THE GHOSTWRITER’S NOTEBOOK

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A mummified apparition in a wheel-chair. A mammoth in the permafrost.The oligarch lives round the corner from the Blairs, where restless groups of armed police – Diplomatic Protection Group – stamp their feet outside little designer boutiques with a single silk dress in the window. He is hiring: a ghostwriter, a dialogue coach, a personal shopper; and the limousines wait in …

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MAKING AN ENTRANCE

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    “At eight o’clock, as the light deepened, Matty walked slowly down the stone steps to the terrace by the pool, concentrating on making an entrance. She was wearing the red silk dress, matching her lipstick, and she’d put her hair up in a thick and tangled mop of blonde. Charcoal smoke was blowing about in the evening breeze; …

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People slip away

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“People slip away,” Howard said. “You have to hold on to them, or they slip away.” He walked through the vaulted archway of the gate-house into the dazzling afternoon light. “You can’t hold on to them,” Matty said, hanging back inside the key-hole of the arch. “They slip away anyway.” There was a slight resonance in her voice, a hollow …

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Paddington again

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  The train was passing through a landscape of gravel-pits and reservoirs, silvery stretches of water away towards the airport where the motorways merge, airliners hanging heavily below the clouds. They ran into another squall, trails of raindrops driven wriggling across the window like urgent sperm. He pictured Paddington, not far up the line, its echoing loudspeakers in the teeming …

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Thank you Phil!

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  A really nice appreciation of “Flirting at the Funeral” by the great Phil Rowlands, author and editor extraordinaire! Flirting At Whose Funeral Seeing new places and meeting new people has to be one of the most rewarding aspects of travel. The picture opposite combines both. The cool guy in the leather jacket and shades is author Chris Keil whom …

CULTURE WARS

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Culture Wars: Other Voices In British Literature Panel Discussion at Portland State University http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDi_Fbo6TJI Catch me at 1.15.20 Not to be missed!  

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Cillian in Cambridge

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  Two epic Cillian Press book launches this week, both at Heffers in Cambridge: Susan Sellers’ glamorous and sophisticated novel about art, music and moral compromise “Given the Choice,” and Alex Mellanby’s haunting YA novel “Tregarthur’s Promise.” Starry, galactic, firework-display occasions!  

TWO WEEKS TO WORDSTOCK!

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  If you missed Chris Keil at the Hay Festival in June http://www.hayfestival.com/p-5822-chris-keil-and-julian-preece.aspx You can catch him at Wordstock in October! https://wordstockfestival2013.sched.org/speaker/chriskeil WORDSTOCK 2013 in the Oregon Convention Centre, Portland, Oregon, October 5th and 6th The biggest book-fest in the Pacific North-West! Chris Keil will be reading from his latest novel Flirting at the Funeral (Cillian Press) on-stage with the legendary …