Eliza Graham

Reborn dolls: stranger than life

2011-12-06T08:27:00.001-08:00

A couple of articles in national newspapers over the past few weeks have discussed the strange thing that is the reborn doll. For those who don't know what a reborn doll is, take a look at the photo in the Mail and decide whether you would honestly have known whether that baby was real or not. Reborn dolls are sometimes bought by women who have suffered a cot death or stillbirth or other trauma. In another article, The Guardian's Zoe Williams describes how a reborn doll taken into an old people's home calms and soothes some of the women. There's obviously a deep need for women to hold infants in their arms and if a real baby isn't there, the doll can carry out this role. All perfectly harmless; more than this: a good thing, perhaps.

And yet many people find the dolls sinister. They are certainly fascinating.

A reborn doll plays a small but key role in The History Room, which will be published in May 2012. And I now have a cover to share.

The photo moment

2011-09-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

I had the photo moment a month or so back. It comes when someone: an agent or marketing person or conference organiser wants a picture of an author. If you're male or young and gorgeous, or have people always taking great photos of you, this is not a problem. You wing back a photo by return. Job done.

Most female writers I know, even the gorgeous, do not find the photo business as effortless. Having a photo taken can be angstful. It's not enough, if you're a woman, just to produce something that looks vaguely like you. An author I know in the States used to talk about having Botox before she was captured on film. I don't know if she was serious. Half of you thinks, why do I have to worry about something that's nothing to do with how good or not I am at writing? The other half knows that this is a visual age. Image matters. Even if you're middle-aged and not selling yourself on your looks (haw).

I've known for a while that the photos I've been using either show me as rather, erm, younger than I am now or are not technically suitable for some of the things they need to do: such as being enlarged to go on an event poster. So I added 'Find good photographer' to my list and asked a mate, PR consultant Jane Parritt, for names to conjure with and Jane suggested Anna McCarthy.

Anna and I met at her Barbican base and spent a morning talking about children, education, why we prefer to wear trousers rather than skirts, the riots and whether it's possible to earn too much money (possibly).

And we took some photos of me. And the whole thing was fun. And now I've got some great photos of me that show me as I am. If you need photos of yourself, your wedding, your family celebration, or your children, do have a look at Anna's website. I'll be swapping over the little picture on this blog for the new photo very shortly.

Wantage Betjeman Festival

2011-09-13T02:19:00.000-07:00

I was very pleased and flattered to be asked to speak at the inaugural Betjeman Festival in Wantage, yesterday. As you can see, Sir John and I carefully co-ordinated clothing colours, and here we are sharing a joke. If you're near Wantage this week, do have a look at the programme.

The Herring on the Nile

2011-07-24T10:30:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago (this post should have been written ages ago) I went down to Goldsboro Books to Len Tyler's book launch for his latest 'Herring' novel: The Herring on the Nile.

Just in case anyone had missed the geographical reference Len himself was wearing a very dashing red fez. In the photo he's sadly NOT wearing the fez, and neither is our editor, Will Atkins (right). But they both still look very dashing.

I think 'Nile' is the best herring book to date: funny and as elegantly constructed as a good gin and tonic drunk at sundown on a Nile paddle steamer. I had several laugh-aloud moments on the train journey back to Didcot. I think that says it all, really.

Goldsboro Books in its expanded premises was looking wonderful. Definitely a place to visit if you're looking for a really special literary present for a signed first-edition book lover.

The anxiety of influence

2011-07-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

I first came across the term 'anxiety of influence' when I was at university, writing essays about how poets felt inhibited by the weight of literary tradition that came before them. How could you write anything after Milton or Shakespeare or Wordsworth? I read the Harold Bloom book and nodded in a vague, theoretical kind of way.

But now I get the point. I've been rereading Sarah Waters. In particular, The Night Watch. Why bother? When someone can write so beautifully, with such an ear for period detail, and such a voice for her characters, is there any point in anyone else trying to write?

A new book blog

2011-06-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

A big hello to the Royalty Free Fiction blog, which has its official launch today. Royalty Free Fiction is the place to go if you're an historical fiction devotee. Featured authors include Judith Allnatt, Susanne Dunlap, James McCreet, Alis Hawkins, Terence Morgan, Deborah Swift, Ann Weisgarber. And me. Do take a look.

Die Antwort des Windes

2011-05-30T11:59:00.001-07:00

Kundenbewertungen zu "Die Antwort des Windes - Roman (eBook).

Royalty Free Fiction

2011-05-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

At first I was a bit worried that was some kind of means of depriving authors of their financial earnings but OF COURSE, it's no such thing, because it's author Deborah Swift's new blog. It's aimed at readers who like a fictional taste of the past that's not all about kings and queens but 'ordinary' people (not that there's such a thing) doing some pretty extraordinary things. Lots of books to whet your historical appetite, including Deborah's own debut, The Lady's Slipper. And, oh, Jubilee, too.

Die Antwort des Windes Video

2011-04-06T01:57:00.000-07:00

Die Antwort des Windes, Video auf Deutsch.

Jubilee/Die Antwort des Windes video

2011-04-03T12:34:00.001-07:00

A family member made this video about Jubilee.

Jubilee/Die Antwort des Windes--the landscape/Die Landschaft

2011-04-01T00:55:00.000-07:00

Photos von White Horse Hill in Oxfordshire, England! Die Landschaft von Die Antwort des Windes, in der Umgebung meines Haus, ist ganz hübsch. Die Häuser sind typisch.

Willkommen in meinem Sprachblog!

2011-03-31T12:22:00.000-07:00

Ich möchte meine deutschen Leser zu begrüßen. Willkommen in meinem Sprachbuch. Von Zeit zu Zeit hoffe ich etwas über mich und meiner Bücher, Die Antwort des Windes und Weil du mich liebst, sagen.

My novels in e-format

2011-03-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

If you prefer electronic format to paper, you might be interested to know that all my novels are now available as Macmillan e-books. Just remember that they are not so useful in this format for using as table mats or laptop stands.

Pony books and female high fliers

2011-03-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

I don't quite know why but I've started re-reading my old pony books. Perhaps because a family member now rides. Perhaps because the depressing and alarming news of the last few months makes me crave something safe and familiar.

I only have an edited selection of the scores of books I once owned. To my horror I discovered that I'd mislaid Jill's Gymkhana by Ruby Ferguson: a seminal work.

Why did/do pony books appeal to a forty-something mother of two so much? Obviously there's the pony fascination that many girls of roughly seven to seventeen share. But there's something else. I think that reading about girls, often quite 'ordinary' girls, not rich, not glamorous, doing amazing things on fairly large animals was empowering. The golden age of the pony books seems to have run from about 1947 until the end of the sixties. This is just before women started to enter the workplace on (almost) equal terms with men. Was it the case that girls who read about other girls galloping ponies over scarily high fences and cheerfully competing with boys were somehow encouraged to think of themselves as at liberty to take chances with careers?

Jill of the gymkhana fame is a wonderful protagonist. She is plucky (buys a pony though she doesn't even know how to put his bridle on, draws off a fierce bull to protect a friend and jumps a huge gate to evade him). She's funny (not always intentionally), loyal and never for a single moment thinks of boys as anything other than comrades and equals. If they can ride better than she can she admires them. If they can't she quietly enjoys her superiority. But VERY quietly. One of her most endearing traits (and that of her friends) is modesty. No boasting. Do your best. Work hard. Look after your pony above all and be there for your friends.

It's an enormously attractive set of character traits. No wonder I'm re-reading them all again. And I've got a new edition of Jill's Gymkhana coming through the post, courtesy of Fidra. I still have a few of the Pullein-Thompson sisters' pony books hanging around too and am enjoying them immensely. It's interesting how often the mothers or fathers of the children in these books have parents who are authors. The Pullein-Thompsons themselves came from a literary family. I wonder if, subconsciously, I picked up the idea that writing for a living might be a good career. Perhaps I should also have noted that many of the writer parents in the books are unable to buy ponies, or more alarmingly, even clothes, food stuffs and household goods we'd regard as fairly everyday, on their earnings. Their daughters have to resort to all kinds of stratagems to buy and maintain their ponies. Not a bad lesson in life.

World Book Night Giveaway

2011-03-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the World Book Night giveaway I have a free copy of Jubilee to give out to the first person to email me on grhelizATgmail.com.

I also have a free copy of Die Antwort des Windes (Jubilee in its German translation) that I'll send anywhere in Europe. Just email me grhelizATgmail.com.

Jubilee in Germany: Die Antwort des Windes

2011-01-18T08:28:00.000-08:00

Free review copies of JUBILEE redux

2010-06-10T04:37:00.001-07:00

I still have some review copies left for anyone who'd like to have one and pen a quick review for Amazon and/or Goodreads (or anywhere else that you might think of).

Email me on grhelizATgmail.com.

Die Antwort des Windes

2010-06-08T04:52:00.001-07:00

This is what the German edition of Jubilee looks like.

http://www.randomhouse.de/book/edition.jsp?edi=351730

Jubilee and Good Housekeeping

2010-06-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

Jubilee a Good Housekeeping favourite

Jubilee is a Good Housekeeping favourite read for July 2010.

Review copies of JUBILEE

2010-06-03T01:47:00.002-07:00

Jubilee seems to be here, a little ahead of schedule.

If you're a reasonably fast reader and could write a review for Amazon or Good Reads (Goodreads?) you might like a free review copy. If so, email me at grhelizATgmail. com.

Deborah Swift The Lady's Slipper

2010-06-03T01:47:00.001-07:00

The Lady's Slipper by Deborah Swift

Deborah Swift and I are book twins, in that we each have a novel officially published on 4 June. To celebrate this link we are hosting an interview with one another on our blogs. Here's Deborah talking about her debut novel and how she went about creating it.

1
1660. The King is back, but memories of the Civil War still rankle. Artist Alice Ibbetson has become captivated by the rare Lady’s Slipper orchid, determined to capture it for posterity, even if it means stealing it from recently converted Quaker, Richard Wheeler. Fired by his newfound faith, the former soldier Wheeler feels bound to track down the missing orchid.
Geoffrey Fisk, Alice’s patron and a former comrade-in-arms of Wheeler, sees the valuable plant as a way to repair his ailing fortunes and cure his own agonizing illness.
When Alice is implicated in a brutal murder, she is imprisoned along with the suspected anti-royalist Wheeler. As Fisk’s sanity grows ever more precarious, and Wheeler and Alice plot their escape, a storm begins to brew, from which no party will escape unscathed.

Tell me a little bit about the process of writing The Lady's Slipper.

I guess I was a bit naive when I started The Lady's Slipper. I loved writing it, and thought I'd be able to lick the first draft into shape quite quickly, but the actual redrafting and editing phase took a long time after the initial draft. The actual crafting process came much more to the fore.I valued the editorial advice a lot. I think self-publishers miss out on that ability to dialogue with an editor. Also I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and probably I could have gone on forever reworking and playing with it. The characters always have so much more to reveal than you bargain for! They grow under my scrutiny.

Every writer thinks their work is unique. What sort of a writing style do you think you have and what is the book you most wish you had written?

It is difficult for me to imagine myself next to other published writers as it is all so new, and I admire other writers so much. And I have yet to see The Lady's Slipper in a bookshop! But books I have wished I had written about the period of my novel are Restorationby Rose Tremain, and Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. Both are darker books than mine is,and both give a masterful evocation of the seventeenth century.

What is it about this particular period that draws you to it? When is your next novel or work-in-progress set?

I think it is just that it was a time of settling after the upheaval of the English Civil War, aptly called "the days of shaking" and the subsequent Puritan repression. Everything had been thrown up in the air - the monarchy, religion, english justice. And the country was still waiting to see what might come of it all. Everyone was vulnerable to the rapidly changing environment, but new found freedom from Puritan rule made people a little wilder than they might otherwise have been. Allegiances shifted from day to day. It was also a time of great social and scientific experiment.

I am working on another book linked to the first through one of the characters. It is set in Restoration London. It is taking longer than the first to write because of the research. London life is extremely well-documented, and I don't want to make any glaring errors.Sometimes I curse Pepys!

What inspires you to write? Is it an idea, a character, a theme, or something else?

I like roots in something specific - an object for example, or in the case of The Lady's Slipper, a flower. (Oh dear, just noticed the unwitting pun, all this orchid mania is obviously getting to me.)Then I let ideas gather around that. It builds up in layers. I am a great fan of the spider diagram type of arrangement, and also quite fluid and scruffy notebooks. And real history. One of the seventeenth century houses I visited was lost on a bet in a game of cards, and then won back. The Ace of Spades (the winning card) is carved on everything, even the chimney pots. You couldn't make that up, so it makes an appearance in the next book. But once I get going, its the characters themselves and their situation that inspire me, they demand a journey and an ending.

Thank you, Deborah!

Jubilee in the blogsphere and over the airwaves

2010-06-03T01:46:00.001-07:00

Jubilee in the blogsphere and over the airwaves

A link to my interview with Deborah Swift (see below) on her blog, and to the Mostly Books blog. Mostly Books' Mark Thornton discussed Jubilee on BBC Radio Oxford last week.

The Literary Project

2010-05-11T01:05:00.001-07:00

There's an interview with me at The Literary Consultancy.

Restitution now a Pan Macmillan Paperback

2009-04-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

I'm delighted that Restitution has come out in paperback and is already available at Amazon at the reduced price of £5.19.Alternatively, there is an extra 10% Off all Books at Waterstones on orders worth £20 or more. Use code PP6666.

RESTITUTION an editor's pick

2009-04-21T02:02:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the publication of the paperback edition of RESTITUTION and its selection as an editor's pick on the Review of Historical Novels, I have some paperback to give away free to anyone who would like to review a copy. This could be for Amazon/Goodreads/Lovereading/your own book blog, your company newsletter or local newspaper.

Contact me at grhelizATgmail.com!

Ann Weisgarber

2009-04-08T02:21:00.000-07:00

Ann Weisgarber
Huge congratulations to fellow MNW author Ann Weisgarber, whose debut novel, The History of Rachel of DuPree, is on the shortlist (of three) for the Orange New Writers' Prize (to go alongside her longlisting for the main Orange Prize).

Two new books

2009-03-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

I'm really delighted to announce that Pan Macmillan has contracted me to write two further books. The first, provisionally entitled JUBILEE, is about the disappearance of a girl from a Silver Jubilee party in a chocolate-box pretty village 1977 and how this mystery relates to less than chocolate-box pretty events occuring in her farming family decades earlier.I have no idea what the second one will be about though I did have an idea when we up in Scotland on a long family walk through a very icy, very beautiful copse beside an almost frozen Highland river.JUBILEE has to be completed by the end of May. I have set myself the task of writing at least one thousand words every working day.

RESTITUTION an editor's pick

2009-03-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

I'm delighted to discover that Restitution is an editor's pick at the Historical Novels Review (scroll down nine titles). [Photo]

Restitution

2008-11-14T00:29:00.000-08:00

Well, Katy, who kindly commented on my last post, you clearly possess ESP because I was going to blog this week to say that ISIS are going to publish Restitution in large print, next year, I believe!

I'm delighted about this.

Eliza Graham's blog

2008-09-23T01:18:00.001-07:00

Please go here to find out more about Eliza Graham, novelist.