Pamela Holmes's Blog
October 7, 2016
Famous author loves my book!
AN Wilson has done a review of my book, The Huntingfield Paintress, in the Catholic Herald. http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issue...
It's what you might call ...incredibly positive!
How did he come to read my book? I recognised AN Wilson one day last summer when I was cycling to work across the Regent's Park. There was the writer, columnist and critic who I'd seen on the telly talking so engagingly about Betjeman and Larkin's poetry and lives. Jumping off my bike, I confronted him; would he please read my manuscript if I ever found a publisher? Kind man that he is and despite being incredibly busy, he agreed. Luckily The Huntingfield Paintress found favour with him once published.
It is an unexpected experience to have a famous writer enjoy one's work, as you might imagine
It's what you might call ...incredibly positive!
How did he come to read my book? I recognised AN Wilson one day last summer when I was cycling to work across the Regent's Park. There was the writer, columnist and critic who I'd seen on the telly talking so engagingly about Betjeman and Larkin's poetry and lives. Jumping off my bike, I confronted him; would he please read my manuscript if I ever found a publisher? Kind man that he is and despite being incredibly busy, he agreed. Luckily The Huntingfield Paintress found favour with him once published.
It is an unexpected experience to have a famous writer enjoy one's work, as you might imagine
June 12, 2016
Getting on my feet
Writing a novel is a lonely business and much of one's time is spent sitting down. Now I'm promoting The Huntingfield Paintress, I'm out and about all the time; at events, in shops, in libraries, talking about the book and meeting readers! It means lots of action, standing and walking, which is wonderful. Even better is talking to people who have read the novel about the characters in the book and the history of the time (1850s and 1860s). I love it when readers have their own views of what was going on.
April 28, 2016
Why I'm covered in bruises!
Since Suffolk is where the main protagonist of The Huntingfield Paintress, Mildred Holland, lived and worked, it seemed appropriate to launch the book on 23 April 2016 in St Mary's Church, Huntingfield. Some 80 friends, family and local people were there to celebrate. There was a short Q & A session led by Huntingfield resident Sheila Freeman followed by a reading. Most people sat face to the ceiling, studying what Mildred had done. Urbane publisher Matthew Smith ran the book stall and sold 60 books.
That weekend, there were book signings in Snape Maltings and Southwold bookshops and an author's event in Southwold library. BBC Suffolk Radio's Lesley Dolphin interviewed me a few days earlier so all the events were promted locally.
That's why I'm covered in bruises. All self-inflicted pinching; I can't believe this is happening!
That weekend, there were book signings in Snape Maltings and Southwold bookshops and an author's event in Southwold library. BBC Suffolk Radio's Lesley Dolphin interviewed me a few days earlier so all the events were promted locally.
That's why I'm covered in bruises. All self-inflicted pinching; I can't believe this is happening!
April 3, 2016
It's blooming obvious
No doubt I did many things wrong when raising our two boys. But one mistake I didnt make was to ask: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I winced when a friend or relative, seeking to find something to say to awkward teens, posed that most dreaded of questions. Why my dislike? Because I know there is no answer. What we want to be and to do changes as we go along, and that is to be applauded. For our lives and our wishes and even our skills change as we age. I have always feared that a child or teenager, keen to provide a polite answer to a polite question, may settle with equanimity, even relief, on an automatic reply, putting in place an assumption about what they ‘will be’ or ‘will do’ that he or she never re-visits. How many lawyers and bankers and dentists have wandered into those professions because their mother or father did that job? Or worse, felt pushed to follow in the family business or job, having never asked themselves what they wanted?
Behind the question is an assumption that there is only one answer. But these days more of us are living longer, healthier lives so why should we settle to one profession or job or work type? Due to finances, health, caring responsibilities, even boredom – the prompts are myriad – many of us will change what we do and do so happily. I have worked as a farmhand, nurse, journalist, TV presenter, campaigner and dementia trainer. I am now embarking on a career as a novelist. My first book, The Huntingfield Paintress, comes out in May when I will be 61 years old. It is based on a true story, a Suffolk Victorian vicar’s wife who created a medieval ceiling, a fresco of angels and saints, in her parish church over a six year period starting just before she turned 50. As Mildred Holland worked from 1859 onwards, she would have been considered bonkers to risk life and limb painting up a ladder at this age.
Of course many people start writing in later life, and thank goodness for it! Diana Athill, Penelope Fitzgerald and Frank McCourt are examples of three people who, after employment or child-rearing or teaching, embarked on highly successful careers. Martin Amis may have argued that writers lose their edge once they reach old age (although I do not understand how he can deny that Tolstoy, Goethe, Yeats wrote with virtuosity as they aged) but he cannot challenge the fact that increasing numbers of people begin successful writing careers in later life.
Writing is not the only imaginative endeavour which marinates with experience and understanding. Many of us are engaged in creative activities but how many would have predicted in earlier years that this would be the case? So don’t ask the young what they want to be when they grow up. It assumes that we human beings stop developing and changing and growing as we go along. I don’t want to do that. Do you?
www.pamela-holmes.com
The Huntingfield Paintress Urbane Publications ( May 2016) ISBN-13: 978-1910692660
Behind the question is an assumption that there is only one answer. But these days more of us are living longer, healthier lives so why should we settle to one profession or job or work type? Due to finances, health, caring responsibilities, even boredom – the prompts are myriad – many of us will change what we do and do so happily. I have worked as a farmhand, nurse, journalist, TV presenter, campaigner and dementia trainer. I am now embarking on a career as a novelist. My first book, The Huntingfield Paintress, comes out in May when I will be 61 years old. It is based on a true story, a Suffolk Victorian vicar’s wife who created a medieval ceiling, a fresco of angels and saints, in her parish church over a six year period starting just before she turned 50. As Mildred Holland worked from 1859 onwards, she would have been considered bonkers to risk life and limb painting up a ladder at this age.
Of course many people start writing in later life, and thank goodness for it! Diana Athill, Penelope Fitzgerald and Frank McCourt are examples of three people who, after employment or child-rearing or teaching, embarked on highly successful careers. Martin Amis may have argued that writers lose their edge once they reach old age (although I do not understand how he can deny that Tolstoy, Goethe, Yeats wrote with virtuosity as they aged) but he cannot challenge the fact that increasing numbers of people begin successful writing careers in later life.
Writing is not the only imaginative endeavour which marinates with experience and understanding. Many of us are engaged in creative activities but how many would have predicted in earlier years that this would be the case? So don’t ask the young what they want to be when they grow up. It assumes that we human beings stop developing and changing and growing as we go along. I don’t want to do that. Do you?
www.pamela-holmes.com
The Huntingfield Paintress Urbane Publications ( May 2016) ISBN-13: 978-1910692660
