Friday, March 16, 2007

Roger Jon Ellory at Mere Green Library

Last night Roger Jon Ellory braved the cross-city train line to come up to Mere Green library to give a talk and read from his forthcoming book. Though a native of Birmingham he has chosen to set his books in America. His new book, out in August, is 'A Quiet Belief in Angels' and is set both in Augusta Falls and New York and covers a time span of over fifty years. The audience got a sneak preview as Mr Ellory read out the prologue and the first chapter. There were many gasps from the audience when Mr Ellory revealed that he had ony spent six short visits in the US and most of his research was from maps. Nonetheless a friend of his has told him that he'd captured a New York neighbourhood perfectly, even though he hadn't been there. Mr Ellory hopes that he writes crime novels that leaving people thinking and remembering them unlike the quick thrill reads you can devour and remember nothing of a day later.

When asked if he had any specific writing schedule he replied that his was ridiculous as he worked an 85 hour week as a drug rehabilitation counsellor and would do a few hours writing after getting home at 10pm. At the weekend he would write 9-6pm, Sat and 9-8pm Sun and he rarely goes on holiday.

Mr Ellory didn't bring any books to sign but I hope he notices a surge in his public lending rights money as we commandeered every copy in Birmingham library for our display and every copy went out swiftly.

(The above is from memory, so I apologise if there're any errors. Mysterious Yarns also came and I hope she enjoyed it too.)

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