... from ardnamurchan. the second one was taken at sanna bay which is a long way from anywhere and all the better for it. the third (of the smaller ben next to ben hiant) contains the very tiny silhouettes to two deer looking over the summit and very possibly saying to one another, dear god, how much noise can those two children make? let's bugger off. and the fourth shows, not a bath full of beer, but the colour of the loch-fed water supply which was, i have to say, surpisingly nice to drink (though not from the bath).
so, anyway, some background... i was being interviewed by claire armitstead at the edbookfest. during which she said that whilst reading the red house she kept thinking about those old tile puzzles, the ones you used to get in party bags c. 1975, a 3 x 3 grid containing eight tiles which you moved around to complete a picture, this being made possible by the missing square.
i'm doing 2 events at the edinburgh book festival this coming week. the first is an interview in the main theatre with claire armitstead at 4:30 on thursday 23rd, the second a solo talk, flying and swimming, in the spigelent on the friday at 9:00, which is 'free and drop-in', though it would be nice if you could be quiet about the dropping in (and out) since the talk is partly about silence and stillness. see you all there.
so... i did an interview for the sunday times 3 weeks ago. it was nominally about simon stephens' adptation of curious incident being on at the national theatre but it was intended for the news section, so we strayed inevitably into newsy territory. i can't remember the specific questions i was asked and i can't read the interview because it's behind the times paywall.
from amazon's books > fiction > romance > family sagas chart. runaway heiress *and* war and peace. it doesn't get much better than this.
i hate flying. i really really hate it. i've done 6 fear of flying courses, 2 accompanied flights, 7 lessons in a piper cherokee and dr diazepam holds my hand from runway to runway, but it's taking a bloody long time to get over it. during the main body of the flight i can resort to films or minigore or scrabble on the ipad (reading is out of the question). but during take-off and landing i'm not allowed to do anything electronic so i try and draw to occupy myself. the quality of the drawing has become a rather good measure of the amount of turbulence.
i'm doing a talk, 'flying and swimming' at the purcell room next monday, 9 july at 7:45, as part of the festival of the world. it's about... wel,, pretty much everything: great white sharks, thoreau, poetry, creative writing, engine fires, ice hockey. it's about an hour long and it will be very different from most author talks...
http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/literature-spoken-word/tickets/mark-haddon-66600
whilst i've never been opposed to ebooks in principle, i've always disliked the kindle for a string of reasons (see kindle below), so i've rather surprised myself by falling in love with ibboks on the ipad, on which i'm reading wirginia woolf's orlando (her gender-bending historical romp; one of her best-selling novels at the time but not a great work of art and for woolf completists really). the interface is great.
... somebody's son, by gordon burn, a meticulously researched book about the yorkshire ripper, peter sutcliffe.
some second thoughts:
... by bryan talbot, which my son (11) and i have been greatly enjoying, along with the follow-up, grandville mon amour, steampunk detective graphic novels set in a parallel version of history in which france has invaded and subjugated britain and guillotined the royal family and recently granted the country independence.
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