Last week we had a very pleasant surprise. It concerned one of
those drinkies, which very occasionally one gets invited to. In
this case Fiction Unlimited.
Who? Well hopefully by this time next year they will have a higher
profile and many of you will have heard about them. It's an outfit
who are trying to highlight writers who so easily fall off the
journalists' radars and get overlooked by the chattering classes -
or more importantly by the judges who throw prize crumbs from the
large table of high profile book awards. The aim of Fiction Uncovered was to highlight
eight writers who in their opinion, readers really ought to know
about. OK you might argue that by only choosing eight, each is a
winner, but that's another blogpost.
But back to the phwah phwah drinks at Waterstone's in
Piccadilly, heart of London's book buying community. First
person I see is an old mate from BBC days, whom I knew had been
writing on the commute between Brighton (on the south coast) and
Broadcasting House (in central London), but whom I hadn't realised
had published nine novels. So here is the formal apology to Chris
Pa
ling. I owe you Chris, we need to get you on
the site and your book Nimrod's Shadow.
And then amongst the writers was Lindsay Clarke for The
Water Theatre whom we interviewed last
year . It is beautifully written and stays with you a long time
after you've finished. A lovely gentleman to boot, there he was
with his publishers (Alma Books) tapping me on
the shoulder to say hello.
Most of the other writer were also there, all of whom I'd love
to interview, but sadly one needs a parallel life to fit it all
in.
Other news is that Michael Arditti's
interview is now on the site and we are really 
looking forward to interviewing Justin
Cartwright next week about Other People's Money. Now if
you want to understand what goes on in the minds of top bankers as
they spend the dosh from the title, get yourself a copy. We've
interviewed him before (audio only, so do we do video this time?)
so it's lovely that he is happy for me to invade his office a
second time. We have to formally thank our BBC colleague Mike
Popham for introducing us to Justin.