Curious behaviour

A visit from Virginia (Jinny) Duigan, an old friend. Her second novel, The Biographer, has recently been published. Like her first, Days Like These, it is a compelling read, a real page-turner. Curiously though, her publisher, Random House, is selling it only in Australia, where Jinny lives. The ways of the conglomerates can be mysterious. Australia is no doubt a lovely country, but The Biographer deserves an international audience, not a parochial one. Random House could pick up some tips from smaller, independent publishers, such as Solidus, my publisher, which gratefully sees the world as its market place.

Another book

I worked for the Economist, a weekly news-magazine, for about ten years. My main tasks were writing about Asian affairs (I had lived for a time in South-East Asia) and producing an obituary page each week. No one much wanted to be the paper's undertaker, but a job is a job, and the editor's word is final. You couldn't interview the subject of the obit, as you would with an ordinary article. On the other hand the subject was not in a position to complain about anything you wrote. You had the world's dead to choose from; and not ncessarily the obviously great and good. All the editor asked for was someone interesting. The editor once met Bill Clinton, then American president. Clinton said he read the Economist. What did he think of it? Clinton said he always read the obituary. Bill Emmott, the editor, took it on the chin that the world's most powerful person did not immediately turn to the Economist's leading article to find out what he should do. He stoically told the story at the paper's weekly editorial meeting. The obituary page acquired a sort of respect among the staff as they dealt with mere mortal matters. Ann Wroe runs the page nicely these days, but I don't know if George Bush is among her readers.

Anyway, what this is leading to is that the Economist is publishing a book (with Profile Books) of obits later this year, so that an eager world can find out what it was that grabbed Clinton's attention. I am happy to give it a first review. My verdict: 'Brilliant, not to be missed.' As I mentioned in an earlier post, the other big publishing event of the year is of course my novel Beyond Reason (Solidus), now flying off the bookshops' shelves.

Rejected novels

An interesting article in yesterday's Guardian about Joanna Kavenna who has won the Orange prize for her novel 'Inglorious'. It was her eighth novel. No one wanted to publish the previous seven and she appears to have abandoned them. Two were lost in her computer and the others "are just lying around somewhere".

There are probably many more unpublished novels than published ones. But should they be thrown away? J.L. (Jim) Carr, a friend, sadly now dead, always persevered. He is probably best remembered for 'A Month in the Country', which won several literary prizes and was shortlisted for the Booker. I don't know whether it was snapped up for publication at once as it should have been, but he told me that one of his novels was rejected by 17, or it may have been 18, publishers. It was eventually published with success. "Never throw anything away," Jim said.

First review

A review for my novel Beyond Reason. The Times Literary Supplement gives it about a column. The reviewer, Philip Womack, says I write with wit and a nice sense of the absurd. Nice man. My publisher, Solidus, will be pleased. The TLS has influence.