My Favourite Book: Have You Met Miss Jones?
Picador, 2001
Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding will forever remain one of my favourite books. I can’t remember whether I read the book first or saw the film but I remember being quite late to the book – discovering it a few years after it got published. I was in my early twenties but still found it relatable all the same.
Not knowing what to expect, once I started reading, I devoured it. For me, it’s one of those rare books that I feel really transferred well onto screen from the page and it is a relatable story to a lot of people, especially women of any age. I lost count of how many times I said out loud whilst reading “this is me.”
For me, Bridget is a great heroine. She is very flawed (along with a lot of us.) She strives to be better but something always seems to go wrong. She’s the type of character that would get her skirt caught up in her knickers, walk down the road and get spotted before she notices and I love that about her. She’s not perfect – she is a real and relatable person who is just trying to find love. Also, like her I’ve had a few awkward moments at social gatherings where I have stood there in silence not knowing what to say and then when I do speak, just sounding like a complete idiot.
by 
Competitions: July’s Which Book is This Anyway?
Fancy a book surprise through your letterbox? It’s July. Summer is officially here and it’s time for this month’s Which Book is This Anyway?
Many of us judge books by their covers and make our choices based on that and the accompanying blurb. Our competition adds a little mystery.
The prize for this competition is a book but the identity of that book will not be revealed until the lucky winner receives it. It could be a recent new release or a well-known classic. Who knows? We won’t even reveal the genre. It’s a surprise. If you feel like having a guess in the meantime though, that’s OK, just comment below (you don’t need to guess to enter. You just need to leave your name. The guessing is just for fun.)
All we will reveal about July’s choice is ‘this book has been described by one reviewer as the perfect book. It’s about rediscovery, a trip of a lifetime, determination, falling in love and everything going wrong.’
How to enter:
by Author Interview: Howard Robinson
Howard Robinson
Hello Howard, thank you for joining us. First, could you tell us about your route to publication?
It’s such a complicated route for most writers that sometimes I feel like I need a sat-nav to get there. I self-published my first book and was fortunate that Micah Seven Five was picked up by a great little independent press, Inspired Quill. It’s really tough without an agent and finding an agent is really tough because most publishers won’t even look at submissions unless they’re from an agent. It’s like trying to break into a very closed shop. I have so many emails being very positive about my writing but saying they’re just not in a position to take things forward. So each book needs to be pitched from scratch, which is both time-consuming and, at times, a bit soul-destroying especially when the emails come back so quickly, you just know they’ve not even been read. Hopefully, somebody will pick up the new one; we’ll see. So the answer is there’s no easy route – you have to just keep banging on doors.
If you were told you could only own three books, which three would you pick?
Empire Of The Sun by JG Ballard, The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Are you much of a planner and do you edit as you go?
I’ve tried being very planned and very unplanned and my favourite way of working is somewhere between the two. I like to have a general route map of where I’m going and how I’m going to get there but then I like the freedom to change as I write or to move off into slightly unforeseen directions. I tend to write everything and then go back and edit quite severely afterwards. I usually do two or three redrafts.
by July’s Book Club: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Orion, February 2012
Book Corner is our monthly online book club. Anyone can join.
How it works…
We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. The best thing about our book club is that EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART. It’s open to all. You can read the book at any point in the month or if you’ve already read it, tell us what you think.
This month, our pick is: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell.
About the book…
It’s 1999 and for the staff of one newspaper office, the internet is still a novelty. By day, two young women, Beth and Jennifer, spend their hours emailing each other, discussing in hilarious detail every aspect of their lives, from love troubles to family dramas. And by night, Lincoln, a shy, lonely IT guy spends his hours reading every exchange.
At first their emails offer a welcome diversion, but as Lincoln unwittingly becomes drawn into their lives, the more he reads, the more he finds himself falling for one of them. By the time Lincoln realizes just how head-over-heels he really is, it’s way too late to introduce himself. What would he say to her? ‘Hi, I’m the guy who reads your e-mails – and also, I think I love you’.
by Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2016: Winner
Thanks to Bloomsbury, we had one copy of the 2016 edition to give away.
Well done to Clair Bendle who has won herself a copy.
With 80+ articles, the Yearbook is now in it’s 109th printing.
The new edition is to be published by Bloomsbury on 2nd July 2015.
The yearbook is acknowledged as the indispensable companion to navigating the world of publishing. This book provides guidance on writing for newspapers, magazines, scripts for film, radio and TV; advice on writing and submitting plays, poetry, non-fiction and fiction of all genres and how to contact publishers and agents; managing finances as a writer; negotiating legal issues, such as copyright; understanding the editing process; self-publishing and conventional routes; digital and print.
by Book Club
