When I Was Ivo: Keren David on The Liberators

Keren David, author of two heart-stopping, gimlety thrillers, When I Was Joe and Almost True, which follow the adventures of a teenager called Ty who becomes involved in a stabbing, has written about The Liberators. I am glad that she likes Strawbones - my own favourite. I think that Ivo and Ty would get on very well together. We should arrange a meeting. Here's what she said:

'On the surface, it's a fast-moving, exciting adventure, with well-drawn characters that you care about - and intriguing sinister baddies,whose seductive charm is irresistible. It would make a wonderful film - the riot on Oxford Street, and the final scenes in the National Gallery make great use of London as a setting.
But it goes so much deeper. I was extremely impressed by the way you conveyed Dionysian ecstasy in a way that a young audience would understand - particularly the sexual undertones, which were suitably subtle but definitely there - and the conflict between Dionysian and Apollonian philiosophies. So often nowadays we see mythology raided for storylines, but stripped of its essential meaning.
I also loved the way that Ivo, Felix and Miranda were unapologetically posh and privileged - learning Greek, going to boarding school and living with servants. I wrote a post on Norm Geras's blog recently about the importance of boarding school books for those of us who did not go to a school where Greek and Latin were taught. I learned a great deal from reading books about boarding school children - not only about poetry and the classics, but about how the upper classes lived - extremely useful information in later life!
I only have tiny criticisms - much as I loved the image of Charles and Camilla at the party, I did wonder about the security arrangements. And at the beginning I was a little bewildered by all the characters and had to go back and check who was who a few times. But once I'd got everyone straight in my head, and particularly when Strawbones appeared, I was completely hooked.

Now I must get hold of The Other Book (great title).

Kx'

Philip Reeve's Review of The Liberators

Here is a link to the marvellous Philip Reeve's review of The Liberators. He is the author of several brilliant books, including the Mortal Engines series, and my personal favourite, Larklight. His comments on the social situation of the children in the Liberators are particularly interesting (see earlier posts). I am also thrilled that the book reminded him not only of M R James, that consummate ghost story writer, but also Saki, one of my favourite authors.

The link is HERE

The Lessons by Naomi Alderman - review

Writing about the university of Oxford is very hard indeed. You are always going to be in the shadow of Evelyn Waugh. The narrative arc of Oxford novels is almost always the same: outsider falls in with glamorous group of rich people and is in some way damaged. This applies to American novels about Ivy League universities, too. And hardly anyone gets it right. I don't think Naomi Alderman, in her new book, The Lessons, has got it right at all. Her novel follows the classic arc (also seen in Donna Tartt's The Secret History, Richard Mason's The Drowning People, etc.)

Many things about it, I had no space for in my review. The novel is very entertaining, but it struck me as false. There is a moment where the students get their results - one of the boys gets a two one, as does one of the girls. Alderman suggests that girls are marked down. But Oxford exams are anonymous! And in any case, the other female members of the group get firsts, whilst the other two boys get a two two and a third. She also has her group moving out of college in their first year - I'm not sure the university authorities would be too happy about that.

Still, here is my review, for the Financial Times: Click HERE

Letters

Here is a link to a piece I wrote for The Daily Telegraph about letter writing.

Click HERE

And long live the art of writing letters.

Liberators Review - Link

Here is a link to Dinah Hall's review of The Liberators in The Sunday Telegraph. I would be interested to know whether anybody agrees with her - should children's books take place only in urban badlands? Why does the setting of a children's book seem to matter so much? Surely all levels of society / culture are suitable backdrops, as long as the story is good enough?

I remember when I was a child, I read The Family at One End Street, about a poor family whose mother took in washing. It never occurred to me that they were anything but children; in the same way, Just William wasn't middle class, he was just a boy, and the children in The House of Arden, who inherit a castle, didn't seem any different to me. Children don't think like adults - they have yet, fortunately, to gain all those horrible layers of social awareness that grown ups are burdened with. To a child, any child in a book is just another child having an adventure, and it doesn't matter what level of society they're on.

When you've clicked on the link, scroll down a little to find the review: BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN