The Literary Sofa
Features
Visible and vocal – a post for Bi Visibility Day 2022
I haven’t posted anything of substance for two months but today is Bi Visibility Day all over the world and a milestone in my world, as the first time I’ve marked the occasion as an openly bisexual person. It’s also significant because a tweet thread by literary agent Abi Fellows on this day last year … Continue reading
How I came to own two bookshops (kind of)
Firstly, thanks so much to everyone who contributed to the fantastic buzz about the cover and opening pages of my new novel Scent last week. I am so happy to see this much interest in a book that is excruciatingly close to my heart (probably just as well I didn’t realise how much at the … Continue reading
Too much information: blurbs, reviews and spoilers
As I mentioned at the start of the year, I’m taking a relaxed approach to the blog in the run-up to my Spring Spotlight on 11 March. At the moment top priority goes to a pitch for a project I can’t talk about and preparing material for a retreat I’m leading in a few weeks’ … Continue reading
Unusual Book Gift #2 – Single-story pamphlets from The Guillemot Factory
Within minutes of pressing ‘publish’ on my first unusual book, The Accidental Memoir by Eve Makis and Anthony Cropper, I was receiving messages from readers saying they’d ordered it for themselves or as a present. It’s a lovely thought that this will result in life stories which might never have been told. Today I’m … Continue reading
Unusual Book Gift #1 – The Accidental Memoir by Eve Makis and Anthony Cropper
Christmas isn’t really my thing but books and writing are, so over the next couple of weeks I’m dedicating three blog posts to book gifts which are in some way out of the ordinary* – please do support your local independent bookshop, or mine, the renowned Big Green Books who are really helpful even long distance. … Continue reading
Guest Post – Ben Blackman on Taking nine months to read one novel
Enter my competition she said, you could win a lunch with me she said. Yet somehow it comes to the fact I (that’s italics too but it’s difficult to tell if you can see) have ended up in charge of the Literary Sofa this week while Isabel pretends to be hard at work on her … Continue reading
Book Hype (for want of a better word)
Sometimes I commit to writing something and then think Oh shit. I did briefly wonder if it’s possible to talk about book hype and the like without it generating cynicism and negativity, which is not the intention. I want to look at an interesting question. How do the various ways we discover books affect our … Continue reading
What the French taught me about sex (and writing it)
It’s nearly a week since my debut novel Paris Mon Amour came out and I’ll be writing about that incredible experience very soon… But in the meantime – and because I was way too busy to post this week – here are some of the pieces I’ve written elsewhere to coincide with the release. Given the longevity and popularity … Continue reading
Author Events – with a guest appearance from Francis Plug
Apologies to anyone wanting to read a serious article about author events. This isn’t one. But it is a historic event, or if you want to get all literary, an historic event. It was supposed to be a guest author post but that went wrong from the start when South London New Zealander Paul Ewen, … Continue reading
The Literary Guilt and Inferiority Quiz
Many of you book-lovers will have seen this very interesting, possibly funnier than intended article by the supremely erudite Will Self in The Guardian, lamenting the death of the serious literary novel (again). Now, serious and literary are two of my favourite words but this piece contained one or two (dozen) others which challenged my … Continue reading
My new novel SCENT – out in paperback on 19 May 2022
The Literary Sofa 