Next week, from Tuesday and Thursday,
Marcia’s agent – Dinah Wiener – will be attending the London
Book Fair (on Table 8b, as it happens).
This book fair sprang from the loins of
the Small and Specialist Publishers’ Exhibition which was a
librarian’s trade show held in the basement of an hotel. It was the
idea of Lional Leventhal, founder of the publishing house Arms and
Armour Press. The first exhibition was held in 1971 and twenty-two
publishers attended, their titles being displayed on tables.
Six years later it changed its name to
the London Book Fair and in the mid 1980’s was bought by Industrial
and Trade Fairs. It had become one of the most important
international book fairs in the world, attracting over five hundred
exhibitors. Present day statistics are impressive: over 1,500
exhibitors from around the world with about 25,000 people attending
from over 100 countries. Naturally, it is no longer held in an hotel
basement but rather in the impressive surroundings of Earls Court.
Dinah will, I have no doubt, be talking
about her new book to people from all of Marcia’s overseas
publishers (and, I have no doubt, other possible publishers from even
more countries) and so has been preparing a “blurb”. Dinah is
very good at these – Marcia is hopeless and I fall somewhere in
between the two. This is the agreed text.
INDIAN SUMMER
Retired knight of the
stage Sir Mungo always enjoys visits from his old friend Kit
Chadwick. This time Kit brings a letter from her first, and only,
love Jake. Twelve years together, and Kit always reluctant to
commit. Eventually Jake returned to France, turned to another,
married and had four daughters. They met only once, but always
exchanged birthday cards. Now Jake is a widower and has written to
Kit asking if they could meet again. The reunion between Kit and Jake
is the core of this incredibly human and moving novel. But life in
the peaceful valley is not what it seems, contrary to aspiring
novelist James’s impressions. Many years ago Sir Mungo had played
host to another dear friend and acting partner, Dame Isobel Trent,
and tried to console her over the breakup of her relationship with
cruel Ralph. Izzy’s death, and the loss of her unborn baby, is
never far from Mungo’s mind. Also living in this peaceful valley
are Emma and her two small children. Emma’s husband is serving in
Afghanistan and she is on the verge of an affair with a brother
officer when she realizes he is a dangerous man. With Mungo’s help
she ends the relationship in such a way that her marriage can’t be
threatened. Finally, Mungo’s brother Archie, who owns the land,
fears he may have to sell the family house. Mungo is determined to
prevent him but, in order to do this, secrets kept for nearly 40
years now have to be revealed. Will the relationship between the two
brothers ever be the same again?
Talking about Earls Court
has made me realise I have absolutely no idea as to why it has that
name. So I Googled it to find out.
The name is, as you would
expect, an ancient one. This was once a rural area to the west of
Kensington under the lordship of the Earls of Oxford. They held the
manorial court near near to the spot now occupied by the Earls Court
Underground Station – hence the name of the road (Earls Court Road)
and of the exhibition centre built alongside it in which was opened
in 1887, rebuilt in 1937 and is now scheduled to be demolished to
give way for residential properties. I think that makes me feel quite
sad. When I worked in London (many, many years ago and for a few
months only as, being a country hick, I found the place intolerable)
I shared a flat in the Earls Court Road.
Now for some photos (although none of them have anything to do with any of the above).
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| Spring has certainly arrived as witness the flowering cherries in the Courtyard at Dartington Hall |
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| Spring means that the jackdaws are thinking about nesting but these two are seriously frustrated by the wire mesh that now covers the chimney stacks (and makes it look as thought the picture is out of focus). |
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| The trees on the east bank of the River Dart just as the sun began to set. |
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| And then, looking to the west, we had a wonderful sunset. Too small to show up but in that blue bit of sky is a wonderful new moon. |
This week's Blog Dog, a lurcher who answers to the name "Barney", has been in the wars. It seems he rushed through a hedge and came out with blood pouring out of his leg. His owner, Will Cooper, rushed him to the vet where he was duly stitched up and bandaged. Nevertheless, he is still feeling a bit sorry for himself.
