BRIGHTON LAUNCH PARTY

The Nightingale Theatre, Brighton..LINK HERE



A huge thank you to New Writing South (link HERE) for organising a lovely party last night to launch Words From a Glass Bubble in my ‘home city’.

The venue was perfect: The Nightingale Theatre, above Grand Central Bar in Brighton. It’s a great space, and for the audience of about 30, there was bubbly flowing, nibbles, and a terrific atmosphere… everything candle-lit.

It was so professionally done. I was introduced very generously by Andrew Marshall (link HERE), with whom I work in a face to face writing group… he’s an extraordinary talent… writes best-seller self-help books, musicals, plays, fiction, and he’s a journalist on several broadsheet newspapers.

I read Dodie’s Gift and dedicated the reading to Zadie Smith, who took such a battering in the press in recent months for sticking up for standards. I think it went down well… although my dear Dad (who is fairly deaf) said afterwards that he thought it ‘went on a bit…”!

I was really delighted to meet up again with Carol Hayman, another extraordinary talent. She is very involved with New Writing South, but was also writer-in-residence for a BBC writing competition in 2006… we met in a one-to one workshop, and she was so positive and encouraging about my writing. I look back now and realise how very important that was… it would have been so easy to lose heart back then.

Read about Carol Hayman HERE… and watch out for her TV adaptation of the sparkling Ladies of Letters radio series she co-wrote… I wonder if it will be Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge again… fingers crossed.

Sales seemed to go well, lots of signings, and a great couple of hours afterwards in Grand Central bar, with impromptu juggling lessons from the expert Rob Horsman, and rather a lot of crisps. The chef had gone home.