June 2008 Archives

Not so many updates in June, basically because of moving house and working very hard to finish the follow-up to The Knife of Never Letting Go (nearly there).  Knife had some very nice write-ups this past weekend, both in 'summer round-up' type-fashion.

The estimable Amanda Craig said it "stands out as special" in the Times on Saturday, which is very nifty indeed.  (For foreign readers thats the "Times of London" you always hear Claude Rains talk about in middle-era Hitchcock).  And on Sunday, the Independent called it "this year's sleeper hit" so again with the extreme niftiness.

Seriously, I don't put this up there because of runaway egomania, I'm as surprised as anyone.  If you could see my expression, you wouldn't doubt me.

So, nearly done with the follow-up (soon, people, soon) and looking for somewhere to go away to for a week to rest my overheated brain.  It's a good month for music, what with Seth Lakeman's new CD out today and Jim Moray (finally) releasing a new album in two weeks.  I'll be resting tunefully.

Not the show, as previously mentioned, but in celebration of the song sung in the children's church of my youth where we chirpily awaited the apocalypse (10 and 9, 8 and 7, 6 and 5 and 4/The countdown's getting lower every day), I hereby give you the iPod LP (this time) of Countdown.

10:15 Saturday Night by the Cure (might as well start late)

Nine Out of Ten from Closer to Heaven (a camp track from a camp musical; take a guess as to what they're rating)

88 Seconds in Greensboro by OMD (who applauds OMD for trying experiments these days?  I ask you)

Seven Stories Underground by the Gutter Twins (whose album gets better with every listen)

Six Months in a Leaky Boat by Split Enz (a rare Tim Finn track I really like (I'm a Neil man))

Five Get Over Excited by The Housemartins (yes, all Housemartins songs sound the same, but if you have to have one)

4 Ever 2 Gether by ABC (if you don't have the Lexicon of Love, why are you reading this blog?)

Number Three by They Might Be Giants (unfortunately, the only other option was Three Lions)

Two Divided By Zero by Pet Shop Boys (best non-single they ever wrote)

#1 Crush by Garbage (the ultimate non-Bond Bond Theme)

And then of course you have to be Saved By Zero by the Fixx and all will be well.

Most writers have the humility to put their reviews on a separate "reviews" page, but I haven't got around to that yet, so you'll just have to put up with an ego run wild (not really; I'm still delighted that people are even reading it, seriously. And what nice comments they're leaving on the Visitors page).

So there's a very nice one at HackWriters and another at the Irish Times on 31 May (though you need a subscription to see the website).  And then there was this in the June issue of the Literary Review (not available online so I'm quoting here from reviewer Philip Womack):

"Sometimes you come across a children's book of startling and poetic beauty:  The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness is one such.  It is brilliantly evocative, tough, unsentimental, and creates its own, convincing argot that hurls the reader right into its world ...  This amazing book will, I hope, become a staple of children's literature, bravely dealing with loss, fear, and an adolescent's burgeoning sense of self, whilst being at the same time enormously compelling."

As they say in England, phwaor!  No pressure on the second book, then.  I'll just be in the other room with my head under the duvet.

...wrote just the nicest review of The Knife of Never Letting Go in Saturday's Guardian.  Even better, because I've never even met him.  He also had a few choice words to say about the way Young Adult fiction is marketed, an opinion which has got him a surprisingly strong response from the blogosphere. 

Ever noticed how blogging has ruined discourse?  It used to be, "Well, I must say I disagree with Mr Cottrell-Boyce" and now it's "What an asshole!  Burn everything he's ever written!"  Hmmm.  I thought he was being quite sensible, though I suppose my opinion doesn't count because it was all in a great review of my own book.

Still, you should definitely check out his excellent new book Cosmic, also longlisted for the very same Guardian Prize as me.  He also wrote 24-Hour Party People, so you should pretty much buy anything he publishes.

In other (rather big) news, Knife is now part of a promotion at Starbucks!  No kidding.  As part of their National Literacy Campaign, they're giving away samplers of three books, including the first three chapters of mine.  Check it out.

Right, still don't have broadband at home (really, AOL, you're doing yourself a world of customer service good here), so doing this at, wait for it, a public library.  I feel just that little bit saintlier; public libraries are an entire moral good.

Saw The Pitmen Painters at the National last night, about a real group of miners from the 30s who had an art movement.  It was by Lee Hall, the guy who wrote Billy Eliot.  Brilliant and very funny first act with a second act that kind of drags.  And then drags some more.  By the time the two and a half hour mark rolls around and the speeches begin, it starts to feel like socialist church.

Which brings me to my good and excellent and very funny friend Kim in Arizona, whose blog I now happily plug.  It's called Just Wait, You'll See and I mention it here because she lives by an actual mine.  True.  Everything's coming up labour.

...I've just been busy moving house.  I don't want to do that again for another decade.  But we're in, the rooms sort of look like rooms now, and we've only got about six years worth of box unpacking left to do.

I'm still moaning about not having broadband yet, but I've finally upgraded my five year old laptop (which weighed about 4 kilos, that's how old it was) and have discovered the joys of wireless.  Hence this brief update.

Very brief, as the move has sucked up all my time and I've got work to do finishing book two of the trilogy.  Book one (let me take this opportunity to mention the title yet again, forgive me, The Knife of Never Letting Go) seems to be going really well, which is a nice experience, eh?  And new!

As for plays, I've squished one or two in, but the noteworthy one is the rather fabulous new production of The Chalk Garden at the Donmar.  Very funny, and will probably be even better in a week when the cast are out of previews and deep into their characters.  Worth a look.