The Absent Heart is very much a novel about letters and how they defined Frances Sitwell’s relationship with Robert Louis Stevenson, but it’s not a novel of letters. I’m actually quite a fan of the epistolary novel and, with all of the R.L.S.’s letters to my heroine at my disposal, I could have gone down … Continue reading Letters in fiction: Robert Harris, Gill Hornby and me!
A month or two ago I was at the paperback launch in Bath of Kissing Mr. Wrong by local writer Sarah Duncan but only got round to reading it last week when it was a welcome distraction from the grim realities of jury service. But although this is a light read, it certainly isn’t frivolous, … Continue reading Kissing Mr. Wrong
But possibly not love? Tim Lott , one of my writing heroes, has been complaining (Saturday’s Guardian) that love stories no longer figure in contemporary literary fiction, and to a great extent he’s right. Not that big name writers don’t have romantic strands, but as he says, you wouldn’t call Atonement or Birdsong love stories. If anyone’s … Continue reading Something in the air
Ali Bacon, Author 