In a diverse week, I was interviewed by ‘The Sun’ for an article on miscarriage (I also talked a bit about genes, you know), I wrote copy on Kashmiri chillies and what Rogan Josh was all about for a wonderful local company and I decided that one of the characters at the wedding day scene in Killing Hapless Annie was too similar to a ‘real’ person – and so changed them into an aggressive wedding day bell ringer, cruelly thwarted by Annie’s subsequent rejection of him after a spot of post-evensong pleasuring in the bell tower. I also wrote to the AQA examining board because I got so excited that someone was imaginative enough to set some Samuel Beckett as an unseen text in Thursday’s A2 Literature (spec A) exam.
BUT MOST EXCITINGLY,
….I asked some début novelists if I could interview them for this blog. First up will be Joanna Barnard, who has been so generous with her time. Her novel, Precocious, which was the winner of The Bath Novel 2014 award, gained her the agent Juliet Mushens (who also represents Jessie Burton, author of the best-selling The Miniaturist – which I recommend that you read) and subsequently four publishers bid for her book. It’s out next month with Ebury: here’s the synopsis as posted on The Bath Novel page.
NOVEL SYNOPSIS: As a schoolgirl, Precocious’s Fiona Palmer has an intense crush on Mr Morgan, her English teacher. She writes stories, poems and plays for him; he praises her talent and offers a glimpse of what life might have to offer beyond her council estate. The crush develops into a relationship which ends badly.
The novel opens with a chance meeting between the two fifteen years on. Morgan seems once again to offer a form of escape and they quickly begin an affair. A young woman visits Fiona, seeking her help in prosecuting Morgan who she claims abused her at school and Fiona finds she must re-visit her own version of the past.
Can’t wait. Back soon with an interview!
Anna Vaught Writes 