At the Writers' Summer School I bought signed copies of books by authors who spoke or performed in the evening or gave writing courses in the daytime.
Books Bought
Returning home, I have been reading three signed books I bought at the Hayes Conference Centre, in Swanwick, Derbyshire.
1 The Full English by Melanie Branton.
We had watched her perform on stage with hats and helmets at breathtaking speed. Exhausting for her and us. A crazy mixture of research and rap style performance with long word rhymes like Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
The explanation for all that research is that she studied languages at university. the title of the book is a pun on the modern description of an English breakfast.
2 The Chemist by A A Dhand.
The book is set in the Midlands of England.
My husband put this book down because he read one sentence without a verb. But I was hooked. It is all about drug addicts and violence. Makes you glad to live far away. If the reality is one tenth of as bad as the scenes in the book. And it is convincing.
The plot has twist and turns. The baddies do a good thing for a friend. The goodies do a bad thing to an enemy. Gripping. Who will kill who first? How will they escape? Will they get caught?
3 A Blonde Bengali Wife by Anne Hamilton.
The action takes place on a trip to Bangladesh by a voluntary worker. A true story. Full of amusing alliteration. For example, the chemist's shop described as a hypochondriac's heaven. So many characters at times I was confused. Bemused. I would have loved to see a photo of the author, and her friend. And a cast of characters. Maybe I should make my own list.
But enthralled. Like watching an orchestra, or a ballet with dozens of dancers. The people and the words surge around you.
I now know I would not want to go there. The country, countryside and city, have more mosquitos than Singapore. Instead, I have travelled around through the pages of this book.
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