Ashley Dyer's Blog, page 7

St Martin’s Press ISBN-10: 1250121345

How did actors metamorphose from uncredited players in silent ‘flickers’ to become powerful movers and shakers in politics? Apparently, it all began in the 1920s with the very first celebrity movie stars.

Nancie Clare charts the development of Beverly Hills from marginal rancho land to glamorous enclave for Hollywood stars. It wasn’t a smooth ride: like the former owners of ‘Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas’, the movie settlers of the twentieth century would hav...

Canongate Books ISBN: 085786 8853

Don’t let the suspiciously New Age title put you off: Jo Marchant is a biologist with a doctorate in genetics and medical microbiology, a former editor of New Scientist and Nature – and CURE was shortlisted for a Royal Society science book prize.

Marchant presents the growing evidence that the mind has a powerful effect on illness and wellness in clear, accessible language. She takes a healthily sceptical view of the studies, her research is impeccable, and h...

Zaffre ISBN-10: 178576 3350

There’s a plethora of ‘domestic noir’ novels in crime fiction, just now. You know the sort of thing: isolated woman, unreliable narrator, dark goings-on in suffocating relationships. Gripping reads, all. But if, like me, you feel the need to escape that claustrophobic world and glimpse a broader vista, SWEET LITTLE LIES could be just the ticket.

A protagonist with a mysterious past, and a slightly suspect memory of what went on eighteen years earlier between her fa...

A PIN TO SEE THE PEEPSHOW by F Tennyson Jesse
Virago ISBN: 086068 0843

Julia Almond, born to drab suburban life in Edwardian London, longs for more. Short-sighted and vain, she sees the world in an astigmatic blur, and yearns for the romantic fairy-tale she once glimpsed in a toy peepshow. We meet her at sixteen, an incurably romantic child-woman, careless of others, yet with a spirit and charm which is compelling.

The opening chapter reminded me of Katharine Mansfield, capturing the vivaciou...

UNCOMMON TYPE by Tom Hanks
William Heinemann ISBN-13: 978-1785151514

This is Tom Hanks’s first collection of short stories. Yes, Tom Hanks the actor. He writes, too – and very well, damnit!
Uncommon Type’s eclectic mix of stories have one common theme: a typewriter features in each. We’re not talking about electrics or word processors; these honest-to-goodness machines date back to the earliest models – and some have magical abilities, bringing people together, getting them talking, helping t...

Fingerprints, Footwear – and a hearing impediment to identification

Fingerprints
The ancient Babylonians were probably the first people to use fingerprints for identification; people left their marks on clay tablets detailing business transactions. Fingerprints were also used on important documents in ancient China.

The idea that an individual’s fingerprints might be unique was first suggested by the German JC Mayer in 1798, however, it wasn’t until two y...

LA BELLE SAUVAGE: The Book Of Dust Volume I, by Phillip Pullman

Penguin RH & David Fickling Books ISBN–13: 978-0385604413

There’s a delightful trend, just now, for beautiful books. Bound between linen-covered boards, some engraved, some gilt-edged, many with silk place-markers, they recall a time when print books were given as precious gifts, and treasured by their owners. The Book of Dust is one such treat, gorgeous in dark blue with sprinkles of gold: a reference to the cosmic ‘Dust’ of the...

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME, by Mark Haddon

Vintage ISBN-13: 978-0099450252

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery like no other. The detective and narrator is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger’s Syndrome; he knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings.

The extraordinary power of Haddon’s writing is his ability to place the reader in the mind of Christopher. So, when the fifteen-year-old g...

MANHATTAN BEACH by Jennifer Egan

Corsair ISBN: 978 1 4721 8087 5

Set in New York, Manhattan Beach opens with eleven-year-old Anna, accompanying her father to a meeting. We gather that Eddie Kerrigan is a go-between, moving easily between the mobsters and the elite of New York, picking up packages, handing them on. A minor player in the corrupt doings of the city, greasing the palms that grease the wheels that keep the machinery running smoothly. Anna is pert, precocious and utterly captivatin...

I plan to write occasional posts on my writing process, as I draft book 2 in the Lake and Carver series. I hope you enjoy them.

Today, I decided to change the point of view of the killer. I’ve already written a number of scenes from his perspective, all in the third person (he thinks, etc), but it just wasn’t working. The pace was wrong; his thought processes seemed too portentous, and I simply wasn’t convinced (or disturbed) by him and the plans he was laying ou...