Home
News & Events
THE LONDON BOOK FAIR: 19-21 April 2010
| Bree is going to Blighty!
Next
month I will mingle with the great and the good of the literary world at
the London Book Fair. Very exciting stuff! I'll be rubbing shoulders with luminaries of the written word like Andre Brink and Hilary Mantle ...even if it is only by accident. If you happen to be in Londinium for the Book Fair do please pop in and say hello at the 30º South stand (T530). Alternatively you will be able follow my London Book Fair Diary every day in The Citizen. I will also be presenting a talk at the LBF, details of which will be posted on this website next week. |
IN DEVELOPMENT...
By the way, in case you are wondering what
I've been up to lo these many months I have been hard at work on two new books.
(Honest! My fingers are raw and blistered from bashing the keys!)
Just
complete is my new novel, Nigel Watson,
Superhero, which is set in London. This has been such
enormous fun to write as nearly all the characters are loosely based on
people very dear to me and all the locations are my former haunts in
the 'Big Smoke'.
I have also been working on a brand new version of
Sardonic Verses, which I
first wrote in 1998. I have now included heaps of new stories, all of
which are highly topical, and this time round the illustrations are being done
by Sandy Collins, an extraordinarily gifted artist whose
illustrations suit the comedy of the verse just perfectly!
And for fans of
Home Affairs I hope you will be pleased to hear that I have just
started a sort-of-sequel. Not giving too much away at this point, but it's set
in Durban and one or two familiar characters will make an appearance.
Details about all these books will be posted on this website in due course.
THE LAUNCH OF THE LITERARY CAFE
In September we launched a brand new initiative here in Hartbeespoort.
Held on the first Wednesday of every month, the Literary Café
is a forum for book lovers to meet over coffee and nibbles, discuss their
favourite books, and meet their favourite authors.
Everything is covered at the Literary Café,
from whodunits to heart-wrenching dramas; biographies to bodice rippers;
military memoirs; children's books and chic-lit; poetry and short stories...and
everything in between.
Pictured with me at the launch of the
Literary Café
are author Morné
Malan and House of Coffees owner, Maria Floudiotis.
Picture: Loanne Louw,
Kormorant
O! WOW!
In May I was invited to speak at the Oprah
Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. Having done several talks to high school
pupils, I thought that this one would be similar: a brief chit-chat about books
and writing to an audience consisting of bored-to-moderately-interested
teenagers who would be more critical of what I was wearing than anything I had
to say about books and writing. A walk in the park, as it were. How wrong I
was!
The girls of OWLA know their books, and boy, do they read!
Voraciously! They read during lunch-break. They read while they walk.
They read just for fun. And they read just about everything! I am perfectly
certain that in high school I never read Conrad 'for fun', but these girls
positively devour the printed word.
It was an absolutely terrific and
life-affirming day for me and those young ladies challenged me like no other
audience before or since. If these girls are indeed South Africa's future
leaders, then things are certainly looking up! (Watch out, Julius...)
ON AIR
In March fellow author Morné
Malan and I went on air to discuss writing and the writing process as
guests of Jozi Today presenter, Katharine Lee. Morné
had recently established his creative thinktank called HeadSpark which
aims to help first time authors learn the tricks of the trade.
Pictured with Morné
and myself are Katharine Lee and Radio Today producer, Dumisani
Manjaze.
AN EVENING WITH FIONA RAMSAY & LADY ELEANOR
To round
off what was an absolutely incredible year, Fiona
Ramsay gave me an extraordinary Christmas gift by doing a
public reading of Home Affairs hosted by The Energy Works in
Parkwood.
Fiona had just won the Naledi Award for the
Best Female Performance in a comedy (for Thoroughly Modern Millie), so
it was an incredible privilege -and thrill!- for me to hear an actress of her
remarkable talents breathe life into Lady Eleanor, Oubaas Mthethwa, and a host
of other characters I had created...just as I had envisaged them.
HOME AFFAIRS: THE AUDIO BOOK!
Home Affairs has been recorded as an audio
book for Tape Aids for the Blind by well-known Durban actress
and theatre personality, Caroline
Smart.
I am chuffed to bits that Home
Affairs has been included in their reading list; my own Mum used
to read for Tape Aids for the Blind, which is a national library service for the
blind and print-handicapped. They perform an invaluable service to those
who are visually impaired and who would otherwise not have access to books
and popular literature.
And Caroline Smart
has such a rich, wonderful voice and a razor-sharp sense of humour; I am
absolutely thrilled that she has brought the printed word to life in
this way.
If you would like to know more about the work of Tape Aids for the
Blind please visit them here.
ALL THE FUN AT THE (CAPE TOWN BOOK) FAIR
Bruce Dennill
and Bree in our natty Citizen T-shirts.
If for no other reason, I advocate that authors
enter the Citizen Book Prize for the trendy gear you get to wear.
Many people actually thought I was an exhibition official
and kept asking me where things were. I knew that exhibition hall inside out by
the end of the CTBF!
On Saturday, 14 June, Bruce Dennill, CitiVibe Editor of the Citizen, interviewed me about Home Affairs and the Citizen Book Prize (below). We had such a great response we repeated it all again on the Sunday!
Left: Publisher and author, Chris Cocks of 30°South Publishing, chats to a fan about his latest book, Out of Action; Right: Bruce and Bree in mid-punt!
Readers,
writers, everywhere!
Some of the many thousands of book lovers who
attended the Cape Town Book Fair.
If you did not get to attend this year's CTBF,
make sure you mark your diary for next year.
If you love books, it's the only place to be in June!
BACK TO SCHOOL FOR BREE!
In June I completed the Writers Write course at The
Write Co. in
HOME AFFAIRS BOOK LAUNCH(ES!)
Home Affairs had not one, but two book launches (!)
in
Home Affairs was frst launched at the
end of February 2008 at Fascination Books,
The launch in
Superbly organized by Adams bookstore and hosted by
Mr. Peter Adams himself, the launch was extremely well attended and I even got
to see friends and teachers from my childhood, some of whom I hadn't seen since
I last lived in
At the end of January, and prior to the
official launch of Home Affairs, I was invited to attend a dinner in
Sandton hosted by The Write
At the dinner I received another of my prizes
from Amanda Patterson, founder of the Write Co. and an author of note in her own
right. The Write Co. has been the launch pad for over thirty published authors,
so attending the Writers Write course was a superb opportunity for me to learn
more about my craft from those in the know.
Pictured with me at the dinner was 30°South
Publishing's publicist extraordinaire, Jane
Lewis.
Picture © The Write Co.