What I read in 2015

According to Yes by Dawn French

Capital by John Lanchester

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz*

The Sisterhood by Emily Barr

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

The Bees by Laline Paull

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

After You by Joyo Moyes

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey by Rachel Joyce

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Out of My Depth by Emily Barr

Backpack by Emily Barr

Where Love Lies by Julie Cohen

We Are All Made of Stars by Rowan Coleman

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers*

Us by David Nicholls

The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes

The Lie by CL Taylor

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Lady Worsley's Whim by Hallie Rubenhold

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

H is For Hawk by Helen MacDonald*

Mothers & Daughters by Kate Long

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton*

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Precious Thing by Colette McBeth*

Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase by Louise Walters

Hello From The Gillespies by Monica Mcinnerney

Balancing Act by Joanna Trollope

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-Mi Hwang

*Book Club choices

What I read in 2014

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters*

Her by Harriet Lane

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

A Cornish Affair by Liz Fenwick

The Murder Bag by Tony Parsons

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Public Battles, Private Wars by Laura Wilkinson

The Unknown Bridesmaid by Margaret Forster

The Friday Gospels by Jenn Ashworth

Life Drawing by Robin Black

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson*

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

Strength in Strangers by Lauren Britton

The Land of Decoration by Grace McLeen

Erosion by S A Hemmings

The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain*

Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope

The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan

The Accident by CL Taylor

Secrets and Rain by Cally Taylor

The White Cuckoo by Annie Ireson

The Diary of The Lady by Rachel Johnson

Out of The Ruins by Sue Guiney

The Moment by Claire Dyer

The Rosie Project by Graeme C Simsion

Wake by Anna Hope

The Legacy of Hartlepool Hall by Paul Torday

All Change for Nurse Millie by Jean Fullerton

Woman Walks into a Bar by Rowan Coleman

Call Nurse Millie by Jean Fullerton

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

The Lewis Man by Peter May

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriaty

The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood

Longbourn by Jo Baker

*Book Club choices

What I read in 2013

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Benedict's Brother by Tricia Walker

The Girl on the Landing by Paul Torday

The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday

The Hopeless Life of Charlie Summers by Paul Torday

Light Shining in the Forest by Paul Torday

The Twins by Saskia Sarginson

Something Beginning With by Sarah Salway

House of Silence by Linda Gillard

Stoner by John Williams*

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvette Edwards

The Other Half Lives by Sophie Hannah

Summer of '76 by Isabel Ashdown

Carol by Patricia Highsmith

Diary of a Provincial Lesbian by VG Lee

Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

Dearest Rose by Rowan Coleman

Build a Man by Talli Roland

What The Grown-Ups Were Doing by Michele Hanson

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

The Silver Locket by Margaret James

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The Light Years (Cazalet Chronicles 1) by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Catching the Sun by Tony Parsons

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

White Cargo by Felicity Kendal

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada*

The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller

Restless by William Boyd

The Knot by Mark Watson

Your Voice in My Head by Emma Forrest

My Future Husband by Karen Clarke

Thursdays in the Park by Hilary Boyd

My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary by Rae Earl

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Winter Games by Rachel Johnson

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins*

You Had Me at Hello by Mhairi McFarlane

Jubilee by Shelley Harris

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

*Book Club choices

What I read in 2012

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling*

The Bolter by Frances Osborne

The Cook's Tale by Nancy Jackman & Tom Quinn

The Accidental Billiionaires by Ben Mezrich*

Move Over Darling by Chris Stovell

Mr Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal

The Colour Purple by Alice Walker*

A Kind of Vanishing by Lesley Thomson

The Soldier's Wife by Joanna Trollope

27: Six Friends, One Year by RJ Heald

A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale

Drowning Rose by Marika Cobbold

Ninepins by Rosy Thornton

Somewhere to Hide (The Estate, Book 1) by Mel Sherratt

Tony Hogan Bought me an Ice Cream Float before he Stole my Ma by Kerry Hudson

Gold by Chris Cleave

The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend

Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas*

The Expats by Chris Pavone

Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka

The Cornish House by Liz Fenwick

The Most Beautiful Thing by Fiona Robyn

The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka

Untying the Knot by Linda Gillard

My Dear I Wanted To Tell You by Louisa Young

When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro*

You Before Me by Jojo Moyes

Nirvana Bites by Debi Alper

Everything and Nothing by Araminta Hall

The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale

Hothouse Flower by Lucinda Riley

Room by Emma Donoghue*

A Field Guide to Fabric Design by Kimberly Kight

When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman* (reread)

Limitless by Alan Glynn

Handmade Type Workshop by Charlotte Rivers

The Fundamentals of Printed Textile Design by Alex Russell

What the Nanny Saw by Fiona Neill

More Than You Can Say by Paul Torday

Cuckoo by Julia Crouch

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel*

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

*Book Club choices

Happy New Year

We saw it in at home, playing games and watching Harry Potter (and the Order of the Phoenix) until 11.55 and then we went out onto our Bangkok balcony and watched several displays of fireworks. I love living in a city.

I’m going to gloss over the ‘what I have achieved in 2011’ round up we’re seeing all over the blogosphere because the answer is ‘precious little’ and I’m feeling pretty blah about it.

A few weeks ago I signed up for Sally Quilford’s 1000 words a day for a hundred days. It started this morning. Of course I had to trick myself into writing. I set the clock for one hour and wrote and I just continued until I’d written the 1000 words. Why isn’t it always that easy?

This year I am going to get this novel into a shape I am happy with if it kills me. (It might.)

I’ve given up wheat, meat and sweet(s).

And I’m going to have a better blogging year.

What I read in 2011

Taunting the Dead by Mel Sherratt

Tears and Laughter and Happy Ever After by many talented writers!

Daughters-in-law by Joanna Trollope

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath*

The Association of Foreign Spouses by Marilyn Heward Mills

Hens Dancing by Raffaella Barker

Home for Christmas by Cally Taylor

The Devil's Music by Jane Rusbridge

Disgrace by J M Coetzee

The Extra Large Medium by Helen Slavin

Tender by Mark Illis

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Write To Be Published by Nicola Morgan

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday*

The Point of Rescue by Sophie Hannah

TigerLily's Orchids by Ruth Rendell

Hurry Up and Wait by Isabel Ashdown

Below Stairs by Margaret Powell

A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French

Bombsites and Lollipops by Jacky Hyams

The Beauty Chorus by Kate Lord Brown

When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

And The Band Played On by Christopher Ward

West End Girls by Barbara Tate

Getting Away With It by Julie Cohen

The Novel in the Viola by Natasha Solomons

The Art of Losing by Rebecca Connell

Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

The London Train by Tessa Hadley

Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson

Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones*

Janice Gentle Gets Sexy by Mavis Cheek

Sex and Stravinsky by Barbara Trapido

Blame My Brain by Nicola Morgan

Naked by David Sedaris*

Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty

Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin

Bestseller by Alessandro Gallenzi

Told in Silence by Rebecca Connell

Days of Grace by Catherine Hall

The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay*

Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard

Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown

The Blasphemer by Nigel Farndale

Orchid Fever by Eric Hansen*

You Don't Have to be Good by Sabrina Broadbent

Crow Stone by Jenni Mills

Not So Perfect by Nik Perring

Mousetrapped: A Year and a Bit in Orlando by Catherine Ryan Howard

Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

The Ghost Lover by Gillian Greenwood

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams

*Book Club choices

‘Stick to the roads; steer clear of the moors.’ Part Two

I was led to believe that Moniack Mhor would be basic but comfortable. I found it considerably more than basic and every bit as comfortable. It used to be a farm stead but to me the stone walls, dark wood floors combined with an arched mirror brought simple chapels to mind. Maybe it was the passion for writing and reading that I found inside. It was filled with books and posters and had soft, comfortable sofas where the attendees accumulated during the first afternoon over mugs of tea and glasses of wine.

These first hours are always a little odd. We went round and around our incomplete group checking out each other’s names. 

Gillian Philip and Erica Munro, our tutors, both local (ish) arrived to join us. The Director of Moniack Mhor gave us a talk on the building and the ethos of Arvon in so far as it affected us. Students are expected to cook (in teams of four) one evening meal during their stay. The menu and all ingredients are provided. Lunches and breakfasts are on a ‘help yourself’ arrangement, which means there is also a ‘tidy up after yourself’ deal. There are always people who do more than their share, as well as those who do less than their share. I suspect this can be a source of tension in some groups.

Classes were held in the morning and one-to-one sessions in the afternoon. Every evening something was planned, usually readings: our own work, an author’s work we admire, our tutors’ work etc. On the Wednesday night we had a visit from literary agent Geraldine Cooke.

My aim for the week was to dive into my manuscript and work out the new and improved structure; what needs to go where to tell the best story? I didn’t exactly achieve that but did accomplish something else. Back in March of this year I couldn’t see how to edit or what to cut but now I can. I’ve lost the fear for the mess that will ensue once I start moving bits of story around. And I got some faith back – this might sound mad – I believe that I will know in spite of the muddle what needs to be moved. I believe in my intuition again. I have it; I just need to listen.

There are so many wonderful things about Arvon courses: the dedicated time to write, to think about writing, to spend time with other writers and the experts – the tutors and the guests – who will answer all those questions that you have but haven’t known who to ask.

I’ve come away determined. I’m going to finish my novel and start subbing it to agents. I’ve got an idea for a radio play and I’m going to prepare and sub an idea for a non-fiction book I’ve been contemplating for several years.

Update

It’s about time I reported on the progress of novel number two, which is probably going to be novel number one in terms of the writing order.

A little while after I announced here that the characters were materializing inside my head and holding their own conversations, they disappeared. Perhaps they were shy or just a bit pissed off that I’d broadcast their appearance. I had a mild panic at their departure, tried to conjure them and then spent a few days thinking about giving up. I mean, really properly giving up.

See, I’ve got this writing course coming up, at the end of September that Husband is willing for me to go on, it’s not cheap and I feel it’s for serious writers. I don’t want to waste money. If I can’t make myself write fiction … what is the point of doing the course? What is the point if I want to write fiction but I cannot actually do it? I keep reading on the blogs that people are finishing drafts and making progress, and I wonder why you are all putting up with me. Why haven’t I been asked to relinquish my Novel Racer place to somebody more serious?

I am writing my blog and I’m writing my regular and one off articles but it’s still not enough. If I think about not writing the fiction I spontaneously weep. It appears I cannot give up which is rather a good thing, given I don’t think there is another thing in the world I want to do!

And then somewhere along the line, the cast of characters reappeared in my head. So now I am furiously scribbling notes, I’m reading well and I’m sort of hoping it’s going to be okay. I think the plan is to gather information now, find out who the characters are, and then write, write, write over July while I’m in England.