2. Chalcot Crescent by Fay Weldon

What rock was I napping under when this came out last September? A new book by Fay Weldon is an event to me – reading Down Among The Women when I was 13 (shortly after The Female Eunuch…) made me a feminist - but this one totally passed me by.

Possibly because I find the book pages of newspapers are mainly given over to studious biographies of Napoleon’s second general, so I hardly look at them…

When I did finally stumble upon it last week, the title sprang out rather than the author, because Chalcot Crescent is a street in Primrose Hill right around the corner from Chalcot Road, where I used to live.

And, adding to my interest, the book I have just finished is set entirely in Primrose Hill and one of the main characters live in Chalcot Crescent…

Anyway - the book. Bloody brilliant. It’s set three years hence in a dystopian future created by what might have happened if governments around the world hadn’t propped up the banking system when it was on the verge of collapse in 2008. (She must have turned this book around at warp speed.)

On top of this sparkling conceit Weldon applies another intriguing notion – what if we all suddenly lost interest in the consumerist way of life that actually entirely underpins capitalism?

In her parallel universe people have suddenly and collectively realised that constantly acquiring more ‘stuff’ is not the route to happiness. No shopping means no ‘growth’ means no economy…

As a result, houses are worthless, credit doesn’t exist, the EU falls to bits, it’s every country for themselves, food is the most valuable commodity and after a couple of hung parliaments an unelected government takes control.

What’s so gripping, is that for a moment back there something like this really could have happened. It still could.

That’s just a few of many brilliant possibilities the book explores, but what makes it more than a smart contemporary update on Brave New World and 1984, is that running alongside the big picture ideas, is the more personal – and fundamentally female - story of the narrator, Frances.

She’s a brilliant idea in herself – the person who might have existed if Fay Weldon’s real mother hadn’t had a miscarriage, when Fay was a child. A what if? sibling. Weldon then tantalises the reader with through-the-looking-glass parallels between Frances’ life and her own, as already laid bare in her autobiography, Auto da Fay.

Through 80 year-old Frances, Weldon retreads the issues of sexual freedom, financial semi-equality and legal triumphs, which have so occupied women over the last eight decades - while teasingly re-visiting controversial revisions of her own, from the post-feminist era.

And all of it done with the wit and verve you expect from this master stylist. ‘Banksters’ is just one term I delighted over.

There were sections when I slightly lost interest – hence relatively low un-put-downable-ness score - feeling that the ideas were taking over from pushing on the story, but then something bright and sparkling would hook me in again.

There is a also lot of repetition in the book which made me wonder at first if Ms Weldon didn’t have an editor strong enough to stand up to her, until I realised she was using it deliberately, more vividly to paint her octogenarian anti-heroine.

At nearly 80 herself, this book shows Fay Weldon still has more ideas crackling in her brain than she knows what to do with. I bow at her feet.

And now I’m going to read what the brainy broadsheet reviewers had to say about it on publication.

Reading satisfaction: 8
Un-put-downable-ness: 6
Recommend to best girlfriend: 8
Recommend to spouse: 5 (he might read this because of socio-political content)
Recommend to mother: 8
Recommend to niece: 8
Recommend to man pal: 6
Recommend to Helen Razer: 9
Happy to read on public transport: 9

Here I go with my first post in my List of Books I’ve Read This Year. But just one thing to make clear before I start – these are not reviews. I don’t review novels.

Just one time I reviewed a novel for a newspaper and my verdict wasn’t entirely positive. When I came to write my own first one, not long after, and discovered exactly how much work is involved, I was consumed with regret and swore I would never write another review of a work of fiction by a living author.

There is a reason there are those who do and those who criticise…

So these are my very personal reactions to the books I’ve read this year. I’m doing it for fun, but also to make my reading more ‘active’, which I think can help improve your own writing.

I will also do my best not to give the stories away.


1. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

What a stellar start to my first catalogued reading year. This is a fascinating book on several different levels, written in a very quiet and measured voice, which is surprisingly compelling.

It’s the first person story of an American First Lady, based - in the author’s own statement - on a very particular recent presidency the reader will immediately recognise. Apart from that, she says, the characters and what happens to them are fictional. So that’s a pretty interesting set up to begin with: real, but not real.

One of the major themes, it seemed to me, was an exploration of the American class system, which seems to be a personal obsession of Sittenfeld’s.

Her first novel, Prep, which I also loved, was about a regular teenage girl who wins a scholarship to an elite private boarding school and her introduction to – and subsequent disillusionment with - the very particular behaviour, values and mores of America’s privileged class.

The family the narrator of this books marries into come from exactly this milieu, while she is the daughter of simple white-collar down home folk, whose good looks propel her upwards.

I’m fascinated by the nuances of class and the peculiar behaviour of the very rich myself, so find all that gripping.

Then there was the imaginative leap of seeing inside the bedroom of the White House, which I thought she pulled off brilliantly. How it feels to sit in your body as a simple human being, but know your husband can fundamentally affect the lives of millions of other people with any decision he makes.

There are actually some pretty massive flaws in this book – I won’t spoil it, by dissecting them – but that actually made me like it more. It gave me something to chew over, as I read, just as a beautiful face is made more compelling by a scar.

Reading satisfaction: 8
Un-put-downable-ness: 6
Recommend to best girlfriend: 8

Why Don’t I Update My Blog More Often? Well, I’m Going To.

The function of this blog up until now has been as a news platform, to promote upcoming publications, book tours etc and I will still use it for that, but I've now decided to start using it also as a very personal reading diary.

This was inspired by a fascinating book I read last year by Stephen King, called On Writing, which is about – funnily enough – the process of writing.

Although I've enjoyed all the films I’ve seen of his books (I think 'The Shining' is the best horror film ever made), his novels are not in a genre that interests me, but after a fellow novelist told me about this one, I thought it would be interesting to see how one of the biggest-selling authors of all time approaches his craft. Might pick up some tips...

The book changed my life. Seriously.

I had been getting quite low sitting on my own in a room from 9 to 5, five days a week, which was how I was writing my books. I felt guilty if I didn’t give it all my possible working time. Then I felt guilty for not enjoying what I do, when I know I’m so very lucky to make a living as a writer. Ooh, lots of lovely guilt – great for the creative process. Not.

But then I read about Stephen King’s rationale: his writing day is finished as soon as he has chalked up 2,000 words. Revelation! Sometimes he’s done by 11am, other days he’s at his desk until tea time, but once he hits the magic number he’s free.

He then went on to relate how other writers approached it. Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope – who had a full-time job running the Royal Mail, but also managed to pop out an astonishing 47 novels – wrote for a precise amount of time each morning. If he finished a novel with five minutes left to go, he would start another one. If he was three sentences from the end of one, it had to wait until the next day.

Another thing that fascinated me in King’s book was a list of all the books he had read in the previous year. It was a very long list, because that’s what he does when he’s finished his daily word count. He reads.

My reading has come down to a few minutes each evening before I drop asleep, so it takes me ages these days to read an average-sized book, and I was doing it passively, not fully engaged.

I used to rip through several novels in a week, reading while I was wide awake with synapses in full snap and Stephen King made me realise that to continue developing as a writer, I need to get back to being an active reader.

Add to that a growing awareness of the ever diminishing finite number of books left that I will be able to read in my lifetime, and I knew I had to take affirmative action

So my plan for this year, is to stop work when I’ve written 2,500 words, to read more, and to keep a list of what I read. And that list will be in the form of posts on here.

How To Break Your Own Heart published in UK

My new novel How To Break Your Own Heart is out today. Hurrah! Well, it's new in the UK - it came out last November in Australia. So why the long delay? Well, it seems, I am something called a ‘summer author’.

I’m very happy with that tag because I like to think of my books as something you would reach for when you have a bit of time for yourself – such as stretching out on a pool side lounger, or settling into a flight to somewhere sandy and salty.

The book went down really well in Aus, I’m delighted to say, and I hope it has the same appeal in my home country (where it is set). I must admit I have a special affection for it. There are several characters in it I really love (not least the gorgeous male romantic lead…. hubba hubba) and I still miss spending time with them every day at the computer.

The other reason I think it’s special to me is that Amanda’s story is – in part – my own. I was that woman who found out at the age of 36 that your fertility goes down in a black ski run gradient at 37.

I’d really had no idea, which is a bit shameful considering I am a doctor’s daughter, but I think like most of my generation I was so intent on being a world expert in contraception (thank you Cosmo magazine…) the conception part of it got left out.

Everything else in the book is fiction (my first husband is American and NOTHING like Ed!), but that terrible moment happened to me.

I’d love to hear feedback, if you read it.

Apologies for not posting on here more often. It's mainly a factor of having so much to write already. I do my column every week for Good Weekend in Australia, plus I am stuck in to writing my next book.... BUT the best place to find me is on Twitter.

I'm @ MaggieA. Love Twitter and would love to chat to you on there.

Maggie xxx

In Bed With book signing Feb 11th, Selfridges

I’m thrilled to say that our collection of unashamedly feeelthy stories by well-known woman novelists (Fay Weldon, Joanne Harris, Ali Smith et al) is selling as only sex can – big time - and stirring up a bit of a media furore too.

Yes! Yes! Yes!! (to quote Meg Ryan in the famous deli scene). I’ll have what she’s having. A filthy book to bring on the frisky fun. And perhaps a side order of rabbit ragout. (You can figure out what kind of rabbit yourself...)

Next Wednesday, February 11th, the four editors – being me and my three droogs, Kathy Lette, Jessica Adams and Imogen Edwards-Jones - will be signing copies in the book department of Selfridges.

We’ll be there between 1 and 2pm. Please come by and say hello.

In Bed With

May I proudly introduce my latest venture: the wicked temptress of a book which is In Bed With. The UK edition was published yesterday (January 22nd), amid something of a media maelstrom. Hurrah!

In Bed With is an outrageously sexy collection of filthy stories written by 20 very well-known women novelists (see full list below), all writing under our X-rated name: first pet and first street you lived on. Or something similar.

Everyone in my family would have instantly recognised the name ‘Ringo’ as the baby bird which the gardener rescued for the 3 year old me (and which died the same day…), so I had to be inventive. And no, I am not telling.

This brilliant anthology was the idea of my very great friend Jessica Adams, who roped in me, Kathy Lette and Imogen Edwards-Jones as her co0editors. We have had the most hilarious time pulling it together, with three years of emails zapping round the world – and a few essential face to face meetings at The Wolseley - to make it happen.

It was really hard work actually, but so worth it. The day Fay Weldon said yes, closely followed by Joanne Harris, Ali Smith and Esther Freud, we knew we had something special on our hands.

And it really is. Apart from the fun of trying to guess who wrote what – and all our lips are sealed – the stories are the most wonderful mix of styles and genres. Then there is the added attraction that In Bed With could certainly help a cold dark credit crunch night pass more excitingly… if you get my drift. With or without company.

In Bed With contributors:

Adele Parks
Ali Smith
Bella Pollen
Chris Manby
Daisy Waugh
Emma Darwin
Esther Freud
Fay Weldon
Imogen Edwards-Jones
Jane Moore
Jessica Adams
Joan Smith
Joanne Harris
Justine Picardie
Kathy Lette
Louise Doughty
Maggie Alderson
Rachel Johnson
Santa Montefiore
Stella Duffy

Published by Sphere, £7.99

'A book that has the literary world abuzz with excitement, causing a frisson of electricity to pass through the corridors of the country's publishing houses.'
The Daily Telegraph

'Your favourite female authors...as you've never read them before...the literary world is in for a shock'
Good Housekeeping

'How a group of Britain's female writers are making erotic fiction cool...a steamy new short-story collection'
Harpers Bazaar

`In the past several women have given themselves pseudonyms to write naughty books such as Petite Anglaise, The Bride Striped Bare and Belle de Jour, which was turned into a TV series with Billie Piper. But they were by unknowns. Here, the authors have no need to make a mark. '
The Times

A new book of erotic fiction will trigger a juicy literary guessing game after a gaggle of female writers were invited to contribute risque stories under pseudonyms.
The Daily Mail

Back to reality

Where's Miles? How am I supposed to get anywhere without him? Oh, that's right, I don't have a car and personal driver with a CAP in my real life. That's only part of Book Tour World, along with other people picking up my towels, making my bed and washing my pants. Oh well.

Here are some wonderful things I encountered while I was back in my beloved Australia for the tour.

1. Aussie lady writersTwo of my favourite , pictured above, at a lovely drinks party hosted by my bezzie mate and publisher Julie Gibbs. Left to right Lee Tulloch, Marion von Adlerstein, Julie and moi. My great pal Robert Rosen - Mr Snaparazzi - took the shot.

2 Coin-operated hair straighteners in public loos
Image is everything in Sydney and to make sure you never have to worry about your hair getting a little bit mussed up - it can be a bastard on those humid February days - a company called Glide puts coin-operated hair irons in the loos of night clubs and bars. Brilliant.

3. No Starbucks in Melbourne
I am reliably informed that all the branches of Starpukes that opened in Melbourne closed down because no one there would drink such foul coffee. Australian coffee is the best in the world - better than Italy. Trust me on this. They use weird UHT (Ultra Horrible Turtle milk) in Italy. In Australia you get the perfect roast on the bean, highly-trained baristas and delicious milk. And the right vessel for each style of coffee. I loathe the tankards you get for lattes in the UK. They should come in medium-sized Duralex glasses.

4. Hako Japanese restaurant
This is some of the best Japanese food I have ever eaten in a very groovy Shoreditch style interior. Perfection. 310 Flinders Lane. 03 9620 1881.