was founded by the independent publisher Gallic Books — ever since it opened last Autumn. And as anyone who follows my Facebook page will already know, today's visit was the second in the space of a week.

My first visit was last Thursday night, to attend the launch of the latest novel, The Brothers, published by Peirene Press. Despite the fact that the Finnish author, Asko Sahlberg, was unable to attend because of illness, it turned out to be a lovely evening. The translator talked eloquently about her work with the publisher Meike Ziervogel, while the staff of Belgravia Books supplied plenty of wine and nibbles. I was too busy talking to people to look at the stock, hence my return visit.

The first thing to note is how gorgeous the interior looks — the main colour scheme is blue and white reflecting the Gallic Books branding. Everything is so neat and ordered — just check out how well thoses shelves are stocked! But there's a relaxing feel to the place as well and if you wanted to stay all day, there's a few reading chairs scattered about the place to make you feel right at home.

Bu this isn't a shop for those looking for celebrity memoirs or commercial fiction.The emphasis is on quality literary fiction, much of it in translation. I like to think it's a bit like the Reading Matters blog come to life, because, honestly, pretty much every title in stock appeals to my tastes. And that table in the photograph above is filled with books already reviewed here or in my TBR pile!

I especially liked the section devoted to hardcover classics, primarily those Everyman's Library books I covet so much, and I couldn't leave without purchasing the Patricia Highsmith volume that features three of her Ripley novels. I also bought a crime novel — Petra Hammesfahr's The Lie — which has been translated from the German.

Of course the shop stocks more than just fiction — there's poetry, food and drink, humour, history and politics and so on. And there's a terrific children's section, complete with a fake tiger to clamber upon.

If you fancy visiting Belgravia Books you will find it at 59 Ebury Street, London SW1W 0NZ. Tel: 020 7259 9336. It is a short walk from the tube stations at Victoria and Sloane Square and a longish, but pleasant, walk from Hyde Park Corner. Alternatively, visit the website to buy books online. Note that the shop also hosts literary events.

How I tweeted my way through Kate Grenville's book launch at Australia House last week

One thing I was taught in journalism school all those years ago was to make sure I didn't leave home without a pen and notebook, because you just didn't know when you might just stumble on the biggest news story of your life.

So when I went to Australia House last Tuesday night, courtesy of an invitation from Canongate, to attend the launch of Kate Grenville's latest novel, Sarah Thornhill, I was mortified to discover I'd remembered the pen, but I'd forgotten the paper!

Thank goodness, then, for my trusty little BlackBerry. Initially I planned to take notes, for my own reference, on the phone's MemoPad application. But then, in a fit of inspiration, I thought I'd try tweeting my way through the evening. And this is what followed (sadly, I wasn't organised enough to think of a hashtag so that others could follow the event, and do excuse the odd spelling mistake and grammatical error):

[I think I did: I haven't heard so many Australian accents in the one place since... well... last time I was in Australia. Oh, and Australia House is just gorgeous, all marble staircases and pillars, Corinthian columns, gleaming mahogony walls and doors, sky blue ceilings and gold leaf detailing everywhere.]

[Ah yes, took me ages to craft that line.]

[He made quite a lovely speech, actually, and put Kate's work into a kind of academic context.]

[This is something that came out of Dr Henderson's introduction. He said this quote was something that Kate had told him earlier. I think it resonated with a lot of people at the launch, but also by those who saw this tweet and retweeted it.]

[Now, if only she had had a BlackBerry, a phone signal and access to Twitter...but of course it wouldn't look as good waving around a Smartphone at readings instead of a paper bag, would it?]

[She said she felt compelled to write down what she could hear in her head that day on the volcano. She described it as "oogie boogie" or some such, by which I think she meant it sounds a bit surreal and stupid to claim you can hear a character's voice come out of nowhere, but when inspiration strikes you have to go with it!]

[This elicited quite a few laughs from the audience. It seems most of the characters in the book are based on real people, as are many of the incidents that occur. Although she is quick to point out that the book is a novel, not history.]

[There are a few sex scenes in the book...]

[She names Austen, Woolf and Eliot as examples, before inviting the audience to disprove her 'theory'. A few mention that Elizabeth Gaskell had children.]

[Now this caught my attention, because I do about 50 drafts of anything I write, even measley little blog posts like this one, and I still don't ever feel I get it right and then I find stupid errors weeks later! I don't think Kate was exaggerating either — this was a real figure. Just goes to prove that the writing that looks the most effortless takes a lot of effort! Budding authors take note.]

[Something else for budding writers to take note of. How many times do we read scenes and dialogue that feels false? Or meet characters that don't ring true?]

 

After her reading and speech, there were questions from the floor — Diana Athill, sitting in the front row next to Jamie Byng, was the first to put up her hand — and then it was time to grab a glass of wine, mingle with others and queue up to get your book signed.

I ended up having a lovely chat with her about all kinds of things, including the cost of books in Australia, whether men read her novels and the importance of social media and blogging to promote books.

She is one of the most down-to-earth and approachable writers I've ever met — and so genuinely interested in the people who read her work. I could have chatted to her all night! [Apologies to the people in the queue behind me; they must have been cursing me for being such a time-hog.]

Thanks to Anna Frame at Canongate for the invitation. It was lovely to meet you and the perfect way to conclude my Australian Literature Month.

And yes, dear readers, I'll get that review of Sarah Thornhill written very soon. Now where's my notebook... unless you want me to review it via Twitter? :-)

Jonathan Cape's delayed response to their man winning the 2011 Booker prize

There were bigger Booker Prize parties in town last night — the publishers Atlantic, Canongate, Serpent’s Tail and Granta all banded together to host a giant one, for instance — but I was kindly invited to the winning one, hosted by Jonathan Cape, a division of the Random House Group.

Of course, when I made my way to Brydges Place — London's narrowest alley, near Trafalgar Square — and scuttled up the staircase to the private club in a Georgian townhouse at a little after 8pm, I didn't know it was going to be the winning party. Did anyone even think Julian Barne's novel, The Sense of an Ending, was going to win the Man Booker Prize after all the controversy this year's prize generated? (You'll note, I refrained from commenting on the hoo-ha — there were enough column inches, blog posts and God knows what else without me adding to the clamour.)

It has to be said that the party was, well, cliquey. I didn't know a soul.

There were a lot of people crammed into two smallish rooms (a third room was set aside for people to dump their bags and coats) and it didn't take long before the windows steamed up, it was so hot and stuffy. But there was plenty to drink — red wine and white wine, but you had to hunt down a waiter if you wanted a glass of water — and tray after tray of delicious canapes.

As time for the impending announcement drew near, the excitement became palpable. But sadly there was no TV in sight, but a radio, in the main room, was turned up loudly for everyone to hear — although it wasn't quite loud enough for those of us squished in the back.

What no one realised was that the radio announcement was a delayed broadcast. The winner had been revealed several minutes — possibly 10 minutes? — earlier. And in the funny way that the Brits don't like to cause a ruckus, most of the people standing around me had already found out the name of the winner via Twitter on their smartphones, but no one said a word. It was all hush-hush, with everyone pretending to strain to hear what the Man Booker chair Stella Rimmington was banging on about during her speech even though everyone must have been jumping out of their skin with excitement.

Our man had won!

When Barnes was named the winner — on the radio — the party erupted into cheers and riotous applause, but those few minutes between the Twitter news silently coming through on handheld devices and the party hearing it over the airwaves were quite surreal.

I had a lovely time and enjoyed the evening a lot. It was wonderful to finally meet the utterly charming Leo Benedictus, author of The Afterparty and Triple Choice Tuesday participant, and his editor. And as much as I enjoyed the champagne that began to flow after the winning announcement, I'm not sure my head agreed this morning when I had to get up and go to work! I suspect there were far worse cases than me, though — I was tucked up in bed by midnight, probably when the party was in full swing.

Oh, and if you are looking for my review of Julian Barnes' winning title, you'll have to wait a bit longer. The book has been sitting on my bedside table, unread, for months. How typical.