The First Novel

I’m reading with two debut novelists at Nottingham Waterstones on March 26th. I enjoyed Chris Killen’s The Bird Room over Christmas (see below). It’s a wry, witty novel about sex and ennui which has deservedly been attracting a lot of attention. Chris was one of my dissertation students when I first began teaching Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent in 2002. That makes me feel a little old. Mind you, I’ll also be talking about a debut novel – my first for adults, The Pretender, a literary thriller – that I began writing when I was Chris’s age. Reading from and talking about her first novel will be Brigid Rose, whose The City Of Lists is published on March 5th. I’ve just finished reading this absorbing dystopia. The story has intriguing twists and hints of Orwell’s 1984 from a woman’s perspective. It should be an interesting evening. The event runs from 7-8.30pm and tickets are £3 in advance or on the door, redeemable against a copy of any of the books.