Amy Jeffs – Q&A

Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain

Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain

Amy Jeffs is an art historian specialising in the Middle Ages. In 2019, she gained a PhD in Art History from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, having studied for earlier degrees at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the University of Cambridge.

During her PhD Amy co-convened a project researching medieval badges and pilgrim souvenirs at the British Museum. She then worked in the British Library’s department of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern manuscripts.

Her writing is often accompanied by her own linocut and wood-engraved prints, a sample of which may be seen here: www.amyjeffshistoria.com

Amy is a regular contributor to Country Life Magazine.

Amy can be found at:
Website: https://www.amyjeffshistoria.com/
Twitter: @amy_historia
Instagram: @historia_prints

Wild is out now and published by Riverrun, an imprint of Quercus.

Tell me what inspired you to write your (debut) book?

The delightful, fascinating, often politically urgent manuscripts and stories I was exploring for my PhD in History of Art.

What came first the characters or the world?

The characters existed already, but became real to me through the medium of linocuts and wood engravings, which is how both Storyland and Wild began. In both cases, the medium of monochrome print helped my visualise the world of the texts and define its atmosphere.

How hard was it to get your first (debut) book published?

Once I had an agent (Georgina Capel), it felt quite easy, but I had been interested in writing for a general audience and getting to know other writers for a good five years beforehand. For a long time, it seemed out of reach, but the fact of the matter is that I was lucky enough to receive an excellent undergraduate education, which helped me to gain further qualifications and find work in places like the British Museum and British Library. This all helped me build an inventory of ideas and a network of like-minded colleagues. While I had found my place in a writing community more or less incidentally, it was that community that taught me what to do and who to speak to once an idea had crystallised in my mind.

How long did it take to write?

6 months for a draft, 1 year for a finished and illustrated manuscript, building on material I had gathered for my thesis.

Do you have a writing playlist? If so do you want to share it?

Nope. I forget to listen and anyway they are never long enough!

How many publishers turned you down?

My proposal was submitted to various publishers by my agent, Georgina Capel. I remember getting 3 or 4 offers, which she whittled down to two, who then bid for the book. I don’t remember it as clearly as I would like because I was in a state of high nervousness and excitement.

What kind of reactions have you had to your book?

At festivals I’ve spoken to teachers introducing British myths and legends to their year 7s with myths in their curriculum. I’ve met students, artists and lecturers interested in the relationship between research and creativity. I’ve met children with strange, insightful questions about truth and teenagers full of ambition and wisdom. The only negative encounters I’ve had have been online, which probably says something!

What’s the favourite reaction you’ve had to your book?

I met a 15 year old in Nottingham who told me about how her school had invited its students to dress up as characters or in costumes from their cultural backgrounds. ‘My parents are Indian’, she said, ‘so I wore a sari, but loads of my British-heritage friends were like, “oooh we don’t know what to wear. We feel too guilty about colonialism and imperialism.” She shook her head and said, ‘I told them they weren’t looking back far enough – they have so many stories to choose from that are much older than the British Empire.’ I was so grateful to her for sharing this anecdote with me and so impressed that a 15 year old had taken herself to a book event on her own.

What can you tell us about your next book?

Storyland

Storyland

My first book, STORYLAND, retold myths that were shared and popularised in medieval Britain. Mostly, they post-date the 12th century and have a strong political dimension. WILD looks further back in time, to 650-1000, and tells stories inspired by surviving texts and artefacts from or contingent to Britain in this period. As in STORYLAND, commentaries come after the tales in WILD, to bring readers into a corpus of amazing sources (and some really are like mazes) that sheds light on an old idea of the wilderness. The main body of the text is followed by beautiful new translations by George Younge, which capture the vivid, often stormy, natural setting of the originals, along with their psychological urgency. This is a less overtly political book. To me, it’s about hope, craft and harmony.

Do you take notice of online reviews?

I do, though I’m not always sure it’s wise to draw confidence or otherwise from things like online ratings. Some of my most beloved books – books that seem to me works of undeniable genius – have very low ratings online. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, for instance, scores 3.8 on Goodreads and he wrote that from Monkwearmouth Jarrow in 8th-century Northumbria and influenced practically every Western historian who has come since.

Would you ever consider writing outside your current genre?

Yes.

What did you do before (or still do) you became a writer?

I was doing a PhD, which involved teaching as well as writing. I also worked in the British Library and British Museum, with manuscripts and medieval badges respectively.

Which author(s) inspire you?

Mainly Laurie Lee, Max Porter and Suzannah Clark.

Which genres do you read yourself?

I love reading medieval monastic chronicles and saints’ lives for the magical realism. I also read quite a lot of poetry and shorter novels with a tendency towards the strange.

What is your biggest motivator?

Can I give three answers? If yes, then: the need to earn a living, the desire to do something I love devotedly and the hope it will bring people joy.

What will always distract you?

I can’t really think of anything. I love writing and carving Lino and find myself disappearing for hours and hours, given the chance. Maybe food?

How much (if any) say do you have in your book covers?

Quite a lot, as I produce the prints that are used for my book covers. However, I’m no graphic designer and feel very grateful to be able to defer to the expertise of the Quercus design team when it comes to broader issues of layout and typography.

Were you a big reader as a child?

Yes. I am an only child and we travelled a lot. I read and drew and read and painted…

What were your favourite childhood books?

John Seymour’s The Forgotten Arts and Crafts, which I found in the school library when I was about 8 and used to read voraciously. I read a lot of fantasy, including The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, Harry Potter and the like. I also loved encyclopaedias of birds and animals. They make such good bedtime reading.

Do you have a favourite bookshop? If so, which?

Hunting Raven in Frome. It’s my local and always so warm and full of ideas (and maps).

What books can you not resist buying?

Anything containing wood engravings.

Do you have any rituals when writing?

Completely clearing my desk, except for a pint of water and a mug of coffee.

How many books are in your own physical TBR pile?

I’m afraid I’m quite a chaotic reader…probably about thirty and, apart from the audiobooks, they are hidden all around the house.

What is your current or latest read?

Henry of Huntingdon’s History of the English People.

Any books that you’re looking forward to in the next 12 months?

Max Porter’s SHY. Kate Rundell’s THE GOLDEN MOLE.

Any plans or projects in the near future you can tell us about?

The audiobook for WILD is illustrated with songs, which I wrote with a friend called Robbie Haylett and recorded with a band over the summer. Well be releasing them on Spotify in time for Christmas and are looking forward to playing together at events next year. In the meantime, I’ll be writing and carving Lino for book three (following the form and scale of STORYLAND), which I’m hoping the publishers will give me permission to talk about soon!

Any events in the near future?

Waterstones York, Thurs 3rd Nov
Push the Boat Out Festival, Edinburgh, Sat 5th Nov
Brendon Books Festival, Taunton, Mon 14th Nov
Frome Society for Local Study, Frome, Sat 19th Nov
Waterstones Salisbury, Thurs 24th Nov
Sherborne Literary Soc, Wednesday 30th Nov

and finally, what inspired you to write the genre you do?

I think it was a love of stories and their genealogies. I want to get lost in a story through fiction and illustration, but I also want to know about its history and its impact. Tracing such things as art and literature into the past can help us acknowledge our debt to our heritage; it is a huge inventory, an ocean of ideas in which to cast our nets.


If you want to help and support this blog and my other projects (Indie Publishers and Indie Bookshops) you could become a Patreon which would help pay for my hosting, domain names, streaming services, and the occasional bag of popcorn to eat while watching films.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.

Midwinter Burning

Tanya Landman. Walker Books. (256p) ISBN 9781406397185

Midwinter Burning

Midwinter Burning

I loved Tanya’s previous books, especially Horse Boy, so was really pleased to get a chance to read her new one.

In Midwinter Burning we start off in prehistory and the scene is set for a midwinter offering, this sets up the rest of the book, especially the idea of outsiders.

We then go to London on the eve of the Second World War and Operation Pied Piper, a voluntary evacuation of children three days before the declaration of war with Germany. Here we meet Alfie, another outsider with a life of rejection and bullying behind him.

His group is evacuated to a village where the stones from the first scene are and here Alfie starts to find what he could feel is a home with Auntie Bell and the animals of the farm he is staying at.

He even eventually makes a friend called Snidge, but his friend is a mystery with a different language and different clothing, Alfie doesn’t want to mention him to others just in case the paranoia of an upcoming war affects this friendship.

Tanya weaves a fascinating tale of two worlds and how they interact, how friendship can overcome adversity, and how even the littlest of us can succeed.

I loved how Alfie and Snidge learned about each others worlds, and how they could inhabit each others worlds was so well done, especially toward the end of the story which is so exciting and tense.

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


If you want to help and support this blog and my other projects (Indie Publishers and Indie Bookshops) you could become a Patreon which would help pay for my hosting, domain names, streaming services, and the occasional bag of popcorn to eat while watching films.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.

The Red Red Dragon

Lynne Reid Banks, Kristina Kister. Walker Books. (368p) ISBN 9781529507799

The Red Red Dragon

The Red Red Dragon

I’ve been really lucky in the books I’ve been approved for on NetGalley recently and this by Lynne Reid Banks is no exception.

I was initially drawn to it by the beautiful cover by Kristina Kistner as it took a while for it to sink in who had written it and then I just had to get it as I loved her previous work.

We are taken to a world of dragons and uprights, where the uprights have been driven from the mainland after years of war between the species and the dragons are now a caring, peaceful community who solve all problems with conversation and debate, but there is a problem and this needs to be solved quickly or everything will change for dragon society.

This society could be set in our future where the climate emergency has continued apace and humans have developed other species as natural ones went extinct and the heat had helped to develop the dragon species.

Red is the only dragon of that colour and also seems to have the capacity to think thoughts that others of his kind can’t, but more than that he is at the core of some legends that will help the future for them all.

Red and his family progress through a range of different adventures throughout the book to succeed at the mission that has been entrusted to them, and we follow Red as he grows and develops his thinks and his skills.

The developments that move the story on are really well written and executed and we’re always cheering them on to stay true to dragon culture and help the world change for the better. The story is wonderfully supported by illustrations from Kristina Kister. A wonderful book full of warmth and hope.


If you want to help and support this blog and my other projects (Indie Publishers and Indie Bookshops) you could become a Patreon which would help pay for my hosting, domain names, streaming services, and the occasional bag of popcorn to eat while watching films.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.

Deshan Tennekoon – Q&A

Deshan Tennekoon

Deshan Tennekoon

Deshan Tennekoon is a physically rickety but mentally limber writer from Sri Lanka. His books for Think Equal are taught in schools around the world and lots of 6-year-olds think they’re okay. He wrote for The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Asian Design and is still recov­ering from the shock of once being a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. ‘Podi’, a middle-grade graphic novel he co-wrote is forthcoming from Oni Press (2022). His short comics have been published by Image Comics, ShortBox, Inkbrick and in the Eisner and Ignatz-winning anthology Elements: Fire (Beyond Press). He believes in reckless napping as a fine tool for managing his sanity.

Deshan can be found at:
Website: https://www.onlinedesho.com/
Twitter: @deshan10
Instagram: @onlinedesho

Tell me what inspired you to write Mary Anning’s Grewsome Beasts?

I think it was partly shock and disappointment: as a kid, I devoured palaeontology books but only discovered Anning’s astonishing contribution decades later. People didn’t seem to talk about her much.

Her story is remarkable: nearly killed by lightning as a baby; discovers her first major fossil at age 12; pulls corpses from the sea after a ship sinks at age 16; discovers the first complete plesiosaur fossil as well as the first fossil pterosaur from Britain; wears a reinforced top hat; is meticulous and brilliant in the field and in her conclusions.

And that’s not even half her story. I thought a book for kids was a useful way to honour her life, her mind, and her work.

Do you have a writing playlist? If so do you want to share it?

Can’t write to music if there’s lyrics involved. That said, each project has days of staring-into-space-and-thinking. On those days, there’s a playlist on heavy-rotation, set to shuffle. This is the playlist for ‘Mary Anning’s Grewsome Beasts’ (some for the energy, some for the lyrics):

  • Fiona Apple: Under the Table
  • Nellie McKay: Beneath the Underdog
  • Cosmo Sheldrake: Come Along
  • Seeming: Stranger (feat. Sammus)
  • The Monkees: Steppin’ Stone
  • Gentle Mystics: Hark
  • The Guild: I’m The One That’s Cool (feat. Felicia Day)
  • Fiona Apple: Daredevil
  • Green Day: Minority
  • Beck: Saw Lightning
  • Dr. John: Right Place Wrong Time
  • Billie Eilish: You Should See Me in a Crown
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar (Once More With Feeling OST): Something to Sing About
  • Fiona Apple: Relay
  • Nah Eeto: Auntie, What Happened To Me?
  • Jahcoozi: Read The Books

What’s the favourite reaction you’ve had to your book?

This wonderful letter by a small, knowledgeable human who loves palaeontology:

Card from Abigail

Card from Abigail

If you know a kid who loves extinct beasts, I think they’ll like Abigail’s account (run by her grownup: @raisingapalaeo1). I certainly find it inspirational – warms my heart to see such joyful dedication.

What can you tell us about your next book?

Mary Anning Cover

Mary Anning Cover

I can tell you place and time. Not because I’m playing coy, but because I’m still wading through the research and figuring it out. I know it will be set in Sri Lanka, between the 1500s and the early-1800s.

I want my second nonfiction book to be stranger and longer, and there’s a lot to choose from here. Some of the historical figures include: a princess who foments rebellion to conceal a daring jailbreak; a young Englishman who spends 20 years as the captive guest of a king; a sunken ship full of Mughal silver coins; reports of blood-sucking hedgehogs; and a doctor who performs a mysterious ‘lizard treatment’ and then vanishes from the records.

Would you ever consider writing outside your current genre?

Given the length of what I write, I am able to (and enjoy) drifting between disciplines and genres. My preference is for the sciences (mostly biology), science fiction (ditto), prehistory, and history (mostly the last few Sri Lankan kingdoms).

Which author(s) inspire you?

Hard question. Here’s a top-of-head selection from a long list of writers to whom I’m indebted, for their uncanny ability to meld rigour, clarity and beauty:
Nonfiction: Carl Sagan, Hope Jahren, Rendell & Whitehead, Dian Ackerman, and Merlin Sheldrake.
Fiction: Ursula K. Le Guin, Ted Chiang, Richard Powers, Igarashi Daisuke, and Terry Pratchett.

Do you have a favourite bookshop? If so, which?

I am going to cheat by saying: the string of tiny, idiosyncratic, second-hand bookshops on McCallum Road in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The booksellers are motley crew of gentle, grizzled, old men who are often happy to lend certain books, if you can’t afford the price. If you’re ever in the city with an afternoon to spare, I recommend a visit: every turn between tightly packed shelves reveals new treasure and a giant, leafy tree presides over the small shops.

What is your current or latest read?

I’m hopping between an excellent nonfiction book — ‘The Canon’ by Natalie Angier; and a brilliant, disturbing novel that’s just been shortlisted for the Booker Prize — ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ by dear friend and bloody nuisance, Shehan Karunatilaka. I’m also revisiting Watterson’s ‘Calvin & Hobbes,’ after a decade or so, and still marveling at the man’s craft.

Any plans or projects in the near future you can tell us about?

A trilingual project that’s nearing completion, called ‘Kaputu Kaak Kaak Kaak Kaak’. Written by human rights lawyer and all ‘round good egg, Amal de Chickera, it’s an illustrated book about protest and civic education for children, which talks about about the current crisis in Sri Lanka — how we got here; why people are protesting; and what children can do, c.2022.

We’re producing three editions (English, Sinhala, Tamil) and it’s the first time I’ve illustrated a book (nerve-racking stuff). We’re offering them free at The Internet Archive and the English edition is already out. Here’s a link, in case you’d like to dip in: https://tinyurl.com/2m2scke7 Thank you very much, Stephen, for having me on your site!


If you want to help and support this blog and my other projects (Indie Publishers and Indie Bookshops) you could become a Patreon which would help pay for my hosting, domain names, streaming services, and the occasional bag of popcorn to eat while watching films.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back

Emma Carroll, Lauren Child. Simon & Schuster. (208p) ISBN 9781398512818

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back

I’d been saving this for my holiday and the train journey to and from Hull, well it lasted the train journey to Hull…

Another brilliant book from Emma Carroll and Lauren Child, looking forward to seeing the finished illustrations as the copy I had was a bound proof and they were all greyscale, but still stunningly beautiful.

This takes the story of the little match girl and gives her agency, rather than letting her die she is allowed to live and change things for the better along with others in similar circumstances.

Very apt at the moment when more and more workers are seeing that collective action is the only way to make a lasting and real change in the world.

There are tones of Christmas Carol, especially the idea of three revelatory scenes that change the protagonist and the outcome of the story.

Well written at a cracking pace (I finished it on a single train journey) the illustrations and word play add a strength to the book that words alone wouldn’t convey.

I’m always happy to get an Emma Carroll or Lauren Child book to read and this is just wonderful having the two together


If you want to help and support this blog and my other projects (Indie Publishers and Indie Bookshops) you could become a Patreon which would help pay for my hosting, domain names, streaming services, and the occasional bag of popcorn to eat while watching films.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.

I Did See a Mammoth!

Alex Willmore. Farshore. (32p) ISBN 9780008503574

I Did See a Mammoth

I Did See a Mammoth

Everyone at the shop had commented on how good this book looked and I was so glad to get a copy of it from NetGalley to review.

An expedition to Antarctica where there are different expectations from some of the expedition members, most are there to study the ‘fabulous, cute, glorious, penguins’, but our protagonist is adamant that they will see a MAMMOTH!

Bright and fun throughout, we follow the main character as they keep seeing a Mammoth involved in various outlandish activities and runs back to the rest of the expedition to tell them but they keep not believing and it is a case of ‘crying wolf’ until of course they encounter the Mammoth themselves.

The Mammoth twist is really fun as well.

Oh, the penguins are anything but fabulous, cute, and glorious. It is great fun looking at all the penguins to check out their expressions and what they’re getting up to.

Such a great wintery book, perfect for a Christmas present.


If you want to help and support this blog and my other projects (Indie Publishers and Indie Bookshops) you could become a Patreon which would help pay for my hosting, domain names, streaming services, and the occasional bag of popcorn to eat while watching films.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.

The Vanishing of Aveline Jones

Phil Hicks, Keith Robinson. Usborne Publishing, (256p) ISBN 9781474972161

The Vanishing of Aveline Jones

The Vanishing of Aveline Jones

I love the Aveline Jones series of books, and was so excited when I found out that this was coming out just in time for Halloween, and was so happy when I got approved for it on NetGalley.

I dove straight into this on the day my holiday began and had finished it by early afternoon, it is so well written with great illustrations from Keith Robinson supporting the story.

Previously Aveline and Harold had been involved with ghosts and witches, but this time they have something even more fiendish to contend with, the Fae!

Aveline, Harold, her mum, and Aunt Lilian have gone to her long lost uncles home to sell it as he has been gone for 10 years with absolutely no sign of him.

Along the way they team up with a new character called Sammy (paranormal expert and blogger extraordinaire) to figure out where Aveline’s uncle has disappeared to.

This third addition to the series is the creepiest of them all, much darker in tone than the previous two and so well paced. Sadly it was all over with much sooner than I was expecting as I just tore through the book in two sittings (breaking for lunch).

Another brilliant book in the series and now waiting for the next, hint…


If you want to help and support this blog and my other projects (Indie Publishers and Indie Bookshops) you could become a Patreon which would help pay for my hosting, domain names, streaming services, and the occasional bag of popcorn to eat while watching films.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.

Kirsti Wishart – Q&A

Kirsti Wishart

Kirsti Wishart

Kirsti Wishart’s short stories have appeared in New Writing Scotland, 404 Ink, Glasgow Review of Books, Product Magazine and Biopolis: Tales of Urban Biology. Her debut novel, The Knitting Station, an everyday tale of spies, knitwear and hallucinogenic stovies was published by Rymour Books in March 2021. Her second novel, The Projectionist, appeared in February 2022. Set in the small seaside town of Seacrest, a place obsessed with cinema, it’s a mystery that’s been described as Agatha Christie meets Kenneth Anger. Kirsti lives in Edinburgh and would love you to say hello.

 

Kirsti can be found at:
Website: http://www.scottishsuperheroes.com/
Twitter: @kirstiw

Tell me what inspired you to write your (debut) novel?

The Knitting Station

The Knitting Station

The Knitting Station all started when a friend at work brought in a selection of knitting patterns from the 1960s and I became fascinated by the pop subculture they represented. Stars like Twiggy and Roger Moore had started their careers appearing in them and I began to dream up a Studio 54 type knitting factory when the patterns featured. Naturally that had to be set on a remote Scottish island famed for its intricate knitwear. From there it was a short leap to setting a cosy(ish) thriller in the Cold War featuring secret codes, hallucinogenic stovies, scary sheep and a film star called Elsie Brixton.

Years and years and years ago I wrote a Ph.D with chapters on the work of Robert Louis Stevenson and John Buchan. Whilst I do have issues with Buchan, I do admire his narrative drive and wanted to write an adventure romp that subverted and queered up his male-dominated world, a book he might have disapproved of but couldn’t help reading to the end. In contrast to Buchan’s supremely competent Richard Hannay, David Balfour of Stevenson’s Kidnapped, has a touching vulnerability and is a surprisingly inept action hero. In Hannah Richards, a former Bletchley Park codebreaker and heroine of The Knitting Station, I hope I’ve created someone who similarly thinks they’re fairly useless in some ways but succeeds in the end.

What came first the characters or the world?

A bit of both. My novels tend to start with a concept that intrigues me – what if the worlds of James Bond and knitwear collided? What would a Scottish seaside town obsessed with cinema look like? – but concept alone isn’t enough to sustain a novel. It’s the characters that help decide and drive the plot and keep you and hopefully the reader engaged. Novel-writing is a long and lonely process so you have to make sure your imaginary friends make for interesting company.

How hard was it to get your first (debut) book published?

As is sometimes the case with publishing, nothing happened for ages and then it was all ridiculously quick. I’d got in touch with Rymour Books via twitter with a proposal for another, unwritten book. Much to my surprise/panic, they were very keen and to distract them from the length of time it would take to get that one done, I offered them The Knitting Station which they snapped up. Persistence is all as you never know when that door is going to take you by surprise and swing wide open.

How long did it take to write?

It took three years which is a very long time for such a daft wee book but I work full time and have a stupidly lengthy process. My first draft is always very long and messy and is essentially me trying to work out what the book’s about. Once that first draft is done, I open up another file and being another draft, then another, then another…with each one it does get easier as I pare away and get a clearer idea of what it is I’m actually working on.

Do you have a writing playlist?

I like music that can play gently in the background and help get your mind into the meditative state that best helps with making stuff up. Minimalist composers are very handy for this so Steve Reich, John Adams along with Arvo Part, Vaughan Williams and, for The Knitting Station, The Lost Songs of St Kilda.

How many publishers turned you down?

A couple, which feels very flukey now as The Knitting Station is very – how can I put it…? – quirky. I was lucky indeed to find someone prepared to take a chance on it

What kind of reactions have you had to your book?

Generally very positive as people do like their knitting. I think the cast of strong female characters also helps. Fantastically, it’s stocked by a local woolshop, Kathy’s Knits in Edinburgh, and sales have been pretty constant.

What’s the favourite reaction you’ve had to your book?

Two very talented friends produced knitted and embroidered celebrations to mark its publication, both of which still bring a tear to my eye (in a good way).

What can you tell us about your next book?

The Projectionist was published by Rymour in March 2022 and has the sheep and knitwear of The Knitting Station replaced by filmstars and cinemas. It’s set in the fictional Scottish town of Seacrest, a town obsessed by cinema, and is about the effect of the arrival of the mysterious film critic, Cameron Fletcher, on its inhabitants. It features Orson Welles, tunnels filled with movie paraphernalia, the biggest Lost Property Office you’ve ever seen and a very angry parrot called Stanley.

Do you take notice of online reviews?

There haven’t been too many to be honest and the ones there have been have been generally kind so far although one reader did find The Knitting Station ‘childish and rather too odd.’ Which I have to say, sums it up pretty accurately!

Would you ever consider writing outside your current genre?

As the Buchanesque-lesbian-knitting-Cold War-thriller is somewhat niche, I think it’s inevitable I’ll end up writing outside that genre, unless offered a substantial amount of money for a sequel. I do like the structure provided by genre fiction and although my second novel, The Projectionist, attempts to be more of a ‘literary’ novel, it does wander quite substantially into mystery territory. Genre helps provide the engine of plot that pulls the reader along.

What did you do before (or still do) you became a writer?

The Projectionist

The Projectionist

I believe it was Jenny Diski who said the best job for a writer is being the person who corrals shopping trollies in supermarket carparks as it’s useful work that keeps you physically active and gives you lots of thinking time. I ended up doing the admin equivalent of that by becoming a low-ranking civil servant which provided plenty of security and time to write if maybe not the physical activity. Having a job to fall back on is pretty much essential to all but a tiny percent of writers in financial terms but I also think it’s very valuable to have a job that can feed into your writing to give it that depth of experience, perhaps in unexpected ways. However, as the years have gone by I’ve made the mistake of getting promoted and writing time feels as though it’s shrinking…

Which author(s) inspire you?

Iain Banks and Michael Chabon as they wrote the books they wanted to write to give maximum enjoyment to their readers and weren’t afraid to indulge in the pleasures of genre. Diana Wynne Jones and China Mieville for their fantastic, layered worlds, magical yet grounded in a recognisable reality.

Which genres do you read yourself?

I have to admit, I’ve haven’t read a great deal of fiction in recent years but tend towards non-fiction. I do like Golden Age crime fiction like Agatha Christie, Edmund Crispin and Gladys Mitchell along with modern day practitioners like Christopher Fowler with his excellent Bryant and May series. Helena Marchmont’s (Olga Wojta’s pseudonym) Bunburry books have been a real comfort over the past couple of years. Olga’s novels featuring the indomitable time-travelling librarian Shona MacMonagle are also always worth a read.

What is your biggest motivator?

To create characters and worlds that I enjoy spending time in and that readers like to visit too. Bringing something into the world that didn’t exist ten minutes ago is scary but also hugely satisfying, especially for someone like me who has very limited practical skills!

What will always distract you?

If there’s reality show featuring cooking/jewellery making/glass-blowing/wood-working/pottery than I’m afraid there’s a very high chance I’m going to be found watching that rather than working on a chapter.

How much (if any) say do you have in your book covers?

Ian Spring of Rymour Books has done an excellent job on my covers so far. I passed on a suggestion for The Knitting Station and what he came up more than matched my expectation. I would never have thought of the cover for The Projectionist but loved it as soon as I saw it so thankfully there’s hasn’t been the need for much discussion around them other than me saying, ‘That’s great!’.

Were you a big reader as a child?

My earliest memories are connected with reading, I can remember asking my mum to ask the nursery staff if I could take home a comic and have a very clear memory of a book with ‘This is a cake’ in it in Primary One, thereby merging two of my great loves, reading and patisserie. I loved visits to the library featuring a Kit-kat and a limeade in the café after (you can tell I had a Scottish childhood). My inclinations were towards genre fiction with Alfred Hitchcock’s The Three Investigators and Willard Price adventure stories featuring heavily. And every child should read The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper.

What were your favourite childhood books?

As mentioned above, I loved The Three Investigators but one of my very favourite books was a Disney’s Duck Tales comic book (hey, I was a kid!). I also really enjoyed The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O’Shea and keep on meaning to revisit it. Some books you loved as a child can disappoint when you back to them but I’m sure that won’t be one of them.

Do you have a favourite bookshop? If so, which?

Edinburgh is blessed with fantastic bookshops, for me it would have to be a tie between Till’s, a second-hand bookshop, and Typewronger, both places where you’re guaranteed stumbling across treasures. Golden Hare, Argonaut and Elvis & Shakespeare are always worth visits too.

What books can you not resist buying?

Old Penguin paperbacks of Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark. The covers alone are worth the price but what’s inside isn’t too bad either.

Do you have any rituals when writing?

A cup of tea, a biscuit (see ‘This is a cake’ above) some nice music playing. All to trick the brain into thinking it’s about to do something purely enjoyable rather than potentially difficult and heart-breaking (which it isn’t once you get going, it’s the starting that’s the worst bit).

How many books are in your own physical TBR pile?

A pile too teetering to count.

What is your current or latest read?

Nose Dive by Harold McGee, a wonderful exploration of the world of smells and The Secret Lives of Colour by Kasia St Clair, a fascinating treasure trove of information featuring all the colours of the rainbow and then some.

Any books that you’re looking forward to in the next 12 months?

I was fortunate enough to have been selected as a member of the Scottish Book Trust and Creative Scotland Debut Lab, a scheme to help support authors who released their debut novel during the pandemic. I’ll be looking forward to reading forthcoming works by Heather Darwent and Yvonne Banham as well as working my way through all the other debutants on the list.

Any plans or projects in the near future you can tell us about?

Hopefully there might be a third novel appearing next year called The Pocketbook Guide to Scottish Superheroes. And I might finally get finished a novel I’ve been working on for far too long, if only so I can get it out the way and on to other projects!

Any events in the near future?

There are a couple of events in the planning stages with Edinburgh Central Libraries for Book Week Scotland that runs from 14th – 22nd November. Further info will no doubt be announced via my twitter account – @kirstiw


If you want to help and support this blog and my other projects (Indie Publishers and Indie Bookshops) you could become a Patreon which would help pay for my hosting, domain names, streaming services, and the occasional bag of popcorn to eat while watching films.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.