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READING ROOM DEC 24 · The Reading Room

0:00
Speaker 1: Babe rite.
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Speaker 2: Weird. Hello, welcome to the December the pre Christmas reading Room.
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So I'm here Christa, and we've got Aaron. Hello, We've
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got Barry, and we've got Sue. Hello. Hi, Yes Sue.
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So yes, this month we have read Go Set at
0:36
a Watchman by Harperley, published in twenty fifteen. Kind of
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a weird situation. It was a sequel, but it was
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a prequel. Nobody really knows, but a lot of kind
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of controversy about that book. So let's let's begin. I'm
0:51
going to actually start with you, Sue, because it was
0:53
your book of choice, wasn't it in I know that's
0:57
a bit of a weird tone, Sue, So what did
1:00
you think?
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Speaker 3: All right, Christer, Well, I think personally, I'm glad I
1:05
read a book because after the kind of Mockingbird, I
1:10
was kind of you know, I'd fallen in love with
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some of the characters, you know, Scouting and German after
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and many others, and I wanted to read about what
1:21
happened to them. And I always thought it was the
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brave author that to move on the story and revisit
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the same characters and how they say changed and without
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giving too much away in case people are familiar with
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the controversy, and I thought that there were some dramatic changes,
1:44
and I think it was if you like, a scout
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growing up of coming of age, although not just for her,
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but for the reasons, because we start the community in
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a different line. And the question is was it all
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for me? Anyway? Was always like that, just the self
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didn't see it.
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Speaker 2: A very interesting point. Alan, Well, oh you're you're have
2:11
you got something in your mouth? Okay, you've got a
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sweet honestly talk about timing. Sorry, do you want me
2:17
to pass on? Yeah? Yeah, okay.
2:20
Speaker 4: But I found the book kind of difficult because my
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expectations have been set very high by Killer Mockingbird, and
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this felt like it felt like a first draft presentage
2:36
to the author who sent the author presented the editor,
2:41
who sent the author back to try again. That's how
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it came across to me. The fact that the main
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character disappears after about fourteen pages of the book kind
2:54
of worried me as well, because I was just left
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feeling wanting more and wanted more to Kill a Mockingbird,
3:03
and there was nothing.
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Speaker 5: Like yeah, interesting, Barry, Yeah, I mean, contrary to to
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what sus just said. I'm quite happy to carry on
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with plot spoilers, I think because.
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Speaker 2: Because no one's going to read it.
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Speaker 5: Just kidding, I think it's essential to what we're talking about,
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to be honest, because I mean, like like Alan, I
3:24
I felt that. I mean, I didn't, I didn't like it.
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I have to say, you know, I mean, I found
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it easy enough to read, and I'm glad I read it,
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but I didn't like it in as much as it
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from from what I've read, it was a prequel to
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it in that a lot of the pastures have actually
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been lifted and used in to kill a mockingbird, but
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whereas to kill a mockingbird was a sort of a
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feel good despite the fact that the that the gentleman
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Tom Robinson, the one Armed Man, had been found guilty,
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even though he wasn't that there was an element of
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feel good about it because Atticus Finch was a sort
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of a hero character, you know, forever forever, Gregory Peck
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in everybody's head, you know, and such a strong guy
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and a good single parent. And the story was like Calpernia,
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who was the cook who was basically bringing up the
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children because their mother had died, you know, and she
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was that the black the black cook, and you know,
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sort of a wholesome character who took the children to
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church and what have you. And then within this book,
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where the story is revisited, you find out that Atticus
4:41
Finch is in fact a racist, and Calpernia the cook
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no longer has any sort of feelings towards any of
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the family. And it's like it's a feel bad story.
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And what's more, you know, it would ever have got
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the Pulitzer prise, like will you know by any even
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by the writing or by also you know in nineteen
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sixty one that that that that tale, you know, which
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is basically saying that, you know, people are in the
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kul kutz Klan, you know, are actually some of them
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quite decent people, you know, which is like a horrendous
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conclusion to come to by anybody stretching the imagination. I
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found it very very puzzling me too.
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Speaker 2: I was quite shocked. I didn't really enjoyed either. I mean,
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it's so it's it's about Scout, isn't it. What's her
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name again, Jean Louis, Yeah, Genuis, And she's twenty six
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and she comes back from New York, doesn't she? And
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then at Calpurnia's grandson, he was drunk driving and he
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killed a white person, didn't he And we're plot spoiling
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here a little bit. So but that to me, and
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so I think it's doctor Finch who says, the black
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people have to learn to would be in our in
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our society, to live with our rules. So I thought, well,
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maybe Atticus is not racist, because I didn't want him
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to be racist. I really was hanging on to that
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Atticus from To Kill a mocking Bird, who was so good,
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and it wasn't a patch on To Kill a Mockingbird. Really.
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I found it very hard to read because I got
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bored of it and it jumped to the future and
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then to the past. And I also found the title
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hard to remember, Go set a Watchman. I had to
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keep looking at the front of the book to remember
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the title from the Bible it is. It's just a
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very weird title. Sue back to you.
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Speaker 5: Now that we've done the plot spoiling, Sue whole plot spoiling.
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Speaker 2: But yeah, go on.
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Speaker 3: I know a lot of people didn't read the book
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because of the controversy, and I thought that that was
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maybe because they didn't want to destroy that picture perfect
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the first book. I mean, I'm glad I read it,
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and I think that basically it's hard to match To
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Kill a Mockingbird. And maybe that's why this book was
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not released until Halfily had died. Maybe she did not
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want to destroy the dream book of her career because
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she wrote short stories, but she only actually wrote the
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two books. I think that she does manage to put
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in to go into the past and with the present
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and think at the completely different future for the town.
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And I think she does that because a lot of
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people may not believe it or not have read To
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Kill a Mockingbird. And she's also refreshing our memory about
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what happened in the first book. I think that shows
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at us in a different light. And yet when he
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explains it, there is some sense sense of being him
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in his place in that time.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I saw that too.
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Speaker 3: We can judge it from our perspective now. But she
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is writing about that time and those done that area
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of America that just haven't moved on at all. And
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I think she was brave to do it because she
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could have just sat back and and sort of rested
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und to kick up kill a motherlebur And she knew
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that when this was published it would cause a lot
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of second trauma, and I think she was brave to
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let it go ahead.
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Speaker 2: Really, But did she let it go ahead because there's
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also that controversy too, isn't it that we're not sure
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whether she agreed.
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Speaker 3: I think the fact is that she's not wanted to
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be published, to have sarnt it. Sorry, that's what Frans
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cast In judged his friend to do when you just
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said you knew he was dying to burn all his work,
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and the friend had knowed him, and a lot of
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stuff that didn't want published and took was going to
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be the actually got published.
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Speaker 2: Actually, on that point, I'm sure that George Orwell didn't
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want one of his books published. I think it was
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nineteen eighty four either, but his wife published it. Yes,
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that's interesting, isn't it.
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Speaker 3: Yes, So sometimes you know, it's all as if they
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do writed. It's a bit like having just capturing the
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writ He found an awful lot of thet either written,
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but he'd never put out there for publication.
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Speaker 2: Very interesting.
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Speaker 3: Maybe they don't want to face the consequences when they
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are in full flow of the Korea of publications, so
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you just aren't quite up to standard. And I think
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that's one of the difficulties that you have a book
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like To Kill a mocking Bird as your first book,
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Where do you go?
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Speaker 2: Best to just leave it at that, I think, But yeah,
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but who am I Alan? What did you want to
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add to that?
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Speaker 4: The whole part in the title to set a watchman
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the watchman is like a moral bellwether. And the title,
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as we said it comes comes from Isaiah chapter twenty one,
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verse six. It prophesied the fall of Babylon, and he
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said there the Lord said, unto me, go set a watchman.
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Let him decide what he sees. In other words, the
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book itself is happily commentating or commenting about the state
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of Southern States, American politics and morality, which even today
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is I used to work for an American company and
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I spent quite a bit of time in North Carolina
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and Georgia. And one man was taking me back to
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the hotel. He opened the i'll say the trunk because
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he was an American, opened the trunk of the car
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up and he got a gun rack on there. And
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he told me why he had a gun rack, which
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kind of tainted my view of a very Southern States
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American people, and the fact I go there and put
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three stone weight on re Fort lights. Neither here nor there.
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But yeah, the book itself is to me, it's almost
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allegorical in so far as it's a story that reflects
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harpolice impression of what American Southern States American politics and
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societies like nowadays. It hasn't considering it was actually written
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in nineteen fifty seven. To Kill a Mockingbird was published
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in nineteen sixty to Harpily said she never wanted to
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write another book and it was rather taken out of
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her hands because it was I think it was her
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publisher found it and had to take it through court
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to prove that Harpily wasn't actually being taken advantage of
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before it was published. You've got to take you've got
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to take the subject matter of the book at face
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value and accept it for what she sees, and what
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she sees, I'd to say it is not vastly different
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from what I was seeing when I visited the Southern States,
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kind of just twenty five years ago now, But you
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know it was it was still forty odd years after
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the book had been written.
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Speaker 2: Interesting, Barry, Yeah, no, I see that there's something to
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do with the chronology of all this.
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Speaker 5: Really, I mean, the way I read it, I'm one
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of the reviews that I read of it was that
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it looks like a book which was presented to an editor,
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and an editor then said to her, you know, go
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back and rewrite the story somewhat, you know, with some suggestions,
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which became who Kills a mocking Bird? So I don't
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think I think that the writing of the two books
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is contemporaneous as far as my reading of it is.
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And you know, there's two different sides obviously to a
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coin there. And she she did write something with a
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sort of a you know, you know, a morality, which
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it was probably her morality, I would think, in that
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she was, you know, she was like an educated person.
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She was a lawyer. She was a friend of Truman Capote.
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Now I mean Truman Capote was, you know, is probably
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a fairly left field writer as well, and so I
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couldn't imagine that Truman Capote had those Southern States, that
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Southern States mentality. And so I'm sure that you know,
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amongst her friends, she had that understanding of maybe the
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New York lifestyle where people were very much more. Yeah, cosmopolitan, inclusive,
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you know what they were doing. And so in the
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first it's like in the first draft, she's trying to
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point the finger at you know, how these people are
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in fact bigoted and racist, you know, including her father,
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and she'd had her father had been such a figure
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to her, and I like that, you know, knew everything.
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Like often people think, you know, the father is sort
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of wonderful, and if you know, they find out that
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they have feet of clay. I mean one of the
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things which which which upset me more than anything else
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in the book was that Atticus's brother, who was a
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doctor and who seemed like a very erudite gentleman and
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read a lot of literature and what have you. In
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trying to explain to to Geena Louise, you know what,
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the situation was very poorly in my view, she reached
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the point. And again, you know, a plot spoiler, but
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you know, I think that it needs saying, is that,
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you know, she was all for going back to New
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York and leaving it behind, saying that she hated her
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father and she hated everything he stood for, and even
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and the guy who she was had been intending to
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marry and she's packing up the car and the uncle
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actually smacks her across the face, which then takes her
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back into the house where she sort of is just
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like you know, snaps her out of a hysteria, but
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which seemed like an absolutely brutal wait to try and
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sort of persuade somebody that things were better than they were.
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Speaker 2: You know, it was shocking. But I think, you know,
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Atticus was a good man in to Kill a Mockingbird.
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He did a fantastic thing, you know, by standing by
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Tom Robinson. So I felt like with this book, why
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do you have to judge someone have to you know,
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doing they've done something fantastic and then they do they
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have an opinion and everyone hates Atticus now, but we
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have to remember how he was a good man.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, but I think what you know, to some extent,
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we're probably confusing like true life with with with with
16:06
imagination here, you know. And I think that the character,
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the imagined character of Atticus Finch in to Kill a
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Mockingbird is a fine character, and you know that's well
16:16
explained and what have you. The character into go sett
16:19
a watchman isn't such a fine character. And I think
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that they are different characters within different novels, you know,
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like and one of them isn't a version of the other,
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you know, it's it's because when they refer to the
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trial of Tom Robinson in the in Set a Watchman,
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they actually find that he's acquitted, where he was actually found.
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Speaker 4: Guilty in the book.
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Speaker 5: You know, I mean, there are you know, there's a
16:46
discont continuity. I don't think they should be read in
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the same vein. I don't think they are parts of
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the same book. I think that they're just the two
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figments of her imagination. And Atticus Finch is very well
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written in To Kill a Mockingbird as being a very
17:00
good guy, and is written in the second to try
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and sort of, like I say, persuade, Like I said
17:06
at the earliest, you know that maybe all people who
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were in the ko Kouks Klan aren't actually bad, you know,
17:12
which is like not a great message.
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Speaker 4: I don't think.
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Speaker 3: I agree with that on that that the ending with
17:19
doctor saying she's is brutal, I think, and again it's
17:26
different sides to personalities from my point of view, just
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looking at it from a construction point of view rather
17:35
than it's a subject matter. I did like the way
17:38
that happily plays with the character's names. So Scout becomes
17:44
the grown up young woman returning to New York known
17:48
as Jean Louis, except in certain moments when she's referred
17:52
to a Scout again, as she was in to kill
17:56
a mockingbird. And this becomes significant later in the book
18:00
when Africa calls the Gowns and she you know, she says,
18:04
to ever call me that again, when it's as if
18:09
she blames him as well as circumstances for destroying her
18:13
dream world. The same with Henry. She first name as Hank,
18:19
kind of pet name, showing the friendship between them. And
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I have to say, it reminds me when my mum
18:29
always called me Susan, and the family call me Season
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and certain long term friends call me Susans. But whenever
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I hear that name, I have a character change because
18:39
I think I've done something wrong. I could appreciate specificult
18:46
the use of the different terms of the name within
18:51
the book. I thought there was some lovely descriptions and
18:56
the one Dr John M. Finch, and I think the
19:01
contrast that she paints between the Frank clubs some of
19:04
the afternoon the Sunday peace and the pariatmosphere of the
19:07
court room. That was very very well done, and I
19:13
think I did notice well just so it Whisky the
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Irish were as well. But I think what helped me
19:21
to read the book was the humor. I thought there's
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some really fronny passages in the we just think lightened
19:29
the darkness of the book.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, he talking about Ghossetta Watchman. The humor and that, Yeah,
19:36
you see. I just thought the writing didn't match up
19:39
to anything from to Kill a Mockingbird and to Kill
19:42
a Mockingbird. There were so many good quotes. It was
19:44
almost like the Mark Twain, you know, And I just
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found with Ghosttter Watchmen there was none of that. There
19:51
was profound quotes that we had in the last book, Alan,
19:55
do you want to add something.
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Speaker 4: Well, I just wanted to say thank you to Sue
19:59
Barry because I struggled to get to get a hold
20:03
of a copy book. I ended up but ended up
20:05
listening to it, and I found it difficult because having
20:12
having been treated and I choose the words carefully by
20:18
To Kill a Mockingbird, I found the writing of set
20:22
A Watchmen was scattered, disjointed, and I found it hard
20:27
to follow if you're if you're trying to do something
20:31
gets I was worried that it was me rushing rather
20:35
than thing. But other people, you know, people here have
20:38
agreed with what I was with my opinion on it,
20:42
and I feel, I feel like I really am not
20:45
quite smad I thought I was.
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Speaker 2: I'm not sure about that, I think.
20:49
Speaker 5: I mean, I you know, I read it rather than
20:52
listen to it. But I certainly found when I was
20:56
reading it that I was puzzled, you know, and I
20:59
was thinking, I don't know where this is going, you know,
21:02
I mean, I can't believe that this is you know,
21:04
because she she she sits in and listens to like them,
21:08
a racist preacher talking to them, you know, and she
21:12
and she's horrified by it. She goes out and actually
21:14
physically makes us sick, you know. And so you're all
21:18
the time then hoping that he's going to turn round
21:21
and and you know, and be a good guy and
21:23
and and the sort of things that he was saying,
21:25
you know, was that they're you know, they're not educated enough,
21:28
they're not really right in a position to take their
21:30
place in society with us, you know, and when you've
21:34
sort of from the ta Killa mocking Bird. You know,
21:36
the view of Calpurnia was to me like that the
21:40
same same sort of view I had of the of
21:42
the cook in It's a wonderful life, you know, sort
21:45
of part of the family and like loving everybody, you know,
21:48
and and you know sort of she was she was.
21:52
She was good for Jean Louise when Jean Louise was
21:55
at school and thought she was pregnant and what have you,
21:57
that sort of you know, the way that she dealt
21:59
with her. Then to find then that you know, they
22:03
sort of disowned, yeah, you know, was like a shock,
22:07
which I was. I was expecting feel good and there
22:11
wasn't any and it didn't end with any for me,
22:14
So I mean, you know, I wouldn't be reading it again.
22:16
Speaker 2: I agree with you, Barry, but I thought, you know,
22:19
when they refer to kind of you know, the black
22:21
people entering society, for me, it was the example of
22:24
that the guy was a drunk driver, so they didn't
22:27
have a license, and I thought that was the reference
22:30
is Okay, we want an equal society, but everybody has
22:33
to obey the rules. That's what kind of interpreted it
22:36
to me that you know, he got as a standard
22:42
in society.
22:43
Speaker 5: But I mean I got the feeling, you know, that
22:45
she was she was trying to give you the message,
22:47
you know, because you know the description of like even
22:50
where cal Pernia lived and like where her family were
22:53
there on the porch, you know, was was out you know,
22:57
on the outskirts of town. You know, it's like that
22:59
dark us on the end of town thing where they
23:02
were an alienated society within the you know, and you know,
23:07
people were surprised that Atticus Finch would be defending the people,
23:12
and in this particular case they were saying, well, you know,
23:15
I've got to defend him. But he's guilty anyway. You know.
23:17
It's indeed, you know, I don't think there was any
23:19
doubt about that, you know, but you know, whatever the
23:21
circumstances of it were, but it was that it was
23:24
using it as an example, I think, to show the
23:26
alienation to Calpernia, and you know, using that particular method
23:32
was again brutaled in its own way.
23:33
Speaker 2: I absolutely so. Can you add something, yes, I mean
23:38
I do.
23:38
Speaker 3: Agree that it isn't a patent kill a mocking bird
23:41
and sort of writing it doesn't match up. It's like
23:50
it's it's the first novel, and she's gone away and
23:54
just member ourselves to the mocking Bird as she's learned
23:58
her craft and fine tuned it. And I did think
24:02
that the end was unsatisfaction scisis if it was when
24:09
I got here, I'm going to call is that, how
24:11
do I finish it? And it didn't quite carry through
24:15
some of the dance beliefs, particularly as seeing the read
24:20
to have a sapped across the glade just completely change
24:25
the understanding of something that the certain pages to evolved.
24:31
Speaker 1: Allan.
24:33
Speaker 4: I was going to say that it's I would quite
24:38
enjoyed it. There's a book if I hadn't read, if
24:42
I had been spoiled by To Killer Mockingbird, which was
24:45
just so finally crafted. Not a word was out of place.
24:51
Yet I found To Set a Watchman was it was
24:57
almost clumsily written in places. And I found one thing
25:02
that I was aware of in To Kill a Mockingbird.
25:07
Some of the description and some of the narrative was perfect,
25:14
but it was actually had actually been transcribed from set
25:18
to Set a Watchman from there and put into into
25:22
To Kill a Mockingbird on the basis that To Set
25:27
a Watchman was written first, and I knew that I'd
25:31
seen some of the some of the description in To
25:35
Kill a Mockingbird. So it was a case yeah, in
25:39
the days before cut and pasted. It was almost like
25:41
it had been cut and pasted from one book to another.
25:44
But if I hadn't been spot by To Kill a Mockingbird,
25:47
I'd have really enjoyed I really quite enjoyed it because
25:50
it was a book that it engaged me properly. The
25:57
medium that the medium I used to access the book
26:01
may have had something to listen to an audiobook. I
26:06
hate to say this will probably do it again.
26:08
Speaker 2: Oh you're allowed to. Yeah, we do live in the
26:10
twenty first century. Yeah, barriage. You want to add something, Yeah, funny.
26:15
Speaker 5: I mean, after all I've said, I think from you know,
26:20
from from a book club perspective, to read To Kill
26:26
a Mockingbird, which was a delightful book in which most
26:28
people see as a delightful book, including the Pulletzer jury themselves,
26:34
and then to be able to discuss this book and
26:38
read and discuss this book, which, as you say, and
26:42
which we've mentioned before, is probably a first draft of
26:46
the same book, you know, obviously radically changed. But to
26:50
be able to see that progression through that, you know,
26:53
what might be an unsatisfactory book into what turns into
26:57
a very satisfactory book is a really interesting exercise talk about,
27:01
you know. So I don't think that it's a lost time.
27:03
And I'm glad that I read to Kill the Mockingbird first,
27:06
because after Go said to Wassman, I probably wouldn't have
27:09
read to Kill the Mockingbird. So you know, it was
27:11
the right way round, you know, and you know, as
27:14
an exercise, it wasn't wouldn't say, oh it was. It
27:16
was a bad choice to do because it's you know,
27:18
I found that the discussions and the you know, immediately
27:22
I finished it, I was reading reviews about what people
27:24
have said it because I was absolutely not distraught, but
27:28
you know I was. I was looking for something to
27:30
sort of reinforce what I thought, you know, and I
27:33
found it, you know.
27:34
Speaker 4: But also the case of how could you go from
27:38
that to them in not very long.
27:41
Speaker 5: To be honest, like I say, I think the two
27:43
different books, you know, because one of the things is
27:45
in Go said to Wassman b Boo that Bradley doesn't
27:47
get a mention, and to some degree, Boo Radley rather
27:51
than Atticus is this is the focus of To Kill
27:54
the Mockingbird, and like the attitudes towards him, you know,
27:58
and and like he and he's not in you know.
28:01
Speaker 2: So do you want to add something?
28:03
Speaker 6: Yeah?
28:03
Speaker 3: I think that we you know. I think it's very
28:06
interesting to set the book side by side and to
28:10
really know what happened, you know, was it her first
28:14
craft or or what. But I enjoyed. I enjoyed it.
28:19
I mean not as wanted To Kill Him Off a Bird,
28:20
because I do think the first book is feel good
28:24
and this book is. I don't feel so good about
28:27
this book because they completely changes the atmosphere of after
28:32
the town where they live. But I definitely enjoyed reading it.
28:39
I'm not saying it's my favorite book, and he doesn't
28:42
match up To Kill Him Often Bird, but I'm so
28:45
glad that I read it and enjoyed it. And really
28:50
I would like to help know what happened to Jeanie
28:54
read in another twenty years.
28:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we probably never know. Yeah, I'm glad that
29:02
I read it too, for sure. Out of ten, what
29:05
would you give it to? I think I think it's
29:10
seven alan.
29:12
Speaker 4: About the same seven. I quite enjoyed reading it. If
29:17
I hadn't read To Kill a Walking Bird, So I'm
29:20
trying to compare it against I'm trying to divorce myself
29:24
from To Kill a Walking burden. Think about the book
29:26
it on its own merriage, and I'd give it about
29:28
seven for that Barry probably five.
29:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think i'd give it a six. I'd give
29:34
it a six, Okay. So before we choose our other book,
29:38
we've got an interview with our very own Sue, Sue Gerarde,
29:44
who's poet, author, singer, playwright, artist, Sue. I believe you've
29:52
got some new stories for Christmas.
29:57
Speaker 3: The first because it's first children's book, and it's called Grunts.
30:04
Speaker 4: That Christmas, Okay.
30:07
Speaker 3: And it's seeds the films. It's about ten years in
30:12
a remarks of sense of collecting the turkey with a
30:17
friend and a friend was saying something you lofered me
30:22
about Christmas and standing in a queue, and I just said,
30:25
I'll shut up grumps at Christmas, and everybody both start
30:28
laughing with the story there, and so it formulated into
30:35
this book, which is an illustrated children's book. It's been
30:40
illustrated by a lady Helen's lady as well, called Ema
30:45
Geddess and we have the character grump At the Grunts,
30:49
and he has a dog, bow Wow. And it invites
30:54
the readers to actually follow Grunts on this very special
31:01
Christmas day because the book is set on Christmas Day.
31:05
Speaker 2: I love that and it's been.
31:09
Speaker 3: I'll just actually Christia and just the first the first page.
31:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be amazing because the page.
31:18
Speaker 3: Is each versus illustrated, far far far away, in further
31:25
away than that, in a land called Yesterday, and a
31:28
place called Tippletat lived a very old man with a
31:32
deep winkerbrow. His name is Grumpy Grumps. His dog was
31:36
bow Wow. So that sort of sets the scene. And
31:40
on this Christmas Day he comes across another village I
31:45
can't happy hope. He has a tat called Katy Cat.
31:49
And then you make a festive fairy, calm faith. But
31:53
she's not your sugarplum fairy type of creation. She was
32:00
red leggings and a red jacket, and she has a
32:04
herming bunches and she has a mobile phone in an
32:06
iPod and she's AFRAI with attitude.
32:11
Speaker 2: And how long did it take you to write that book? Soon?
32:15
Speaker 3: The poem took It was written quite quickly, but then
32:21
the editing posterss and going back to it and so on.
32:24
It must have taken about eighteen months, but not eighteen
32:28
months solids just leaving it, going back to it, leaving
32:31
it because because it's a it's in poetic form. You know,
32:37
you have to get the scantrom right. You have to
32:39
get the right the rhyme right, so you're not sporting
32:42
a rhyme and yet to keep the story going. And
32:46
then I wanted an illstration for it, and it took
32:51
me probably eight years to find Emma.
32:55
Speaker 4: Wow.
32:56
Speaker 3: And Emma has translated and these characters onto the page,
33:02
so they are living characters. And she didn't have fun
33:05
because in the poem there's a lot of description about
33:09
the characters, so she had to not create them some scratch.
33:15
It's just the personality tray, but also the physical description
33:19
in the poems as well. So then Emma and I
33:23
have been working on it since August last year.
33:26
Speaker 2: And it's a bit different from your normal your usual
33:29
ghost stories at Christmas, isn't it?
33:31
Speaker 3: Absolutely? When I did you know, Christal, I did a
33:33
ghost story evening two weeks ago. So I do Christmas
33:38
gold stories and then I do I also do local
33:43
history books. I've done the VELAs and you know about
33:47
the play The childa Hill. So this is a completely
33:51
and complete departure from me. But I have had some
33:55
very good feedback from it. I did a story reading
34:00
last week at the book stops would Like Children's Children,
34:05
and they just loved it, and they really loved it.
34:08
So that's good. Because it's harder. People think it's easier
34:14
writing for children. That's it's the worst. It's the hardest
34:19
audience because most children haven't learned to be like a
34:26
smile at you, even though they think it's a load
34:29
of ruggish. They don't like to be to walk off
34:32
and that's no audience. But you're also selling to two
34:37
sets with people. You're selling to the child, but you're
34:41
also selling for the adults who was buying the book.
34:44
Speaker 2: Don't you have a question Marry or Alan for for Sue?
34:49
Speaker 4: Not really because with something with something like we Sue write,
34:55
she's so ecolective. I find it hard to narrowing on
35:00
one particular facet of what she does.
35:04
Speaker 2: She does a lot.
35:05
Speaker 4: We like a polymath.
35:07
Speaker 5: Does it have a happy ending?
35:09
Speaker 4: Sue?
35:10
Speaker 3: Oh yes, definitely a wonderful ending. Oh yeah, Christmas day.
35:16
Speaker 2: Do you think children children's books have to have happy ending?
35:20
Speaker 5: Are you going to do an alternative versions with an
35:24
adult version?
35:26
Speaker 3: No? I don't think so. Absolutely funny enough, christ some picture.
35:31
A couple of people have bought it. Female has bought
35:36
it for their partners because their partners say Christmas and
35:39
they for Christmas. A couple of people have brought this
35:43
book to give to their partners on Christmas morning, So
35:47
you are guns for Christmas. The book about you?
35:50
Speaker 4: My kids actually call me Victor.
35:55
Speaker 2: Where can we find this book? So if you wanted
35:57
to purchase it.
36:00
Speaker 3: At from the book stock in Brish Streets and telling
36:04
the World of Glass instant Helians on the link with
36:08
and also from my website, christ which is www dot
36:16
gerard dot com.
36:18
Speaker 2: Is it Sue Gerard? Is it g E W R
36:21
A R D.
36:22
Speaker 3: That's it, yes, Christopher or one word.
36:25
Speaker 2: So we can find that book there and all your
36:27
other books.
36:28
Speaker 3: My other books as well. Yeah, and what.
36:30
Speaker 2: Plans do you have for the future. What's your next project?
36:35
Speaker 3: My next project is that we have an exhibition is
36:38
Shevington to be hung on January first, which is going
36:44
to be concrete poetry again. And then I have got
36:49
to January, the twenty fifth deadline for a new book
36:52
which has been published by Amberley, which is called Stantonians
36:56
in Fifty Buildings. That's and then no doubt something else will.
37:05
Speaker 2: Come along fantastic, and don't forget the reading room. So
37:09
we're I think we're at that point now when we
37:12
have to choose at the next book. So I've got
37:15
the tambourine tambarine here. I'm going to give it to Alan,
37:20
so he's gonna no peeping, Alan, he's got his eyes closed.
37:24
Let me just give this over. You go, Okay, this
37:30
is the moment of truth.
37:38
Speaker 4: The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling.
37:41
Speaker 2: Oh, that was my choice actually, And to be honest,
37:46
I didn't like Harry Potter at all, but I just
37:49
thought i'd be and I do like JK Rowling in
37:52
some ways. I think he's quite brave. And I just
37:54
thought it'd be interesting to see her adult to read
37:57
her adult book. So that was my choice. So just
38:01
before we finish, I just want to thank Sefton Park
38:03
Library because they supply the books when they're available and
38:09
and they're very good about getting the books back on time.
38:12
They don't they're very lenient on that, so we'll arrange
38:17
for the next reading room for next year. But I
38:21
just want to wish everybody a happy Christmas and all
38:23
the best for the new year. Any messages Alan before
38:28
we go.
38:29
Speaker 4: And thanks to everybody for let me join in and
38:33
looking forward to that new member next month.
38:35
Speaker 2: Yes we have a new member, yes Barry.
38:38
Speaker 5: Thanks very much. We appy Chris, peaceful time and look
38:44
forward to to our next session.
38:46
Speaker 1: It is all the best, all the best to you
38:49
and your husband, Suit with everybody at the radio station
38:54
room and all the listeners are happy Christmas and the year,
38:59
and just to say keep on.
39:02
Speaker 2: Absolutely okay, well, thank you very much everyone and see
39:06
you next year.
39:07
Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you.
39:30
Speaker 3: Okay, let me know, let me know about the date, okay, okay, thanks, thanks,
39:36
Thanks Christas, taka bye bye mm hmm