Book Group Talk - Bryony Doran's "The China Bird"

We were fortunate enough to have author Bryony Doran come and talk to our book group about her novel The China Bird. The book was a winner of the Hookline Novel Competition, a competition judged by reading groups. Our reading group took part in the competition, and I have to say the entries were very mixed, some excellent, some awful. It made you realise just what editors have to wade through in order to get a decent read.

Bryony Doran's book is in the excellent category. It is a tender study of the relationship between an artist and her model. It is even more interesting because the model is Edward, an inhibited older man with disability, who up until meeting the artist had a mundane and regimented life. When he meets Angela the art student in the intimacy of her studio, questions arise for both of them as their relationship becomes more sensual, and their lives begin to shift in unexpected ways. The four main characters are very well drawn, and this is the sort of book where the subtle nature of the developing relationships is what pulls you through the narrative. One book group commentator said it reminded her of Anita Shreve.

Bryony told us that her book was inspired partly by seeing Alison Lappa on the TV, and partly by observing a mother and son interacting in a local tea shop. Something about their theatricality interested her, and what began as a short story grew into a novel.

As an example of how to talk to a book group, Bryony's calm and focussed manner engaged us all from the start. She had chosen three short very different passages to read, which reacquainted us with the characters and enabled us to appreciate being read to. She then told us about her process of writing the book in an amazingly frank way - telling us about the different drafts, how it had lost 35,000 words in the crafting process, the ups and downs.

She described some of the early constructive and not so constructive criticism, the rejections from agents and publishers, and her determination to plug away at it until it became a better book. And I have to say that the failures on the way are just as interesting to the audience as the finished product.

There was plenty of time for questions from the floor, where we could ask more about the detail of the story, and find out about Bryony's research. As a writer, it was a privilege to hear about about another's process, and Bryony was very generous in not holding back. Thanks Bryony!
The China Bird is available from Amazon.

American Cover of The Lady's Slipper

Thought I would share the American cover design from St Martin's Press for The Lady's Slipper - just arrived by email this morning.

In the States it is going straight into paperback with a lot of added extras for reading groups, including background history, further reading, and discussion points. I am really enjoying putting these parts together as it is a chance to give a little more information to the reader about my historical sources, and tell the story of how the book came about, as well as recommend some of my favourite books. 

If you are in a reading group maybe you can tell me what sort of questions work best for your group. In my reading group, although we often start by tackling the themes of the book and so forth, we tend to shy away from anything too intellectual. Pretty soon we get down to the "has that ever happened to you?" type conversation, followed swiftly by a "ooh, what did you do?" which leads nicely into them revealing all sorts of fascinating personal information they might not otherwise have told you! But maybe mine is not a typical reading group.

Our next reading group meeting is hosting Bryony Doran, whose book "The China Bird" won the Hookline novel competition, so it promises to be an interesting evening whilst we persuade her to give us the inside info. on her book. More about it after the meeting!You can find out more about Bryony on her website http://www.bryonydoran.com/