The Literary Sofa
Isabel Costello
Guest Author – Conversation with Rob Doyle
I’m happy to say that all three of the brilliant Irish writers* from my Hot Picks 2016 will be joining me on the Literary Sofa in the coming weeks, starting with Rob Doyle, author of This is the Ritual, the first story collection to be included in my selections. Following publication of his astonishing first … Continue reading
Interior Life Part Two – Empathy in Fiction
It’s been four months since my post Interior Life Part One. I didn’t forget to write this promised follow-up on empathy in fiction – the topic is never far from my mind. Like many of you I have the dual vantage point of being both reader and writer, and for all my love of plot and … Continue reading
Writers on Location – Nicholas Hogg on Tokyo
According to the latest edition of The Economist Pocket World in Figures, the UK heads the world ranking for new titles published, with 2,875 per million of population in 2013 (compared to 1,831 in Slovenia and Taiwan in joint second place, and 959 in the United States in 12th). I find all of this staggering … Continue reading
Words and poetry and me
It’s no surprise that last week’s post by Isabel Rogers on What a Poet can teach a Novelist was a huge hit. The idea for the post came from the input Isabel R has given me with my writing and to judge by the reaction, she could probably have set up a specialist editorial consultancy … Continue reading
Guest Author – Isabel Rogers on What a Poet can teach a Novelist
This morning I found myself simultaneously emptying the dishwasher, waiting for an insurance company to answer the phone and thinking about poetry. I will not pretend this is my life. (OK, it is, apart from the poetry bit.) I was trying to mentally compose an introduction worthy of the Literary Sofa’s first visit by a … Continue reading
New year, new books, new horizons
Just a quick note to wish all my subscribers and readers a very happy new year! I hope you had a good break with some time to read as well as all the festive stuff. We spent a wonderful cosy week in the last home of Swallows and Amazons author Arthur Ransome in the southern Lake District with lots … Continue reading
Fiction Hot Picks 2016
This is the ninth Literary Sofa selection of new/forthcoming fiction, a labour of love that I am delighted to share. No book is here just because it sounds good – that’s the easy bit! I read all of my Hot Picks and many more in full to compile these listings. The right ones took longer than usual … Continue reading
2015 – My Year in Books
Does it make sense to talk about books of the year with a whole month to go? It does in my case because I’ve moved onto next year’s releases in the search for my Hot Picks 2016 selection. 2015 has been very busy for me with a lot of time I’d normally spend reading devoted to … Continue reading
Writers on Location – André Alexis on Toronto
I am constantly finding new books to enthuse about (I know, it’s hard to keep up) but today’s Writers on Location visit to Toronto is a special cause for celebration – my guest André Alexis has just been awarded Canada’s prestigious Giller Prize for Fifteen Dogs. As a result, this surprising and original novel (published in the … Continue reading
Guest Author – Catherine Simpson on Writing a woman in crisis
One of the joys of running the Literary Sofa is the way threads sometimes develop out of nowhere and lately there’s been something of a ‘what readers really want’ thing going on around here. I’ve been lucky to host several brilliant guest posts on topics that I feel strongly about and I’m clearly not alone … Continue reading
My new novel SCENT – out in paperback on 19 May 2022
The Literary Sofa 