Last night I went to the first of a series of seven literary evenings at the University of East Anglia. I have been bought a season ticket to all the evenings. The older you get the less you want possessions for Christmas and birthday. Now I prefer what we call experiences.
These evenings are relatively short and involve a discussion between Professor Christopher Bigsby and various top authors from around the world. This season's includes Vince Cable (better known as a politician than author), Richard Dawkins, Jonathan Franzen and a few others.
I used to go regularly in the past and have listened to such literary greats as Norman Mailer, William Golding and Iris Murdoch.
The 2015 season kicked off with an established American author and a young British writer. I have to show my ignorance by saying that I had never heard of Vendela Vida. She seemed an interesting writer and when I got home I downloaded a couple of her novels from Norfolk Libraries. The young British author was Emma Healey who is now world famous for her international bestseller Elizabeth is Missing which is a mystery novel centred on an elderly woman with dementia. Emma is a graduate of the UEA's creative writing degree course and now lives full time in Norwich. I have to say I started to read the book but gave up halfway through as I found unable to identify with the characters and found the book rather tedious - but what do I know?
We were told that the book has been worth £1.5 million to the publisher and it's still selling well. One would think that Emma might have a few problems when it comes to writing a second novel as she has set the bar high, irrespective of whether I like the book or not.
It's one of those periods when I have so many novels and books to read and so little spare time to read them. Alongside the Vida novels I have also downloaded a Christopher Bigsby and also have a couple by Ken Follett and a John Grisham to get through. Oh for more than 24 hours in the day.
These evenings are relatively short and involve a discussion between Professor Christopher Bigsby and various top authors from around the world. This season's includes Vince Cable (better known as a politician than author), Richard Dawkins, Jonathan Franzen and a few others.
I used to go regularly in the past and have listened to such literary greats as Norman Mailer, William Golding and Iris Murdoch.
The 2015 season kicked off with an established American author and a young British writer. I have to show my ignorance by saying that I had never heard of Vendela Vida. She seemed an interesting writer and when I got home I downloaded a couple of her novels from Norfolk Libraries. The young British author was Emma Healey who is now world famous for her international bestseller Elizabeth is Missing which is a mystery novel centred on an elderly woman with dementia. Emma is a graduate of the UEA's creative writing degree course and now lives full time in Norwich. I have to say I started to read the book but gave up halfway through as I found unable to identify with the characters and found the book rather tedious - but what do I know?
We were told that the book has been worth £1.5 million to the publisher and it's still selling well. One would think that Emma might have a few problems when it comes to writing a second novel as she has set the bar high, irrespective of whether I like the book or not.
It's one of those periods when I have so many novels and books to read and so little spare time to read them. Alongside the Vida novels I have also downloaded a Christopher Bigsby and also have a couple by Ken Follett and a John Grisham to get through. Oh for more than 24 hours in the day.
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