Last night we welcomed Mosquito and Brixton Beach author Roma Tearne to Mostly Books.
Roma was utterly delightful, even more so given the daunting task of meeting members of our Wednesday evening bookgroup who had all read Brixton Beach. The group met earlier, chatted about the book, and then Roma arrived about half an hour into the discussion. As those of you who know the shop well, when there is an event on in there there isn't much room to swing a paperback, so Roma had to push her way to the front and begin to answer questions immediately. Very intimidating - but Roma was well up to the challenge.
What followed was a fabulous discussion, where we were able to really get under the skin of Roma's writing, the themes of her book, how autobiographical it is - and her experiences of writing, and how it compares to her work as an artist. It was all over far too quickly, and I personally could have talked to Roma half the night about some of the 'loops' opened during the discussion, but Roma stayed behind after the meeting formally ended and chatted with everyone - a really great evening.
Roma is such a beguiling speaker, and she has insights into the writing process that (IMHO) make her a must-see for anyone writing. At the end of April Roma will be the Writer In Residence at Blackwells bookshop in Oxford for the week. It sounds a fascinating exercise in bringing a writer and readers together, so have a look at her residency page (link above) on Blackwell's website for more details...
Roma was utterly delightful, even more so given the daunting task of meeting members of our Wednesday evening bookgroup who had all read Brixton Beach. The group met earlier, chatted about the book, and then Roma arrived about half an hour into the discussion. As those of you who know the shop well, when there is an event on in there there isn't much room to swing a paperback, so Roma had to push her way to the front and begin to answer questions immediately. Very intimidating - but Roma was well up to the challenge.
What followed was a fabulous discussion, where we were able to really get under the skin of Roma's writing, the themes of her book, how autobiographical it is - and her experiences of writing, and how it compares to her work as an artist. It was all over far too quickly, and I personally could have talked to Roma half the night about some of the 'loops' opened during the discussion, but Roma stayed behind after the meeting formally ended and chatted with everyone - a really great evening.
Roma is such a beguiling speaker, and she has insights into the writing process that (IMHO) make her a must-see for anyone writing. At the end of April Roma will be the Writer In Residence at Blackwells bookshop in Oxford for the week. It sounds a fascinating exercise in bringing a writer and readers together, so have a look at her residency page (link above) on Blackwell's website for more details...
