Bloggery

Friday 21st Oct 2011

Becky Milford

All aboard as Mr B’s sets sail for its second packed-out event of this latest season.

It seems only yesterday that we were pinning down the fragile wings of cover-inspired antique butterflies in order to exhibit the very special author events we had lined up, and now we are already half way through the season!

Last night Mr B’s lowered the gangplank and hoisted the sails to welcome Carol Birch, author of the seafaring and raucous tale, Jamarach’s Menagerie.

The lovely Mrs Birch had taken time out of her busy publicity schedule to give our audience a personal reading, and also tell us all about the influences for her book, and how she approaches writing.

Carol read passages from her most recent novel, based on the young boy Jaffy Brown who leaves the cobbled streets of Victorian London in order to go in search of adventure and dragons on wild, whale-inhabited seas and exotic, perilous islands.

We’ve got lots of signed copies of the book available to buy in the shop or online here if you feel like warding away the winter chill with this vibrant novel that, despite being set in sun-bleached, tropical climes, goes on to explore the darkness of the human heart.

The book had earned Carol a place on the Booker Shortlist, and it was only two days ago that it was announced she was pipped to the post by Julian Barnes. She proceeded to tell us what a fun time she had on the awards night with some of the other nominees. “We seemed to develop a real bond. There’s always a healthy respect for other author’s in that situation,” she told me over the welsh-rarebit and scotch-eggs - a sailor’s staple diet, don’t you know! - prepared by our neighbours at the excellent Canary Tea Rooms (www.thecanarytearooms.co.uk). So what will she be doing when the media storm finally calms down?

“I’m off on holiday to Venice,” she confided, eliciting not a little bit of envy from the Mr B’s team. “I’m going to catch up on my reading.”

This naturally caused a great clamour as to what tomes she’d be packing into her portmanteau – Ed was already edging towards the G for Gautreaux section ready to whip out his favourite recommendation should she request any help – but there was no need.

“I can’t wait to read The Sisters Brothers,” she told us firmly. “I really liked Patrick deWitt. He’s such a cool guy.” This was greeted with sage nods from Lucinda and Ed, who have each read the book about contract killer psychopaths and claim it to be both hilarious and a cracking good read.

So what did she think of the other titles she was up against for the Booker?

“I haven’t read them yet, so I’m really excited about getting to grips with them on holiday. We all made a pact that we wouldn’t read each others work until the prize had been announced.”

Soon, after munching some ginger biscuits (to ward off sea-sickness) and pieces-of-(After)-Eight, we all returned to the cosiness of the bibliotherapy room for part two.

Since Mr B’s has been assaulted by eager students over the last few weeks desperate to get their module books, we thought we’d take a scholarly turn during the second half of the evening and bring class to session. Prof. Nic and Teaching Assistant Ed handed round course packs for suggested reading, and Libby, our resident expert on all-things nautical, gave a presentation on the very best books to grace the waves. See our amazing ‘At Sea’ List for some more extra-curricular reading! 

And no Mr B’s event night would be complete without some gorgeous songs from our resident bookshop band. Although it was tempting to suggest a round of sea-shanties, the actual songs they had written, based on the adventures of young Jaffy, were far better and involved far fewer drunken sailors.

It was one of the Bookshop Band’s personalised songs, in fact, that reduced our first event author to tears. When Alexandra Fuller came to visit us for our ‘In Africa’ night a couple of weeks ago, little did we realise she’d have to be given time to collect herself after hearing a beautiful rendition of a song inspired by her autobiography, Don’t Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.

“It isn’t fair!” she jokingly chastised as she wiped away the remains of a tear before going to speak to our guests, “I wasn’t prepared for that at all!”  You can watch the video of the fantastic track, “Bobo and the Cattle” here - http://vimeo.com/30049669

But ever the professional, Alexandra soon had the audience in stitches with tales about her childhood in Africa and the eccentricities of her mother. Her latest book, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, is a celebration of her mother and how she went about raising her children in  variously war-torn and tumultuous African environments. Alexandra also peppered her funnier stories with more poignant insights that definitely exhibited the tone of the fabulous memoirs and biographies that she’s written, signed copies of which are still available to buy here. 

Later, while we were quaffing wine and tucking into the safari-animal biscuits on offer, she showed us a letter from her mother, written only a month previously – pages of delicate, neat handwriting accompanied by little line-drawings of hippos and other African creatures she’d spied. A veritable ex-pat Beatrix Potter!

“I love comparing the news given to me by my mother and father,” Alexandra told us. “Dad’ll just bark something down the phone like ‘Your mother was very upset the other day. Damn crocodile ate the dog.’ While with mum, it’s always pages of lengthy paragraphs and beautiful descriptive prose, dramatising exactly what happened."

We wonder where Alexandra gets her talent for writing from!