Well, it has been some - not inconsiderable - time since I last posted here, but anyway, I thought I might today.

I've been back in London for a few months now, after a year away, and have (finally) started my PhD.

For those of you who haven't already, read AL Kennedy's short story collection What Becomes.
For a totally insane read take a look at The Raw Shark Texts.

And finally, take a look at this: Being and Tim.

16th Meyer Whitworth Award Winner Announced

Morna Pearson has been awarded the 16th Meyer Whitworth Award for her play Distracted. To read the full press release go to the Playwrights' Studio Scotland website.

I would have to concur with Stuart Mullins (chair of the Meyer Whitworth judging panel) when he said about the play: "...without doubt an exciting and original voice that British theatre must nurture and cherish. The piece is truly theatrical and could be created through no other medium – its visual, visceral, poetical and magical…..it's ‘theatre’.”

Last Thursday seems years ago - I have a dim memory of being in a sleep deprived state as an event manager at Cheltenham Literature Festival. At some point while deciding whether to have a scone (staple festival diet seems to be scones and apples) with or without cream, Cheltenham Festivals' Press Co-ordinator wandered up to me and informed me that they needed to steal Anne Enright away from me, and therefore her sound check because the BBC wished to interview her. I assumed this was some sort of pre-Booker publicity, and was quickly informed that no, it was not, in fact it was because we had just been informed that Doris Lessing had (about time too) been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and Enright was to be giving a response on the 10 o'clock news. So a hasty sound check was completed and Enright was whisked away and I was left to contemplate my scone. Meanwhile everyone else was having fun with the setup for Margaret Atwood's LongPen (which has also been called The Evil Claw) satellite link from Canada.

Between LongPens and Nobels; blocked loos and power cuts; it went entirely unnoticed by the gather literary types that AL Kennedy (sadly not programmed for this year's festival - I live in hope for 2008) had been awarded the Österreichische Staatspreis für Europäische Literatur (Austrian State Prize for European Literature). So not everyone has heard of it, and at €25,000 it isn't huge like, say the IMPAC or the Nobel, or the Booker, however it has a rather grand sounding title and you'd think that there might be some tiny mention of it somewhere in a British newspaper? Wouldn't you?

I've not paid any proper attention to this year's Booker Prize, but I'm going to say that I hope Anne Enright does win. I've only read Enright's The Gathering and McEwan's On Chesil Beach so have limited basis for any informed judgment. What I really hope is that On Chesil Beach does not win. It is usually broadcast on the 10 o'clock news, but I'll probably be asleep by then...

Cheltenham Literature Festival 2007

The 58th Cheltenham Literature Festival has been on sale since the 6th August.

You can view the brochure online, or if you prefer a printed copy you can request one.

Amidst all the chaos of flooding you may have heard the story about the man who plagiarised Jane Austen and that only one editor - Alex Bowler, assistant editor at Jonathan Cape and a very fine person indeed - appeared to have recognised the manuscript before him as a (slightly) revamped Pride and Prejudice. Much credit to him and also to his reader whose name escapes me but who Alex gave all due respect to in his Front Row interview last Thursday.

Putting aside debates about the value of the - so called - experiment (it is probably better described as an exercise in time wasting) to see if Austen would make the cut with the publishing houses of today, I would like to take this opportunity to raise yet another reason why you should all put those Harry Potter books down and go out and buy yourself a copy of Tod Wodicka's All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well.

What is that reason? Alex Bowler (yes the very same Austen spotter) is the editor. And a wonderful job he has done with Wodicka's book too: here we have a good editor who can spot good literature when he sees it and doesn't like to see it messed around with.

Short Stories

I've mentioned in the past my love of short stories. I'm lucky that AL Kennedy - a writer whose work I greatly admire (as I know you will know I never tire of saying) - writes very fine short stories. Back in June she wrote an article for The Independent about short stories and below is an extract:

"Stories are allegedly what novelists knock off when they're feeling lazy, mere journalism with a dash of purple prose, something to read in the toilet, a waste of trees.

At which point I get a migraine and then ask you to bear with me for a moment, because together we have to rediscover what the short story is really all about. So go and get a glass, maybe one with a stem, if you're in that kind of household, but definitely a glass, not one of those plastic things your children chuck at one another. I'll wait here.

Sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Tap the glass gently with your nail, or a pen. If the glass has a fault or a crack, it won't make much of a sound. If it's flawless, it will sing, resonate beyond itself. That's the best way I can show you the nature of the short story. It may be small, fragile, but to create that kind of seamless clarity - that's a massive challenge to any writer, and a remarkable gift for any reader... make no mistake, the short story is an exercise in perfection."

A perfect description of a perfect form.

The full article can be read on The Independent's website.

I mentioned the other day that Tod Wodicka's wonderful first novel All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner Of Things Shall Be Well, has a wonderful cover so here it is. It is published next Thursday, and it is in paperback so no excuses about it being too heavy for your luggage when you go on holiday.

How to start this post - yes I know it is the first in many months - I could start by saying that Jerusalem Artichokes are the single most versatile vegetable on the plant (given half a chance they would run rampant and swallow the earth in a saga worthy of a Dr Who three-parter) or perhaps ask if anyone out there knows anything about Dahlias? I've been given two beautiful red plants to go in my new garden but know not what kind of soil or location they like.

Well that seems to have got me started.

I should really begin by mentioning AL Kennedy's book Day, which was published by Jonathan Cape in April. I read it back in December in proof format and thought it wonderful, honest, and achieved. It is a novel ambitious for the form and therefore not constricted. However not all those book reviewers out there have agreed with me, but I do urge you to read it. I like it because it is not strapped into a straight jacket - although the main character might think he should be - it is not linear in its narrative - I don't much like linear - and takes Kennedy's use of the second person to a new level. I was hyping it all last year before I read it and I can safely say that it lived up to expectations and also exceeded them.

Now the excuses: I know that saying that I've been busy since the end of Cheltenham Literature Festival last October is a very lame excuse, but I have been busy and somewhat computer-less since my two batteries for my laptop gave up the goat (I do mean goat not ghost), and the very old iMacs we had at work until last week were not capable of supporting any sort of browser without crashing. But we have lovely shiny new Mac Minis now with Firefox...

I left the festival in November last year. I enjoyed it immensely but my time was up. While I was sad to go it was, in hindsight, the right course of events. In January - I can't quite believe that six months have passed already - I started working for writernet and also as a teaching assistant/seminar leader in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary, University of London.

Oh, and I brought a cottage in Suffolk - hence the red Dahlia's as a gift. I shall be spending my summer restoring it.

Book recommendation for July - aside from Day which you should buy today, on you way to the tube, bus, church, village hall, supermarket, farm shop, home etc - All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner Of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka is published by Cape on the 12th July is wonderful and beautiful and has a lovely front cover which is not an abstract from a postmodern photograph.

Being back in London means that I get to go to the theatre without having to do battle with long armed torygraph readers and First Great Western, and I've seen some brilliant, refreshing and imaginative work including Katie Mitchell's productions Waves and Attempts On Her Life at the National Theatre and the National Theatre of Scotland's production of Anthony Neilson's The Wonderful World of Dissocia at the Royal Court ranking highly. I wasn't sure what to make of the ENO's Death in Venice, though - perhaps I was too distracted by the very uncomfortable balcony seats, next time I will stand.

I'm off now to do battle with One Railway - that unholy alliance of four train companies which serves East Anglia.

Cheltenham Literature Festival

Well, the first weekend of The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival has ended and we are moving into the week - if you missed the last few days then you still have six more in which you can see some fantastic (even if I do say so myself) events.

There have been so many interesting, stimulating and wonderful events it is difficult to know where to begin. My number one event so far has been Stephen Poliakoff on Saturday 7th October, and our three events on Sunday 8th October with the RSC were exciting and fascinating, Shakespeare's Women with Tamsin Greig and Jane Lapotaire, Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter talking about Anthony and Cleopatra, and Janet Suzman giving the Shakespeare Lecture.

Today has seen the first of the Festival's commissions performed (and broadcast on Radio 4) by Helen Simpson - its a wonderfully funny short story and if you didn't catch it then you can listen to it again on the BBC Radio 4 website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/tellingtales/pip/n320n/.

Tommorrow of course sees the Booker awarded....

Booker Short List

So here it is, the Man Booker Prize for Fiction Shortlist 2006.

Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)
Kate Grenville - The Secret River (Canongate)
M.J. Hyland - Carry Me Down (Canongate)
Hisham Matar - In the Country of Men (Viking)
Edward St Aubyn - Mother’s Milk (Picador)
Sarah Waters - The Night Watch (Virago)

I'm very sorry to see that James Lasdun isn't there as his book Seven Lies is very fine. However I'm glad to see M.J. Hyland there. I've got a proof copy of Hisham Matar's book by my desk and we're currently debating its merits....

Beginnings and Endings

So it begins...

The Ottakar's in Cheltenham is no more ... last night as I walked home it was being refurbished and this morning when I walked into work it had become Waterstone's. The branding is slightly different from the old Waterstone's stores - white and black instead of gold and black.

So as you pass your local Ottakar's take a moment to frequent it before it is no more.

One for the history books

I taking a moment away from books. Just a moment, this isn't permanent....

Aside from the (mostly) unsporting activities of books (they occasionally require lifting, and are heavy) and turnips (all that digging is much more exciting than the gym) I sometimes dally in the world of sport. Not the partaking you understand, only as an onlooker, and even then I'm very selective - tennis and three-day eventing. Having worked in eventing ( did the wholly unglamorous job of being an event groom and loved it while it lasted, but am now too much of a cripple) I know that it can be at turns punishing and wonderfully rewarding - rather like the world of books - and this weekend saw both in shovelfuls. Andrew Hoy was in line for the Rolex Grand Slam - $250,000, which is a huge amount for a rider and has only been won once before by Pippa Funnel in 2003 - having won Kentucky and Badminton this year, all he had to do was win Burghley and he was there - but sadly it wasn't to be, with three poles down in the show-jumping - the final discipline out of Dressage, Cross-country and Show-jumping - he went down to second place.

But while one rider lost out on the biggest prize in eventing, another won the biggest event of her career to date, the British born Lucinda Fredericks (she married the Australian Clayton Fredericks so now rides for Australia) stormed away with the Land Rover sponsored prize money of £45,000 with a faultless clear round in the show-jumping, with a wonderful little mare (15.3hh) called Headley Britannia who tried her heart out and has been rewarded with her place in eventing history after becoming the first mare in 33 years to win the competition.

But its back to books now ... am off home with a copy of Gail Jones' Dreams of Speaking, published by Harvill Secker.

Harvest

In the world of vegetable gardening September is a wonderful month - no planting required, only the very fulfilling job of harvesting. The only problem is what to do with it all when its picked, and you can't eat it all in one day.... This year the turnips are doing very well - they are lovely and sweet - we have an abundance of beans - Runner, French, Yellow Climbing, Borlotti, - the onions are all picked and drying out, an Italian green vegetable called l'agretto has gone mad and we can't keep up with it, as has the chard and beet leaf, the caterpillars have attacked the kale and the cabbages though, but there is hope, and enough time to re-sow the kale before the winter, last year we were cutting from September through to the following March before it gave out, it survived the snow and frost without ever needing covering; so as winter veg goes kale is my favorite - its green and needs hardly any fussing about. On the fruit front the apples and plums are ripening up nicely and we even have some pears this year.

And at work things are somewhat the same - almost all the books have arrived, and the festival is a month away, which means further temptations for this blogger. Christopher Hope's new novel has arrived - My Mother's Lovers published by Atlantic - as has Victor Sebestyen's book on the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 - Twelve Days published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

The trouble is that I have no time to read them. But come November when the nights have drawn in my time will be devoted to reading books, instead of just talking about them.

Digesting the Booker

I know I know, everybody is talking about it and its beginning to get boring.... So I'll be brief.
Of the big publishing houses:

With 5 titles from 4 imprints Random House dominates.

Peguin has 4 titles from 2 imprints.

Pan Macmillan has 2 titles from it imprint Picador (who published last year's winner).

Hodder has 1 title with imprint Sceptre.

Little Brown has 1 title with imprint Virago.

Of the Independent Publishers:

Faber & Faber, Cannongate and Bloomsbury have 2 titles each.

With the shortlist just eight days away I dare say the judges are in for another epic debate on what stays and what goes. My personal shortlist keeps changing, but today is: Seven Lies by James Lasdun, The Testement of Gideon Mack by James Robertson, Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland, So Many Ways to begin by Jon McGregor, The Secret River by Kate Grenville, The Night Watch by Sarah Waters.

This of course will have changed by tomorrow. Except for Lasdun who has stayed on all my shortlists....

Walking Over Books

For those of you who might have been wondering - I haven't fallen off the planet, I've just been rather bogged down of late. I had a fleeting trip to Edinburgh - for the Book Festival and to see a few things on the Fringe - where I discovered that I no longer know how to live like a student (sleeping on the floor and eating Pot Noodle was never my idea of fun, but now one night on the floor leaves me unable to walk!). And speaking of Pot Noodle, AL Kennedy did a very funny skit on the subject of this terrible food stuff, and on the whole her stand-up was considerably funnier than the critics gave her credit for (the day I was there the audience kept up a pretty constant flow of laughter). ALK's comedy aside ... Her new book Day will be published in the UK on 5th April 2007 (215 days to go). I have heard that there are plays and another collection of short stories to come as well.

With little over a month to go before the 57th Cheltenham Literature Festival begins everything is about to take off in our office - with everything from book deliveries to the colour of the tent lining to be sorted out. Having done a big clear out a month ago we're now piled high with books again - indeed you can't really move for books, and boxes of books, and parcels of books waiting to be posted, and very soon walking into the office every morning is going to be like climbing through over-growth, or paradise.

Wonderful though it is to be surrounded by so many books, it is also something of a struggle: books mean temptation, and my recent rummage amongst the leaves of the many titles we have turned up several temptations ... In no particular order:

The London Pigeon Wars by Patrick Neate (Penguin)
Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury)
Fatal Purity by Ruth Scurr (Chatto & Windus)
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell (Headline Review) (I have to admit that I am seduced by titles, and this is one of them)

Gautam Malkani's much-talked-about-first-novel Londonstani may win me over.

I realise I'm lagging somewhat behind with reviews of what I've read ... I'll get there soon.

Dead-heading

As I was dead-heading the petunias last night it occurred to me we needed to do something similar in the office. With our programme finalised and the brochure at the printers its time to clear out the books we've been sent since the beginning of the year to make way for the books by writers who will be attending the festival.

So far I've gone through about 200 books and found two novels I'm interested in (Where are the Snows by Maggie Gee and Electrcity by Ray Robinson) a Granta City Guide for Budapest, and a book for my Dad... I may yet add Bad Faith by Carmen Callil to my selection. But the fact that out of so many books I can only find a handful which I want to read strikes me as slightly disconcerting. Yet there are some books here that make me wonder if anyone will read them at all. Does this, however, mean that they shouldn't be published....? I was reading an article a few weeks back (can't remember who wrote it or what paper it was in, sorry) suggesting that only the books that are needed should be published.

Who, then, will decide upon 'need'? Is this not a strange germination between dead-heading and pruning?

Onto better things: In our pigeon hole this morning was Issue Two of Pen Pusher - a free London based literary magazine. So I'm looking forward to going home this afternoon (we have a half day... What luxury!) and having a good read of it (I should of course catch up on the ironing, but who cares about creased shirts?)

Onto even better things: I have on the wall next to my desk the title information about AL Kennedy's forthcoming book Day. It says it will be published on 5th April 2007. I may grow to love April.

Onto truly excellent things: The turnips are ready to be harvested. They are the perfect size -not too big - and taste wonderful. Pity the weather is all wrong for mashed turnips and butter ....

I'm experimenting with font... let me know what you think.

Climbing Through the Undergrowth

In case you were wondering, I'm not dead.

We've been finalising our programme here in Cheltenham, and that generally results in having no time.

But I have been reading, and weeding, and having a good rummage in the literary undergrowth second hand bookshop I pass every night on my way home.

My current reads are The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic and translated by Michael Heim, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and Benang by Australian writer Kim Scott, who isn't published in the UK but should be, and you can find details about his books at the Fremantle Arts Centre Press site. Another writer who is somewhat ignored in the UK is American Short Story writer Richard Bausch.

I've just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Constitutional Stories by Helen Simpson, both good reads, and if you are going away somewhere peaceful where you can read all day these books are well worth packing. Unfortunatley I am not going away to anywhere warm and peaceful where I can sit reading all day (the irony of being surrounded by books all day is that you struggle to read more than one a week), instead I am going to make do with rooting about all the bookshops scattered around the South West and the Cotswolds (not too sure how I am going get to these places with the chronic lack of public transport round here -you have to get a train to Birmingham to get to Oxford which is half an hour or so up the road! - and my personal lack of car means I have to rely upon such transport). I'm going to start in Bath this weekend at the newly opened Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights.

Drought

Of course I'd forgotten about the hosepipe ban. There I was happily watering all the cabbages and turnips, and some strange Italian green vegetable whose name I don't know but tastes very nice, when I was promptly reminded of the water shortage - thought it was only a problem in the South-East? And if there is a drought can someone explain to me why our back garden is still like a swamp?

All of a sudden the books have dried up. We've had no books for about ten days now, and I'm beginning to feel a bit bereft each morning when I pick up the post. It won't last long of course - soon we'll be drowning under the weight of books sent to us for each writer we have programmed. However, to keep me sane until the office book drought ends the lovely people at Transmission have sent me a copy of their latest issue, which I had a quick flick through this morning, and am looking forward to taking home with me tonight. If you haven't had a chance to read this magazine yet, buy one immediately.

Having seen it praised so much in various places, particularly Bookworld, when I saw a copy of Pinkerton's Sister by Peter Rushforth, looking lonely in Waterstone's one day I decided to liberate it. I began reading it last night, and am enjoying it - although I've only read five pages so that could all change!

Science for the Everyman

So here we are, the final day of the Cheltenham Science Festival. Its been a bit of a departure for me - an interesting one nonetheless. So far I've learnt that the temperature of liquid Nitrogen is -196 degrees C; that stress does not exist, partly because the guy who named it got his words in a muddle when he stole it from the engineering bunch, it should have been strain; that caterers will go to extraordinary lengths to be classified as truly awful; that it is possible to get heat stroke without going anywhere near the sun - cue very bad things happening to me yesterday.

The transfer of my attentions from literature to science got off to a bad start: Zadie Smith winning the Orange Prize (if you still haven't got a copy of Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living, why not?), however, working on the Science Festival has meant that I have been able to ignore that, and one event in particular restored my faith in good literature. A project in New Zealand involving a group of physicists and a group of writers has resulted in a book called Are Angels Ok? I don't know if its available anywhere in the UK yet - except Ottakar's in Cheltenham - but it is well worth buying.

I overheard someone yesterday saying that the festival was more for people already interested in science than for bringing science to those who are not. But for me all the festivals here are about bringing their subject to the everyman; yes we are here for those who already have an interest, but we are also here to provide an interest. Personally my interest in science has decreased over the years and ended in my failing A Level biology: this week I've been reminded that I did once have an interest in a range of scientific subjects and I might even have developed interests in a few more.

Orange Squash

I'm taking a brief moment to escape the insanities which come with the 'get-in' of a festival. This week its Cheltenham Science Festival (7th-11th June), and I have to say from what I can see from my office it looks rather fun. I'll be making a temporary switch from literature to science for the next few days while I work on the Science Festival, and may even get round to reading a few scientific type books (I'm rather pleased that one of the events I'll be working on is with Gavin Pretor-Pinney the author of the Cloudspotter's Guide - I like the idea of cloudspotting, it sounds faintly therapeutic for want of a better word.)

In the meantime we've been discussing the Orange Prize for Fiction. According to the Observer Zadie Smith (On Beauty) is the favorite to win, but I've yet to find anyone who liked it, better to go away and read Howard's End instead; I've read the Ali Smith (The Accidental), and although a very fine novel I'm not sure if I think it a little too clever for its own good, but the prose is wonderful and the voice of twelve year old Astrid is outstanding; then there's Sarah Waters (The Night Watch) no denying its a good and popular book, I like the structure, and there are some exceptionally beautiful moments, but, but ... does it have the edge? Of the other three I've heard very good things about Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black and the book is currently staring at me rather intently from the shelf to my left, just catching my eye whenever I answer the phone: when we first discussed the shortlist a month ago it was this book which I said would win, I've no idea why. My ability to comment on the The History of Love by Nicole Krauss is rated at zero since I've very little idea what it is about and I've never read anything she's written. Then there is Carrie Tiffany with Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living - if there were a prize for best title this would win it - which I read over the weekend, a wonderful book in everyway, a brilliantly pitched underlying humour, an understanding of the complexities of failure - however minor and of whatever type -if you haven't got a copy, why not?.

This year's shortlist has been called one of the strongest in the prize's history. Its a bit of a squash of literary talent in there. You can see the prize ceremony via webcast between 6.30pm and 7.30pm tonight.

Oh and just in case you were wondering we're vying for Carrie Tiffany.