Why Writing Requires Our Full Attention

On Friday, my agent told me a publisher had made an offer on a book. How exciting! Though there were still a couple of other publishers to hear from, all indicators pointed toward this publisher. We'll know for sure by Tuesday, she told me. I spent the weekend with many questions running through my mind. Would one of the other publishers make a counter offer? Who would my editor be? Would I be able to finish it by August, as they requested? What were their marketing plans?

Monday morning came and I decided I might as well do what I always do -- write one of these essays. I'd been writing one nearly every morning for eight years. It's what I did. So I opened a new file and waited. And waited. By and by a little idea came, and I started in, but something was missing. I liked the idea, but I couldn't get close to it. I forged ahead, hoping to draw closer to it by sheer will. The more I wrote, the further from the idea I felt.

A mild panic began to set in. The book was based on these essays. I'd been writing and writing about creativity and spirituality and inspiration for eight years. What if I was used up? I wisely decided to stop writing. The moment I begin to worry that my creative well is dry is the moment I need to do something else. Yet a new question had entered my mind. Why could I do it nearly every other morning, but not this one? What was different? Unlike the idea I'd been trying to write, this question had my full attention.

It wasn't long before the very obvious answer arrived: I can only ask and answer one question at a time. For instance, I cannot simultaneously ask, "What would I like to write about this morning?" and, "Who's going to buy the book?" That I could not actually answer the second question did not make it any less compelling. Nor did it matter that I wasn't literally thinking the words, "Who's going to buy the book?" The questions I'd been asking all weekend continued to occupy my imagination passively, like a radio left on so long I forgot it could be turned off.

I like writing for a lot of reasons. I like language, I like solitude, I like discovery, but most of all I like that writing requires my full attention. When I give writing my full attention, I am as interested in being alive as I can possibly be. But when I attempt to write with a divided mind, life itself feels like one long assignment that must be completed before the fun begins.

That these two experiences couldn't be any more different infuses writing with an unavoidable uncertainty. That is not to say that what we call luck has a hand in whether I experience a good day of writing or a bad day of writing. Quite the opposite. I must choose to give writing my full attention. If I do, it goes well; if I don't, it doesn't. Nothing in the world, no book contract or agent or editor, can make me give it my full attention. That power belongs to me alone - and just as the page is blank, so too are tomorrow's choices yet unmade, and life yet to be lived.

You can learn more about William at williamkenower.com.

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'A certain sort of maleness': Helen Garner on a week spent watching Russell Crowe films

Everyone has an opinion about Russell Crowe. In this excerpt from Helen Garner’s new book, the author spends a week with his films to work out hers

Related: Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner review – elegant reflections on life, writing and Russell Crowe

One morning I walked into the kitchen and found my son-in-law standing frozen in front of the TV. On the screen a bloke in a blue singlet was manhandling an electric guitar. I had never before witnessed such a noxious exhalation of inauthenticity.

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The Lonely Arts Club

On the first Wednesday of any given month, I could be found at a cafe in Cambridge writing, and waiting. It wouldn't be long before I was surrounded by other writers catching up with each other, chatting about what they've been working on, what they've been reading. These conversations were friendly but brief. Soon, our laptops would be set-up and lattes or dinner served by our sides, and we'd get to work.

Write Nite wasn't like a traditional writing group. We didn't trade drafts or provide each other with feedback. In fact, most of us worked in different genres: there were fiction writers whose work ranged from speculative fiction to literary to somewhere in between. There were grad students working on papers. We were regularly joined by editors who would work on projects for clients. Some nights we were accompanied by artists who would sketch, or even work on a sculpture.

We were just there to work, together.

When I began writing ten years ago, I quickly discovered how solitary writing can be, how easy it is to become isolated. Even if you participate in a workshop or attend readings, the majority of your writing time is spent by yourself. Since college, most of my days have been spent alone with the characters I'm crafting on the page.

It can be incredibly lonely.

One of the challenges of being a writer is striving for connection, whether it is with our readers or our peers, while also working on our craft. While our friends in the performing arts -- musicians and dancers and actors -- are able to connect with audiences and collaborate with each other as they do their work, it can be tougher for us in the "lonely arts." For writers and artists, whose work generally require a mental state that is best achieved in solitude, building these connections often comes at the expense of time that should be spent on our craft.

After completing my first manuscript, I was frustrated by this predicament and wondered, did maintaining relationships and doing my work have to be mutually exclusive? The more I thought about it, I felt like there had to be a solution -- and I set out to find it.

In 2014, visual artist Melissa Ross and I formed the group, Social Artists and Writers. We were soon joined by co-organizer Lisa Hees as we started planning events for writers and artists to connect with each other, to get out of their at-home studios, to trade notes and talk shop, to learn from each other. Our Write Nites, Sit + Sketches, and Silent Reading Parties were open to the general public, too. We tried to include anyone -- not just artists and writers -- who wanted to do something different around town, or who wanted to be social while still doing the solitary hobbies they loved.

Our philosophy has been to plan events that we would enjoy, or arrange meet-ups for work that we needed to get done. We'd spread the word on social media, inviting Facebook friends and Twitter and Instagram followers and post it on the Boston Calendar. If people showed up, great. If we ended up alone, then at least we were out of the house.

But, we were never alone.

Friends and followers would spread the word, and often joined in. Colleagues who we always intended to hang out with outside of work would show up with sketch pads or books to read. Shy strangers arrived, too; fellow creators who had been holed up in their homes, alone, working, who happened to hear about us, and took the same leap of faith to meet us as we did by inviting them.

Building a community of artists, I learned, is its own sort of art. It requires thoughtful planning, courage to be vulnerable, confidence to spread the word, and consistent care. Each month, I would arrive at the cafe for Write Nite and start writing, not always certain of what would happen next. Writers would trickle in, and sometimes they would come back the next month. Usually they did. And over time, they became friends. Between our monthly meet-ups, I'd see notifications come up in my Newsfeed of the Write Nite members sharing news about their work, supporting each other, and talking about these updates when we got together on those first Wednesdays.

I can't speak for everyone in the group, but at least for me, work became much less lonely.

At one of our recent meet-ups, I looked around the table as everyone was working. I was reminded of the quote from Timothy Leary,

"Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others..."

Find the others. They are in your community, quietly making art and writing stories about things that matter. Or, if you look around and can't find them, be the other, get the word out, and wait.

The others will find you.

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Meet The Next Generation Of Inspiring Women

Never underestimate a girl on a mission.

To end Women's History Month on a high note, The Huffington Post is highlighting eight young women making big differences in their communities. These young girls are impacting all different type of areas including environmental study, fashion and medicine. 

From Marley Dias, a sixth grader who started her own book drive to highlight storylines featuring black girls, to Anaya Lee Willabus, the youngest person in the U.S. to publish a chapter book -- these change-makers are the next generation of badass women. So keep close watch.

Here's to these girls making herstory. 

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Why Authors Should Be Shameless About Sales (What's Good For The Goose...)

I occasionally run workshops on self-publishing a novel and in every class there's at least one set of eyebrows that shoot up at the point where I start to wax lyrical about the importance of sales, and how to better construct your book in a way that helps it sell.

That means thinking about things that lure more buyers in--like word length, cover design, price point and so forth.

"You want to sell as many books as you can because the more books you sell the more money you make and the more chance you have to go on and turn more of your wonderful stories into books."

For some students it's as though I have just said, "Now go out and prostitute yourself."


Invariably, their eyebrows begin to squish together and a scornful voice below them says something like, "But surely publishing books isn't about making money." And my reply is usually a variation of, "And why the hell not?"

Do J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Toni Morrison and Ian McEwan all knock back their advances, let alone all those lovely royalties?

I then go on to say something to the effect of:

"Why is it okay for certain professions to shamelessly make a motza and be lauded for it--like inventors and scientists and internet gurus and actors and entrepreneurs and sports people and, well, you get the drift--yet writers must cling to this antiquated idea that if we are to be true artists, we must struggle?"

"Why must we ignore sales to have any kind of credibility?"

At this point their eyebrows often settle down a bit and they concede the point and wave me on. That's when I start discussing how to actually sell more books, and lo and behold things turn squishy again.

Because selling your book doesn't start the minute you write 'The End'.

In fact, I tell my students, if you're writing commercial fiction (because I'm not talking about literary fiction that deliberately pushes boundaries) and you're hoping to sell e-books (because unless your name is Barnes and Noble, sites like Amazon are your marketplace) you're going to need to consider certain factors before you've even penned the prologue.

Like word count...
Did you know, for instance, that in some genres, like mystery, less is best, in other genres, like literary fiction, the more the merrier? Certain readers gravitate to certain book lengths whether you like it or not. That means if yours is a crime novel, a little less waffle might be good for your wallet. It might also be better for the book, but that's a whole other workshop.

Like the first few pages...
Did you know that online buyers usually only read a small sample and if you don't grab them fast they flick on to the next book? They may download the first 20% for free but chances are they won't even read a quarter of that. While it's still more than they're likely to read if they stumble upon your book in their local book shop, it means you haven't got time--aka pages--to waste (see earlier comment about waffle).

Not to mention all the things that come afterwards like cover design (it'll be the size of a stamp so it needs to work doubly hard) and price point (you could sell your e-book for $19.95 but the only one who'll buy it is your mother), and so on and so forth.

By this stage the sceptical student's eyebrows are so wedged together, they could hold up a set of Encyclopedias. Yet I ask you: what's wrong with creating, writing and marketing your books so they actually find buyers (aka readers)?

Is that really any more cynical or any less artistic than writing books so that some guy in a suit can give you a publishing deal or a literary award or a good review in a newspaper?

Better yet--and this is really what I'm arguing here--is it any different to the way other artists go about their work? Like producers of films, albums, plays, operas, broadsheets and so on? Every single one of those art forms works within certain externally dictated constraints in order to lure and satisfy an audience.

So why not books?

Let's take a closer look at some of these.

• Film
When did you last see a movie--even an 'art-house flick'-- that cost, say, $30 a ticket or went for five hours? The likes of Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese may feel they deserve higher ticket prices or want to make a ten-hour movie but they know that very few people will see it and so they edit it back. And they do this even before they've finished the first take. It's part of the pre-production process.

That's showbusiness. That's common sense. That's their very survival. Whatever the filmmaker's motive for making the movie, be it to entertain, challenge or take us on a journey, none of those things will happen if we don't first buy a cinema ticket.

In other words: Sales.

• Opera, Ballet, Theatre
How many plays, operas or ballets have you attended that were performed at, say, five in the morning? Or after midnight? I'm gonna guess that, if you've attended any at all, the answer is none. Instead the production is usually performed over a few digestible hours after work, in the evening or as a weekend matinee. Because that's when people are available to see them and that's when they're more likely to buy a ticket. Did the reviewer criticize the fact that the opera or ballet was deliberately held at a convenient time for the masses?

Were they selling out? I think not.

• Feature articles
When you read a brilliantly written article in a magazine or newspaper, like a literary book review dare I say it, did you know that the writer was most likely asked to stay within a certain word count? And that the word counts for these reviews are diminishing right alongside our attention spans? Do you criticize the reviewer and tell them they have sold out because they kept their review to, say, 500 words instead of the 1500 they wanted to write? Do they criticize themselves?

Of course not. It's just business. It means the reader (remember her?) is more likely to read the whole review, the paper is more likely to sell more copies, and the reviewer is more likely to be asked (and paid!) to write more reviews in future. Ka-ching! all round.

So is that selling out?

Stories should never be compromised. That's NOT what I'm on about.

Let me repeat that because I know some of you are already formulating your scathing comments about true art and selling your soul and blah, blah, blah.

Stories should never be compromised, but the way you present and package your stories can be carefully tweaked and modified to lure more readers in, just as they are in other artistic endeavours.

More readers = better sales
Better sales = more financial freedom
More financial freedom = more chance of giving up your day job and writing more of your wonderful stories

Hell, it may even give you the financial freedom to throw everything I've just said out the window and write that 200,000-word tome you've been dreaming about.

Just don't be surprised if the only person who reads it is your mother.

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So You're an Author. Now What?

Marketing & PR Ideas for that important next step in the journey -- selling your work

An author writes. That's what we're supposed to do. The greatest challenge facing authors isn't the writing; it's the marketing of the work we've written. So how does an author market their work? That's the business of writing.

Best writing Author vs. Best-Selling Author

Whether you recognize it it or not, as a writer, you're in the sales and marketing of writing from the moment you publicly declare your work for sale. This is why it is important to become acquainted with books and blogs on sales, marketing and public relations. I was once told that best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame noted that the most coveted prize for writers isn't best writing author, it's best-selling author. What does that tell us? JV Crum III of Conscious Millionaire says it best when he says that writing is 5 percent and marketing is 95 percent.

 

Know Your Audience

From the time a writer has a firm idea as to the direction of their work, be it a novel, a book of poetry, a memoire, or a nonfiction work, knowing your target audience and how to get your work in front of them is paramount. Often the misjudgment is made that promoting the book can't be done until the work is completed. I would argue the opposite. Promoting the work while you write it ensures that the work gets done. You're leveraging audience expectation to guarantee your own success. To do this, take the time to know who you're writing to. An exercise as simple as creating an avatar, a fictional character on paper based on who your ideal reader is, helps you to stay on target with your message and your marketing. Answer questions like "What do they look like?", "What are their book buying habits?", "What do they most like to read about?", "Where do they like to find information on their favorite authors within your genre?" These and other audience-specific questions can help you to flesh out a profile that you can keep with you as you write.

 

Brand & Promote

The journey to bestselling author involves three key steps: promoting, marketing and selling.

The best first step is to build your brand. Your brand is what you want to put before the public. It's how you want to be perceived by your audience. Take the time to create a good logo, business card and website to represent you. Your business card will primarily serve as a way to guide potential readers to your website where you can learn more about you and your work, but where you can offer them perks in exchange for their email address. When they sign up to receive marketing from you, perhaps you can send them a sample chapter from your book (a great way to sell it!), a video tutorial, a chance to win a book, or some other offer with perceived value. You can also hold contests on your website for those who read your book and leave ratings on Amazon.

Mobile technology has made it easier that ever to stay connected to your audience through social media. Apps like Typorama and Word Swag allow you to take images and overlay type on them to create inspirational messages, share excerpts from your work, and create quick hit ads to use on any of the major social networks. In a podcast interview I did with New York Times bestselling author john David Mann, he points out that writers who want to move the needle with agents and publishers need to master social networking. It is in their best interest to build their online audiences as social proof that they can draw crowds, sell books, and expand their influence.

Lewis Howes, a best-selling author and top influencer created a street team to get the word out about his new book. He gave away copies of his book in exchange for readers signing up for his email list and agreeing to read his book within two weeks, review it on Amazon on launch day, and then promote it on social media.

Go Public

The challenge facing any authors is the natural inclination to just want to write, press send and hope that the book sells. It's this introverted nature that keeps some of the best books unread. The way to combat it is through targeted public relations and networking.

Using PR can be as simple as sending out press releases related to your book, and not just one. Become a newshound. Use Google Alerts to notify you of activity that may warrant a press release. After sending your initial press release for your launched book, look to send others. If you have written a book on climate change, sign up Google alerts that specifically address climate change. When one comes to you, and if your book addresses the topic, then contact the writer of the story, the show producer, or the editor and send a press release about your book, how it addresses those newsworthy topics, and offer to share your expertise.

Other forms of PR include book launch parties, public book signings and book readings. You can also offer a free copy to your local library and in most cases they will invite your local media to cover the event. That's free press.

Shake Hands & Kiss Babies

Finally, face-to-face networking is among your best strategy for effectively promoting your book. Attending book fairs puts you in front of your audience, but also exposes you to new connections. Tasha Fuller, a children's book author based in Woodbridge, Virginia, says she found her illustrator by attending a book fair. You never know who may be floating around in chamber of commerce events, networking functions and at open houses. If there is one thing to learn about the old Kevin Bacon game most of us played as children is that we are all closer to an influence than we thing. It's a matter of finding the people who know them. Says Sara Bolme, co-founder of Christian Small Publishers Association, "Marketing is not a one-time thing. It is an ongoing process that you must keep doing to continue selling books."

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The Warblog: We Were Winning When He Left

There's a VA facility near my home and I pass by it about three times each week on the long runs I use to keep my body from stagnating as I grow older and achier. Seeing our American flag waving from a tall pole near the entrance to the veterans' complex always puts a little bounce in my step. So I'm chugging by it last week wearing a sweat-stained PT shirt emblazoned with a replica of the Vietnam Service ribbon when a guy limping toward the entrance and leaning on a cane spots me. He smiles, waves and points to his own shirt that features a map of Vietnam and declares "we were winning when I left." That got me thinking about the war that shaped me as it did so many of my generation now contemplating their mortality as a result of age rather than enemy action.

It's not that I don't think about the war in Vietnam and its effect on me without the stimulus of a t-shirt slogan. Truth be told, I think about that divisive, bloody conflict every day of my life in some way, shape, manner or form. And I've decided by now that every veteran who survived to return to the Land of the Big PX from service in Vietnam can truthfully say we -- and that includes our often maligned allies in what was South Vietnam -- were winning when he or she left Southeast Asia. By any rational reckoning, we were winning every military and diplomatic battle right up until the U.S. Congress sabotaged the effort and robbed the South Vietnamese of any chance at survival. Back in 1975, a Democrat-controlled Congress blithely disregarded promises made, and blocked funding for any war material sent to the South Vietnamese as promised in the Paris Peace Accords. Your bog-standard Vietnam Veteran had nothing to do with that.

A case could be made that some Vietnam Veterans aided in that betrayal of our allies by voting for anti-war legislators or fueling anti-Vietnam sentiment when they returned from overseas--a notable example is our current Secretary of State -- but for the most part Vietnam Veterans are proud of their service in that divisive conflict or at least proud of their willingness to serve their nation in uniform. Time heals all wounds, I guess. At this point, 50 years after the end of the war it's hard to find a Vietnam Veteran truly bitter about his experiences and there is a continuous stream of veterans returning to South Vietnam to either exorcise ghosts or relive a little of their vibrant youth spent at war.

That fascinates me and makes me wonder why I still occasionally pick at emotional scabs this long after my wartime service. It's a hard row for me to hoe. I was emotionally shattered after multiple combat tours when the war that defined me as a person and as a Marine ended in such a humiliating and ignoble fashion. For nearly a decade I stumbled through my life in a sort of daze trying to justify the sacrifices I made and observed in Southeast Asia. It's fair to say that had I not stayed in uniform, surrounded by kindred and tolerant spirits, I might not have survived the peace that followed the war.




Of course I'm far from the only one still dealing with such frustration and consternation about service in Vietnam. There are some war-induced scars that will never heal. I found that out in vivid terms while researching the POW-MIA situation for "Laos File," the first book in my Shake Davis adventure series -- which I'd decided to write as an effort at emotional catharsis. Fellow American and Vietnamese veterans I spoke with all seemed to express an admixture of fierce pride in their service and bitter resentment over government betrayal. By the time I had the book plotted in my mind, I felt as if I'd just done another tour in the jungles and rice paddies. And surprisingly, I found myself mentally walking a rugged click or two in the sandals of the enemy soldiers I fought against during the war in Southeast Asia. I used all that as impetus for the two main characters in my book, one an American veteran and the other a former North Vietnamese soldier who escorted U.S. POWs northward along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Both characters believed they were winning until they found out they were not.

That was then and this is now when another generation of American veterans has returned from wars in the Middle East. It's hard not to relate our experience as Vietnam Veterans with what they may be facing if our country cuts and runs inconclusively from that theater of war where so many served, bled and sacrificed. What was it the man said... those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it?

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8 Glorious and Triumphant Novels of Scientific Discovery

By Leora Bernstein | Off the Shelf

Your dusty old high school biology textbook might have been dull beyond redemption, but a glorious novel of scientific discovery is a different species altogether. These eight novels--seven of which were written by women--celebrate the globetrotting scientists and anthropologists whose insatiable drive for discovery and knowledge reveals universal truths about the way we live and love.
 


State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett's deep research and lush worlds are nowhere more evident than in this novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice. Set in the Amazon, where pharmaceutical researcher Marina Singh investigates the enigmatic Dr. Annick Swenson, whose mysterious research is being jealously guarded in the most remote areas of the rainforest.
 


Euphoria by Lily King
Participating in a love triangle during an anthropological study isn't exactly the best way to remain focused, but it makes for a passionate and intelligent novel. Set between the two World Wars and inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, this enthralling tale of possession and exploration is the breakout novel from award-winning author Lily King.

Read the review here

 


The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert weaves an elegant, wise, and spellbinding tale that spans the ages and the globe with Alma Wittaker, botanist extraordinaire. Written in the bold, questing spirit of the nineteenth century, a time when the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were colliding with dangerous new ideas, Alma is relentless in her drive to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life.

Read the review here

 


The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
If the name Hanya Yanagihara sounds familiar to you, it's because her novel A Little Life is a National Book Award Finalist and short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. A decade in the making, The People in Trees marks the debut of a remarkable new voice in American fiction. Exciting, challenging, and visionary, this anthropological adventure story combines the visceral allure of a thriller with a profound and tragic vision of what happens when cultures collide.

Read the review here

 


The Anatomy of Dreams by Chloe Benjamin
In this stirring and elegant debut novel, two young scientists who have followed their professor all over the globe begin to understand that sometimes the step taken "in the name of science" is a step too far.
 


The Movement of Stars by Amy Brill
Set in 1840s Nantucket, this richly drawn portrait of desire and ambition was inspired by the work of the first female astronomer. Hannah Gardner Price strives to be something other than a housewife and mother, and when she meets a man who seemingly understands her dreams she will have to make choices that will change her life forever.
 


Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes
A series of brilliant revelations brings to life the parallel quests of two intrepid young women as they delve into the centuries-old mysteries of Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world. But Easter Island has a haunting past, and they are forced to confront turbulent discoveries about themselves and the people they love, changing their lives forever.
 


The Martian by Andy Weir
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate, he finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive. This story of incredible bravery, ingenuity, and insurmountable odds is now a major motion picture starring Matt Damon.

Read the review here

 


More Recommendations from Off the Shelf:

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Poetry Society top prize explores familial discord

Eric Berlin wins prestigious award with poem Night Errand, while David Morley takes Ted Hughes prize

A poem exploring the fleeting flashes of anger we direct at our family, and the shame that it brings, has been chosen from more than 12,000 entries for one of the UK’s most prestigious poetry prizes.

Eric Berlin’s poem Night Errand was named winner of the Poetry Society’s 38th national poetry competition, a prize which each year rewards unpublished single poems from a colossal number of entries.

Continue reading...

Poetry Society top prize explores familial discord

Eric Berlin wins prestigious award with poem Night Errand, while David Morley takes Ted Hughes prize

A poem exploring the fleeting flashes of anger we direct at our family, and the shame that it brings, has been chosen from more than 12,000 entries for one of the UK’s most prestigious poetry prizes.

Eric Berlin’s poem Night Errand was named winner of the Poetry Society’s 38th national poetry competition, a prize which each year rewards unpublished single poems from a colossal number of entries.

O, Great Northern Mall, you dwindling oracle

of upstate New York, your colossal lot

John Clare weaves English words into a nest

and in the cup he stipples rhyme, like mud,

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The Romanovs: masterful account of Russia’s doomed royal family

The end of the Romanovs is a subject that has fascinated countless nonfiction writers, but no book has yet eclipsed the fame of Robert K Massie’s page-turner

This May will see the release of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s The Romanovs: 1613-1918 in the United States. It is an exhaustive look at the full sweeping arc of Russia’s doomed royal family. The public has an insatiable appetite for the Romanovs, whether in the form of tiny animated bats or Orthodox saints or Pinterest boards swollen with sad, hand-colored photographs of worried children clustered around their parents’ chairs.

That Nicholas II and his family occupy such a prominent place in the American popular imagination has an obvious source: the immense popularity of Robert K Massie’s 1967 biography, Nicholas and Alexandra: An Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs and the Fall of Imperial Russia.

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Food in books: fish cakes from Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea

Kate Young reflects on the pleasures and hurdles of cooking for one and revisits Iris Murdoch’s Booker-winning novel, filled with accounts of solitary meals

By Kate Young for The Little Library Café, part of the Guardian Books Network

The orange feast did not dim my appetite for lunch, which consisted of fish cakes with hot Indian pickle and a salad of grated carrot, radishes, watercress and bean shoots. (I went through a period of grated carrot with everything, but recovered.)

The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch

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The End of Alchemy by Mervyn King review – a former Bank of England governor on the City’s hubris and greed

What went wrong in 2007? This richly rewarding book considers the lessons of the financial crisis, the future of the euro and how to restore growth to the global economy

Former governors of the Bank of England do not, with the odd 19th-century exception, write books – least of all books like The End of Alchemy, whose bibliography starts with Dean Acheson, the US secretary of state under Truman, and finishes with Stefan Zweig, taking in Thomas Carlyle, Friedrich Hayek and Arthur Waley on the way. But then, Mervyn King was never a governor out of central casting. He grew up in the West Midlands; he is not privately educated; his devotion to Aston Villa runs longer, deeper and more constant than the prime minister’s; and for many years, before joining the bank in 1991, he was an academic economist. He also has a hinterland, quoting at the outset two of TS Eliot’s most haunting lines: “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?/ Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” – lines that any education minister should have pinned up on their office wall.

The Jamesian donnée of his book is a remark made towards the end of his governorship. “We in China have learned a good deal from the west about how competition and a market economy support industrialisation and create higher living standards,” a Chinese central banker observed to him in Beijing in 2011, as they relaxed after a game of tennis. “We want to emulate that.” Then, as King recalls, came the sting in the tail: “But I don’t think you’ve quite got the hang of money and banking yet.”

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