What I'm reading
All 2021 and past years here...
October
The Talented Mr Ripley Patricia Highsmith
No One Is Talking About This Patricia Lockwood
The Silver Wolf JC Harvey
September
The Midnight Library Matt Haig
The Guest List Lucy Foley
The Paper Palace Miranda Cowley Heller
These Days Lucy Caldwell
August
We Begin at the End Chris Whitaker
Assembly Natasha Brown
Sorrow and Bliss Meg Mason
The Lying Life of Adults Elena Ferrante
Greengates RC Sherriff
Summerwater Sarah Moss
WHAT I'M WORKING ON
October 2021
After 18 months of remaining in the UK, last month I finally managed to go to Venice, where my next novel takes place. It has been incredibly frustrating writing a story set in the most beautiful city in the world and not being able to go there! So I was thrilled - and sometimes overwhelmed - to have so much to see and do and absorb. I felt like a well that had run dry and was now refilling.
Speaking of wells, there is usually one in every courtyard in Venice. Here is a gorgeous one on Murano, the glass island just off Venice, where much of the book takes place, as it's about a family of glassmakers:
You may know that I try to do the things my characters do so that I can describe it with more authenticity. So while in Venice, I made glass beads:
And I tried rowing a shrimp-tailed batela - kind of like a gondola but not as hard (it was still hard)!
Let me show you the real deal:
It is almost impossible to take a bad picture in Venice. I don't know about WRITING about Venice, though. So many have gone before me, and avoiding clichés is hard...
