September 2009

Goodness, where did the summer months go? One minute I’m thinking what fun the Hay, Oxford and Swindon festivals were, next I’m gearing up for the Wimbledon Book Festival on Thursday 8th October, where I’ll be talking to Jayne Buxton about A Secret Alchemy and The Mathematics of Love. On Thursday 15th October, at the Guildford Book Festival, Maeve Haran and I will be talking to Elizabeth Buchan about turning real history into modern fiction. Maeve has written a novel about John Donne and his wife,The Lady and the Poet, which I’m really looking forward to reading and discussing. I have a special affection for the Guildford Festival, because it was when The Mathematics of Love was shortlisted for their First Novel Award that I first realised that people other than my agent and my editor thought I’d written something worth reading. And further ahead I’m looking forward to Readers Day at the Oundle Literary Festival on Saturday 20th March.

It’s looking like a busy autumn on other fronts, too. I’m very pleased to have been taken on as an Associate Lecturer with the Open University, as well as continuing to teach for Writer’s Workshop: see Talking and Teaching for more details. I was terribly disappointed to have to pull out of going to the Galapagos Islands, but through that I have been asked to lecture at the Universities of Valencia and Elx on 3rd and 4th November. I love Spain – as anyone who’s read The Mathematics of Love could guess – and I don’t know that part of Spain at all, so I’m really looking forward to it. And it looks as if I may be flying out to Australia in the New Year, to catch up with the Dutch-Belgian TV crew who are re-sailing the voyage of the Beagle, complete with scientists studying what’s happening to the eco-systems on which Charles Darwin based his theory of evolution, and as many descendants as they can persuade to join them.

Meanwhile, I’m hard at work on the new novel. It’s set in the time of Queen Anne and very fast-moving: I’m having a lovely time with it, and just beginning to be able to see the end of it from where I’ve got to. So if it’s a while before I get back here to update things, I’m sorry: it’s always worth dropping by my blog, This Itch of Writing, if you’re interested in what else goes on in my writing life.

May 2009

It’s been a busy few months. One big excitement has beenA Secret Alchemy’s appearance in theTimes bestsellers lists, and others have included several festivals: Oxford, Daphne du Maurier and Swindon all went very well, and next week I’m appearing at the Hay Festival with my cousin, the newly-elected Oxford Professor of Poetry, Ruth Padel. The advance reviews of the US edition ofA Secret Alchemy have been lovely, and it’s published on 1st June.

The PhD really does seem to be in the final straight now, which is great, though I’ve had to press the pause button on the new novel in order to clear the last few of those hurdles. All being well I’ll have dotted the final T and crossed the ultimate I, and be ready to submit it very soon. And as part of that side of my writing life, I’m one of the keynote speakers at the Playful Paradox conference on Saturday 23rd June, discussing creative writing in universities, at the University of Bedfordshire. See here for more details.

Finally, This Itch of Writing, which is my blogging and online writing persona, has joined Facebook. If you’d like to keep up with what’s going on with my writing and teaching, do drop by here and join the group.

March 2009

Usually when there isn’t any news to post here it’s because sitting at home writing a novel is hardly newsworthy. However, you just might have noticed that it’s the Darwin Bicentenary, and the reason things have been quiet here is not so much shortage of news as floods of it.

It all started as A Secret Alchemy was published last November, and the reviews and readings began: read a selection of the reviews here. Meanwhile I was reading proofs and looking at covers for the US edition, which is published by Harper Perennial on June 1st this year, and for the UK paperback, which is published on 30th April. Something you may not know is that I’ve got a story in an anthology of erotic fiction by women writers,In Bed With, which is published by Little, Brown in the UK and Penguin in Australia. The fun is that we’re all writing under pseudonyms, and with names like Ali Smith and Kathy Lette on the cover, the media got very curious about who wrote which. Several of the newspapers went to a good deal of trouble to trick us into revealing all, shall we say, and the launch was the kind of glittering, champagne-drenched occasion I associate with movies, not books.

And then the Darwin Bicentenary struck. Of course it’s also 150 years since the publication ofThe Origin of Species, so it’s a very big celebration indeed. No sooner had I returned from Mexico, than I was invited to speak at the Second World Summit on Evolution, which takes place on the Galapagos Islands in August this year. I’ve also been asked to speak  at the University of Valencia in October. Meanwhile I was interviewed by LeFigaro,Der Tagesspiegel and theDaily Mail, which all ran large features on Darwin’s descendants. A last-minute call from the BBC World Service saw my sister Carola and I, early on the morning after theIn Bed With launch, at Bush House on 12th February. That is, of course our great-great-grandfather’s actual birthday, and that evening I was at the launch of my cousin Ruth Padel’s new collection,Darwin, A Life in Poems. The week had begun with a lovely reading to a really interested, engaged audience made up of English Department and the Writer’s Group at the University of Surrey, so one way and another the week encompassed just about all the public aspects of the writing life in an amazingly concentrated form.

I’ll be seeing more of Ruth in the next few months, as we’re sharing a platform more than once in this year’s crop of literary festivals. Not all the details are yet confirmed, but if you’re free and nearby on any of the following dates, do drop by and say hello.

Sunday 5th April at 10am: Oxford Literary Festival
www.sundaytimes-oxfordliteraryfestival.co.uk  

Friday 8th May at 10am: Daphne du Maurier Festival, Fowey, Cornwall www.dumaurierfestival.co.uk

Monday 11th May at 7pm: Swindon Literary Festival, Swindon www.swindonfestivalofliterature.co.uk

Tuesday 26th May time t.b.c: Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye www.hayfestival.com/wales

And finally, I’ve agreed to lead some of the one-day courses which Writers Workshop run on Saturdays in Oxford, London and Glasgow.Novels – Getting Started courses are on 21st March and 26th September, whileSelf-editing Your Novel courses are on 25th April and 25th July. All are at Waterstone’s Picadilly, in London; click here to see all the details of these and the other Writers Workshop courses.

And did I mention that I’m trying to finish my PhD and start my new novel? It’s scary how easily everything else can crowd them out, but without the long, quiet hours in the study, just me and my work, none of the rest would make any sense.

A Secret Alchemy is published! It's now available, as they say, from all good high street and online bookshops in the UK and overseas, and so far it seems to be going down extremely well. Meanwhile the US edition is in the works: I've just got the cover for that, and it's equally gorgeous and extremely different. I'm doing a couple of events to celebrate in the next few weeks. If you feel like dropping by for a listen, do come and say hello. And if after that you feel like buying a copy ofA Secret Alchemy orThe Mathematics of Love or even both, I'll be happy to sign them.

Wednesday 19th November at 7.30pm: I'm reading from and discussing A Secret Alchemy at one of my favourite independent bookshops, Review, in Bellenden Road, London SE15. This is part of the Peckham Literary Festival, www.liyanage.ch, which is a delightful collection of the off-beat literariness which is South East London's hallmark.

Wednesday 3rd December at 5pm: I'll be reading from and discussing A Secret Alchemy at Goldsmiths College, www.gold.ac.uk New Cross, London SE14. Goldsmiths, in a very real sense, is the birthplace ofA Secret Alchemy, as it was written as part of my PhD in Creative Writing, so it's very special to be able to hold a reading there, as well as daunting to do so with so many important current and future writers in the audience.

I had the most wonderful time in Mexico, thanks to my host Professor Antonio Lazcano and all his colleagues in Life Sciences at UNAM. My lecture, 'Creative Thought: the Darwin family in science and the arts', went down very well, and I met so many interesting people. I did press and TV interviews about both my lecture and my own work, signed Spanish and English copies ofThe Mathematics of Love, and one way and another was royally entertained. And it was thanks to my host's organising that I was able to see much more of the country than I usually manage when I'm travelling for work. It's hard to pick a highlight, but the national  anthropological museum in Mexico City, which houses all the great Mayan and Aztec treasures, was simply stunning. I spent a whole day there, and it wasn't any too long.

As for the new novel, I can't wait to start it. I just have to finish my PhD first, so for the next few weeks I'll be distracting myself from the thought of the reviews ofA Secret Alchemy by rewriting arguments and checking references.

October 2008

I haven't posted here for a while, because I've had my head down in proofs and cover designs, and I'm also in what I hope is the final stage of writing my PhD. A Secret Alchemy is published on Thursday 13th November, and I can't wait, though it's always a bit daunting knowing that reviewers and booksellers are reading it even now. What's more, setting a novel in the Wars of the Roses was always going to catch the attention of the knowledgeable and passionate fans of the period. I'm talking to the Richard III Society on 18th October, and since the central characters ofA Secret Alchemy, Elizabeth and Anthony Woodville, have always had a bad press (which was partly what intrigued me about them) I'm wondering what they'll think of my take on the period. I've seen the cover of the US edition of A Secret Alchemy, too, and I love it: it's very fresh and intriguing. That comes out from Harper Perennial next summer, though I don't have an exact date yet.

In other news, as they say, at the end of October I'm heading off to Mexico City to give lectures at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, and promote the Spanish translation of The Mathematics of Love, La aritmética del amor, which is published by Alianze Editorial. I've never been to Mexico and after all the medieval research I've done among the bleak castle ruins of places like Pontefract and Sheriff Hutton, not to mention the Gothic splendours of Eltham Palace, I'm very excited about seeing those vast, tropical pyramids, the Spanish Baroque churches, and the pre-Columbian art.

And finally (as they also say), I've just added a podcast of an on-stage interview I did at the Brisbane Writers' Festival in 2006, which was recorded for the Book Show on ABC National Radio. Journalist Kate Evans and I talked about The Mathematics of Love, historical fiction and writing sex, and I read an extract. Kate was incredibly knowledgeable and interesting about the book and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole event. Click here to listen.

April 2008

The proofs for Headline Review's edition of A Secret Alchemy are sitting on my desk, and emails are flying to and fro about the cover, the blurb and all the rest of it. All being well it will be published in November, and meanwhile it will be a proud moment when I can post the cover and an extract here, and a link for anyone who'd like to order it in advance. I'm also very pleased that publication in the US is arranged: William Morrow will be bringing it out over there in the Summer of 2009. Once upon a time that would have seemed a long way away, but these days life fairly whizzes past, it seems.

Back home, I hope it's not tempting fate to say that I'm in the home straight of my PhD. I do feel as if I can see the end, though the tweaks and revisions that are needed to keep the examiners happy always take longer than I think they're going to. On the other hand I feel quite bereft at the thought that the days of my association with Goldsmiths College are numbered. I shan't be doing much teaching there next year, but I shall hope to spin out the excuses for dropping by nonetheless.

And then there's the new novel. Despite everything else it's been clamouring for attention for months. The only way to keep it quiet, while I deal with everything else, is to let myself read for it: as well as the piles of novels and literary criticism for the PhD the house is scattered with history books. These days I'm positively glad of a long train journey, or having to wait for someone in the car, because I can read a bit more. I tell myself that the longer I postpone actually starting Chapter One, the more I put into the pot, the more vigorously the pot will boil over when it's ready.

February 2008

Big news this week is thatThe Mathematics of Love has been longlisted for Le Prince Maurice Prize, which is an unusual and delightful beast: of the longlist, the three shortlistees, their partners and the judges, spend a week in Mauritius at the sponsoring hotel Le Prince Maurice, while the judging takes place. The company I'm in is distinguished, so I'm not buying my factor-50 suncream just yet, but it's a thrill just to be on the list.

In the US the paperback of The Mathematics of Love has been out for a couple of weeks. The cover is quite different from any it's had so far and looks great, and it's picked up some very nice reviews, which is particularly pleasing as paperbacks get so much less review coverage. Meanwhile, I'm waiting nervously to hear what Morrow think of A Secret Alchemy, while back home I'm wading through Headline Review's copy-edited version before it goes to be typeset.

I'm enjoying keeping my blog very much, and it's getting regular readers. Inadvertently, too, I discovered that writing a post or two about the so-called 'rules' of writing is like a choral society scheduling Handel's Messiah: guaranteed to pack the house. But there are lots of other things to talk about: recent posts have included how reviews feel from the writer's side of things, and what the publishing industry looks like from there, books that have made me think, and how learning and teaching writing interact. Do drop by sometime and have a look: it would be great to see you.

December 2007

The US paperback of The Mathematics of Love will be published in February next year, and it's not just me who's excited: my publishers are too. Like many of their Harper Perennial editions it will include a 'PS' section, including a bit of biography, a piece I've written specially for the book about the genesis of the novel, and a few of the books that I was thinking about when I wrote it. The booktrade over there seem to be really keen on it, too. The cover's quite different from everything we've had so far, and I love it!

I had a wonderful two days in Madrid, thanks to my Spanish publishers Alianza Editorial: a press conference with most of the national papers there, a photoshoot. I was so touched that they'd specially chosen to take me to a renowned Basque restaurant, to recall Stephen's past in La Aritmética del Amor. The other translations are beginning to arrive, too; it's very interesting seeing how different countries interpret the book, and I found I remember enough Russian from doing a year of it at school to be able to spell out some words!

Back home, I've delivered my new novel A Secret Alchemy to my editor at Headline Review, and its tentative publication date is November 2008. It's been a long haul - it's a big novel - and it hasn't always been easy, not least because all the time that I was trying to concentrate on it, exciting things were happening toThe Mathematics of Love. But I'm really, really happy with how it's come out. As I gave the manuscript a last read through, picking up the little slips and idiocies that always creep in (or - eek! - maybe were there from the beginning) I forgave it all the times it made me tear my hair out, and remembered just why I've had these people and worlds in my head for so long. More on that as we roll slowly towards publication.

And now A Secret Alchemy is delivered, my teaching term at Goldsmiths College is over, and the world outside the study window is sunny and frosty. I have a breathing space, before the copy-edit arrives and I start on the dissertation element of my PhD, in which to enjoy Christmas and New Year. I hope you, also, have a happy and peaceful holiday.

September 2007

The new novel's nearly written, and that's why the previous entry is looking decidedly yellow and dog-eared. Short of a blow-by-blow account of every word, written and re-written, there's very little to say about writing a novel, except that you're writing it. But now it really exists: I've told the stories I want to tell, researched, despaired, revised, re-arranged, rejoiced, and drunk far, far, far too much tea. There are always more last fiddles than I think there will be, but the light at the end of the tunnel gets bigger every day. And yet sometimes knowing the end is near is like knowing great friends are about to emigrate: soon will come the day when I wave them off at the airport for good, and no amount of telephoning and emailing will be the same, after having them living next door for all these years.

Talking of books which have already taken off, in May Les Mathématiques de l'Amour was published by Michel Lafon in Paris, and it looks very handsome. I have wondered what French readers will make of Stephen's attitude to his traditional enemy, but all seems to be well. Spain is an even more important element of the book, so I'm thrilled that La aritmética del amor will come out in October. The publishers, Alianza Editorial, have asked me to Madrid to help launch it. I don't speak Spanish, but my daughter studies it at school, and before I knew the Spanish title I asked her what the novel would be called. Sadly, after a year's lessons, she could tell me the Spanish for 'mathematics', but not for 'love'.

As you'll have realised if you've had a browse already, this site concentrates on my fiction and, except when I'm in the finishing straight of a novel, I try to keep the News up to date. But for a while now I've been thinking about finding a more personal and immediate place for thinking aloud about wider matters of writing and reading. So I've just set up a blog, This Itch of Writing, and it's being great fun. I do hope you'll you'll drop by sometime.

Reviews of the US edition have been pouring in: you can see a selection of them on the Reviews page. As you may have spotted, I've just added a Contact form too, and you can email me from there. The Internet's a wonderful thing: the first email I had from this site was from a fellow author, Rachael King, whom I met at the Christchurch Writers Festival. She sent me news of the UK launch of her novel The Sound of Butterflies, emailing from the sun on a beach in New Zealand. As it was a particularly grey, wet January day here my pleasure in hearing from her was tempered by several twinges of jealousy. Then there was the reader in the UK who'd sat by the warmth of his fire and devoured the book whole, and a US reader with a passion for the Peninsular War. I'm always slightly worried when people with specialist knowledge get in touch: are they going point out some obscure fact that I've got wrong? But he just said he loved the book, so that was all right

And the UK paperback is published on 8th March. It was a great moment when I got a big box of my author's copies last week. I think it looks gorgeous, and I know that lots of bookgroups are planning to read it, so I'm looking forward to hearing what they think.

Meanwhile, I've finished the first draft of the new novel. Now I have to pull everything together, make the characters live and breathe, plait the loose strands of ideas and events closely together, explore the images and metaphors that enrich the story, and make sure that story's clear to everyone, not just to me. There's a lot to do, but I do now believe there will be a book in the end, designed, typeset, and in the shops. There have been moments in the last few months when I've wondered, but not any more.

December 2006

The US edition of The Mathematics of Love will be published on 2nd January and the US reviews are beginning to come through, which is very exciting. The book trade is hugely enthusiastic too: Borders have chosen it for their 'Original Voices' programme, and Book Sense, the national group of independent booksellers, have made it a Pick of the Month for January.

The UK paperback edition of The Mathematics of Love will be published on 8th March. I've got an Advance Reading Copy in my hand, and I think it looks gorgeous. The book trade's certainly taking notice of it: The Bookseller called it 'quite extraordinarily accomplished, a powerful debut'. The audio book is available too, from Clipper Audio, and it's beautifully read.

Other than that, things have been relatively quiet, which is just as well as I'm on the home strait with the first draft of the new novel. First drafts are less than half the job, but for me they're much the hardest part because I'm creating something out of nothing, spinning a web from thin air. Once that's done, I've got something I can work on, and even if not a single word remains from that first draft by the end, it's still easier than conjuring words from space. And of course it's time I got on with the other part of my PhD, so I'm starting to read round that, exploring ideas of story telling and historical fiction.

I was so pleased that Mike Stocks won the Goss First Novel Award. White Man Falling is a terrific book, and he'd travelled all the way down from Edinburgh for the very enjoyable dinner. I also have huge respect for him, because he edits the poetry magazine Anon, which is unique in only accepting anonymous submissions. That levels the playing field for new and established poets in a way that's normally very unusual, and very welcome.

And - hurrah! - the study's finally gone upstairs, thanks to a crew of friends who organised a bucket-chain to deal with the books, so I'm sending this via my new wireless network. It only took a whole day for me to get it up and running...

September 2006

The Mathematics of Love has been shortlisted for the Goss First Novel Award. This is what used to be known as the Pendleton May First Novel Award: previous winners have included Hari Kunzru and Clare Clark, while the likes of Mark Haddon and Marina Lewycka have been shortlisted, so I'm in very remarkable company. It's awarded as part of the Guildford Book Festival, so I'm looking forward (nervously!) to the dinner on the 23rd October. I'd just heard this when I flew off to New Zealand for the Christchurch Writers' Festival, and then on to Brisbane for their Writers Festival. It's been the most amazing, whirlwind time. On the plane home yesterday (what else do you do for 22 hours plus re-fuelling stops?), I totted it up, and realised that in ten days I did;

9 live and pre-recorded radio interviews
2 live TV interviews
3 press interviews
2 bookshop signings
1 solo festival session, recorded for Australia's Radio National Book Show
6 festival panels
1 festival workshop on researching historical fiction
1 sponsor's literary dinner, as guest of honour
1 festival launch reading
54 hours of flying
and signed more books than I could begin to keep count of.

It's huge fun but incredibly tiring, so many, many thanks to my publishers, Headline, (operating there under the banner of Hachette Livre) who made it all as easy as was humanly possible. I met so many friendly and interesting people, and I just wish I could have taken the time to explore both countries a bit. Next time at least I hope to cuddle a koala, and see more of the South Island's mountains than I could from a plane. Other nice news is that The Mathematics of Love's Spanish translation rights have been sold for the whole world, so soon it should be available in Spanish from Barcelona to Bolivia! And in the US things are warming up for publication by William Morrow in January; it's had its first review, and the mighty Borders have chosen it for their 'Original Voices' February promotion.

So, guess whether I've moved the study yet? No, of course not!

August 2006

It's out there! The Mathematics of Love is published. I've signed books for close family and total strangers, done more interviews, and heard from excited friends who've seen it Singapore, Brecon and Oxford Street and on bookshop websites from Pakistan to South Africa. And, most nerve-racking of all, I've waited for the reviews: as I open each newspaper and magazine my heart lurches. But the reviews have been excellent. I'm thrilled that so many reviewers have loved The Mathematics of Love, understood what I was trying to do, and found it 'compelling', 'wonderfully perceptive', and 'a book that works on every conceivable level… a real achievement.'

But press coverage, however exciting and necessary, seems curiously unreal. What I'm really looking forward to in the months ahead is meeting real, ordinary readers. I'll be doing my first UK reading at the Poetry Café on 22nd September, at the Fourth Friday event. But for now I'm concentrating on getting ready for New Zealand and Australia. The Christchurch Writers' Festival is on 5th-8th September, and the Brisbane Writers Festival 13th-17th September. I'll be doing discussion panels and readings, and my itinerary includes press and broadcasting interviews and bookshop visits. I shan't have much time to see the sights, except from an aeroplane window, which is a shame as both are countries I've long wanted to visit. Nonetheless, it's all new, and exciting, and decidedly scary. I'm distracting myself by worrying instead about whether I'll be allowed to take books on board with me by the time I fly. And I'm afraid the next entry here may be rather badly jetlagged.

June 2006

The Mathematics of Love is published next week, on the 3rd July. In some ways it's hard to believe, after all the months of production and years of writing. But the book exists: pallet loads are trundling out of the warehouse to the shops as I type, and the export edition is flying off to Dubai and Hong Kong. Every time I trip over the box of my author's copies I think how gorgeous it looks. Yes, the books are still sitting in their box in the hall for want of any bookshelf space to put them on,  because no, I haven't managed to move the study yet.

On all fronts things are hotting up: Radio 2's The Weekender has already reviewed it, Tatler, Time Out, and Publishing News have interviews. Further afield, I've been invited to literary festivals in Brisbane and Christchurch, New Zealand in September, and with interviews for papers there and in Hong Kong. Last week I spent a day signing Ottakar's entire stock order, as The Mathematics of Love is their Bookseller's Choice for July. It took hours!

I'm signing books again - I hope more slowly and with more in the way of interaction with readers - at Dulwich Books, Croxted Road, London SE22 at 11am, on Saturday 15th July, and Review Bookshop in Bellenden Road, London SE5 who are holding a 'Meet the Author' session at 6-8pm on Wednesday 26th July. And finally, the furthest away date so far in my diary is 22nd September, when I'll be reading at the Fourth Friday event at the Poetry Café, Betterton Street in London's Covent Garden.

April 2006

The Mathematics of Love has had its first review. Publishing News called it 'A bravura and compelling feat of storytelling, enlivened by convincing detail and voices, as well as by serious reflection on the nature of memory, history and reportage.'

It's less than three months to publication, and suddenly it doesn't seem very far away. Like any novelist, I spend most of my working life alone, in as quiet a room as I can find. Now I'm having to emerge, blinking, into the daylight to meet booksellers and Headline's foreign partners. They've heard about The Mathematics of Love, and they want to know more. I could go on for hours, of course, but I have to try to convey what I think is special about it quickly. Besides, I'm interested in what they do too: how they sell books, and how their particular shop or patch of the world works. I'm still a very good customer for other people's books, after all. I've been interviewed by journalists, too. That's different; they want to know more about me, and how The Mathematics of Love came to be written.

Fish Publishing held the launch and prize giving for their historical fiction anthology All the King's Men to co-incide with the London Book Fair. My story Russian Tea turned out to have a twin in another story with the same title, but they couldn't have been more different. Now the Historical Novel Society who co-sponsored the prize have asked me to guest-edit the next edition of their magazine Solander.

Back at home, I've been talking to my editor at William Morrow about the cover for the US edition of The Mathematics of Love. And then there's the new novel. If you asked me how it's going, I couldn't really tell you, nor would all the material stacked around me tell you much either. I'm still feeling my way, but it's beginning to add up to something, or so Maura Dooley, my supervisor at Goldsmiths', tells me. There'll be a pause in a few weeks, while I move my study to a bigger room upstairs. I've completely run out of space down here, and I'm dreading shifting a thousand or so books, not to mention all the computer and its paraphernalia. If the next news you read here is a bit dusty and dishevelled, you'll know why.

February 2006

It’s less than five months till publication, and The Mathematics of Love is listed on the booksellers’ websites. On my desk are the hardback jacket, the trade paperback cover and copies of the trade weekly The Bookseller: the front and inside front cover were taken over last week by advertisements for what I find we’re all calling TMOL. Then there are pictures and ideas I’m assembling for The Mathematics of Love’s American editor, as Morrow’s designer begins to think about that cover. And just as it was listed in Time Out as one of their ‘Books to watch out for this spring’, I heard that the first translation rights have been sold, in Poland. I gather this is just a taste of things to come.

Meanwhile my study is filling up with material for the new novel. There are books and leaflets and pages of notes, maps, photographs and postcards, lists of revisions to keep in mind and scraps of paper with sudden, odd ideas scribbled on them. It’s another world, and one which couldn’t be more different, but each, somehow, seems to help me enjoy the other.

December 2005

Last July, I returned to Skyros. The Mathematics of Love had been sold to Headline Review as the first of a two-book deal, and I had the manuscript in my suitcase. It seemed so suitable to be putting the finishing touches to Stephen and Anna’s story on the island where Stephen was born.

In August I was in Suffolk. You can no longer smell burning stubble on a hot evening as you could in my childhood, but I could easily imagine seeing Anna sitting at the next table in the garden of The Angel in Lavenham. Now The Mathematics of Love has been sold to William Morrow in the US, and things have gone quiet after an exciting and confusing few months.

But it’s not quiet at all in my head, because I’m deep in the first draft of my new novel. After the initial research, I find I have to submerge completely, writing fast and furiously until I’ve told the story. Only then do I get back in touch with ordinary life, while I re-draft and re-write, do more research, and re-write again.

That’s my internal writing life, which is shaped by the needs of my new novel, and the PhD that it’s part of. My external writing life will get lively again around the launch of The Mathematics of Love in Britain next July, and in the US in the following winter. Meanwhile, I’ve got a novel to write…