No.6 - Spring 2009 edition.   Editor: BB Edwards
With good wishes to you from all of us at Garret Books
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CALLING VANESSA FELTZ
Susie Cornfield talks with
the BBC Radio London presenter

Click here to listen to Susie talking to Vanessa Feltz
MP3 file 940KB

Good ol Mr Taylor, the ace electrician, listening as he works to his favourite radio station, BBC Radio London 94.9 fm, rings to advise me to call immediately the phone-in Vanessa Feltz is doing currently on what to tell children when their pet is dying.

I phone in and they call me back and put me through to the lovely Miss Feltz (what a nice interviewer she is) and we chat about loss and talk about Farewell, my Lovely, our compilation of tributes to much-loved departed pets.

Miss Feltz wonders how the death of a pet could become a book. We hope when she receives her copy she’ll understand how this little book of stories from ordinary, everyday people, such as me; people who work with animals; and those in the public eye who don’t wear their pet like a designer handbag, such as Jilly Cooper, Ann Widdecombe and David Blunkett etc, with poems and illustrations etc, made the bestseller lists, sold out within nine weeks of first publication, and has helped countless people through their own animal bereavement – as we know it has through letters, ’phone calls, emails, and word of mouth.

While we’re on the subject, we’re thrilled to announce that a revised, updated and expanded version of Farewell, My Lovely - in hardback, price £9.99 - will be published in the autumn.

TALKING WITH ELMS
Susie Cornfield calls BBC Radio London phone-in

Click here to listen to Susie talking to Robert Elms
MP3 file 1.5MB

Good ol' Mr Taylor, the ace electrician, called the other day on the mobile. I stopped the car. Are you near home or a radio, he asked, because on his BBC Radio London programme (94.9 fm, 12-3 pm each weekday), Robert Elms is doing a phone-in on creative writing and publishing. I rushed home, phoned in and was lucky enough to be put through to Mr Elms almost immediately. What a nice interviewer he is and he does that rare thing not many interviewers do, he listens to what you have to say. I can fully understand why he is the long-time hero of Mr Taylor, Sid, the courier who delivers our books, and Sara, a canny northern businesswoman (luckily also all Garret Books/Dekaydence supporters), and many, many other listeners. Thank you, Mr Elms.

CURTAIN UP ON EDWARD THE GREAT Another of our Great Actor Heroes - Edward Petherbridge - has kindly recorded for us an extract from Black Light.

Click here to listen to Edward Petherbridge
MP3 file 1.3MB

Among his many roles, Edward Petherbridge has played Lord Peter Wimsey in screen versions of Dorothy L. Sayers novels. In the 1960s he was a leading member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre, creating the role of Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (a production and a performance which reduced Our Author to speechless joy. If she'd been wearing socks, they'd have been knocked off).  Mr Petherbridge also gave a touching performance of Newman Noggs in a memorable RSC production of The Life and Times of Nicholas Nickleby (seen also by Our Author and Our Wonderful Graphic Designers). Mr Petherbridge has collaborated with Sir Ian McKellen, and in the US his talents have long been recognised, gaining him a second Tony nomination for his performance on Broadway in O'Neill's Strange Interlude and critical acclaim for Krapp's Last Tape, which he played in New York and in Washington in 1999.  Mr Petherbridge is also a gifted poet and artist. And a jolly nice gentleman.

TALES FROM THE ASHCROFT THEATRE

Review of Susie Cornfield’s talk on writing and publishing at the Fairfield, Croydon

Click here for link to This is Croydon Today web page

ROSSI RECORDS NEW SONG
FOR BOOK DESCRIBED AS
'LIKE PHILIP PULLMAN ON SPEED'

Francis Rossi (above, right), co-founder of Status Quo and dubbed The Grand Old Man of Rock ‘n’ Roll, breaks new ground this month - when he goes into the studio to record a new song for a new book which he believes should be a film. “There’s something about this book, Black Light, which keeps drawing me back to it. It’s got great characters, it makes you think, and it’s wicked fun,” said Rossi (at his Surrey home), who’ll be singing lyrics written by the author.
Black Light, written and published by former journalist Susie Cornfield (seen here with Rossi), is described by award-winning producer Piers Plowright as “Like Philip Pullman on speed!” The book is also seen as a film-in-waiting by leading PR agency Colman Getty. Published two years ago for young teens, the book got into Waterstones, Harrods, Foyles and Waitrose; not bad for a book rejected by publishing houses as “too different to fit our list”. The relaunch this month as Black Light, with a whizzy website - www.dekaydence.com - is due to increasing interest from older readers (such as Rossi), who appear drawn to its very difference, topicality and humour, as it tells of a near-future world in which teenagers are fighting to save the planet from environmental meltdown, adult apathy and corruption, and designer trousers. Black Light is the first in the Chronicles of Dekaydence.
By coincidence, Rossi and Cornfield are performing at Fairfield, Croydon, south London on Tuesday, 7th October: Rossi with Quo, in the evening; while Susie will give a lunchtime talk about writing and publishing.

SUSIE ON REM

Here's an interview with Susie Cornfield talking about Black Light to Hannah Murray on REM, Spain's largest English Language Radio Network.

Click here to listen:
mp3 file 3.9MB

Listeners health warning: there's talk that on this day, Susie's voice was off with a load of heavy duty cigar-smoking fairies.