Staff Picks - Best Books of 2012: Barbara

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce 

Rachel Joyce is an award winning English playwright and this is her first novel.  It was longlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize. Six years ago Rachel wrote The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry as a play for the BBC Radio 4 and it won an award for the best radio play.  Rachel wanted to write a book for many years and was persuaded by her colleagues to write "Harold's" story as a novel. She wanted to write a story that didn't quite fit the rules and make the implausible, plausible....and I think she succeeded.  Harold has retired and lives with his wife Maureen in a southern Englist town. Maureen's a bit of a shrew and criticises him all the time and poor Harold wears it without a murmur.  He receives a letter from a work colleague he hasn't seen for 30 years.  She writes that she is in a hospice and wants to thank him for his friendship many years before and to say goodbye.  Harold immediately writes to her and sets out to post the letter.  He contemplates at the post box and decides to move on to the post office.  When he reaches it he makes the amazing decision to just deliver it in person.  The problem is that he lives in southern England and the hospice is in the north of the country 627 miles away!  And so his pilgrimage begins.  Sounds implausible I know, but the people he meets along the way, even the television crews, make this a quirky story with many surprising dimensions. I've had Shearer's customers who didn't want the novel to end as they loved it so much.

The Daughters of Mars by Tom Keneally

Tom Keneally is an inveterate storyteller.  Tom has written a World War One novel from the fresh perspective of the nurses rather than the soldiers.  The story begins in the Macleay Valley of New South Wales with two sisters Sally and Naomi Durance.  Both are nurses, one leaves and the other stays home combining work with looking after aged parents.  When the war begins they both sign up but they are hiding a dark secret.  The Durance sisters witness first hand the work and everything  the war has to offer.  This is a novel about the closeness of siblings and love.  The Daughters of Mars also touches on some interesting subjects, the changing face of medicine during the early 1900s, conscription, Quakers and the plight of conscientious objectors.  Tom is renowned for his meticulous research and the story was inspired by journals of two Australian nursing sisters written during the Great War.  It is a story that stays in your mind long after you read the last page.

Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin

Arthur Conan Doyle brought Sherlock Holomes back from the dead following a public outcry.  Ian Rankin just yanked Detective Inspector John Rebus, the dour Scottish detective out of retirement and the news has thrilled his fans throught the world (including me)!  Rebus finds himself at odds with Rankin's latest protagonist Malcolm Fox when all he really wants to do is to discover the truth about a series of seemingly unconnected disappearances stretching back to 2000.

Rebus wants to investigate the crimes but nobody else is interested.  Of course that doesn't thwart Rebus, not even when his own life and the careers of those around him are on the line.  Ian Rankin not only creates great characters but his description of place is so stunning I even looked up an atlas to follow the areas of Scotland he was visiting in search of answers.  The title, the first scene and the last scene in the novel all come together in a very clever piece of writing.  Mr Rankin is indeed a great storyteller.

Author Event: Ian Rankin

On Thursday evening 21 November, the Leichhardt Town Hall housed a capacity crowd to hear Pam Newton, a former police officer–turned award-winning crime novelist in an interview with Ian Rankin about his latest DI Rebus novel, Standing in Another Man’s Grave.

They were both introduced by the newly appointed Leichhardt mayor, Cr Darcy Byrne, who insisted that the Leichhardt Municipality was the best place possible to host two such accomplished crime writers due to the fact that the infamous "Lennie" McPherson, one of the most notorious and powerful Australian career criminals of the late 20th century had been born and raised in the area.

But the crowd wanted to hear about Rebus – and the fact that after five years in retirement - Rebus is back! The character of John Rebus lives in real time and was forty in the first novel (25 years ago), retired 5 years ago and now he has been brought out of retirement to work as a civilian in a cold case unit with the unfortunate acronym SCRU (Serious Crime Review Unit).

Rankin told the audience how he has to be vigilant to fit with the rules of the Edinburgh Police force. And in real life, their retirement age is 60 years. Rankin amused us with the story of a member in the Scottish Parliament who asked the Justice Minister if he’d consider changing the retirement age of police in Edinburgh so that a fictional detective could keep working. Apparently this didn’t endear Rankin to his local force!

Newton mentioned that this latest novel reintroduces some old foes, like Cafferty, Rebus’ nemesis, who turns up to take Rebus for a drink because he reckons he owes him for saving his life. But as readers, we’re never sure if it’s just a friendly drink or whether there is something going on below the surface. As Rankin said, “It’s an interesting relationship because we’re never sure if they’re going to become old friends or if they’re going to kill each other.”

Rankin went on to discuss how another old character, Malcolm Fox, usually a protagonist, this time has to perform in the role of the antagonist, the “bad guy”, trying to bar Rebus from returning to the force. Rankin’s editor told him that she “didn’t like Fox now – she’d gone off him.” So Rankin had to focus on carefully explaining the reasons for his not wanting Rebus back and trying to make Fox less unpleasant. He found it a challenge to see Malcolm Fox, the hero, through the eyes of the detective whom he’s hunting.

Newton added how interesting she found it to see Rebus from the point of view of Fox and Fox from the point of view of Rebus. In a rare moment Fox actually physically describes Rebus, revealing, she thought, an incredible jealousy. She asked Rankin whether he had had fun writing about this shifting power balance.

Rankin responded by adding the potential conflict with Rebus’ sidekick, Siobhan Clarke, who has emerged from his shadow and therefore is also perhaps not so happy to see Rebus return to his former position in the force. There was also the inner conflict of the older characters such as Rebus, who is unfamiliar with the modern social media and feels insecure around the younger officers and Cafferty who has to contend with the new ways of breaking the law. But Rankin’s main concern was how to write Fox in future books as a hero. If the reader now dislikes him, could he get their sympathy back or will Fox always remain “the bad guy”?

Rankin went on to describe how constraining being true to real time can be for an author. He confessed that he could kick himself for making Rebus too old in the first book. He’d recently been told that the cold case unit his character is working in is going to be wound up as the whole Scottish Force is being restructured. He’s also discovered, now that he has Fox in Internal Affairs, that officers only serve in that position for 3-5 years, so he is faced with moving Fox back to the normal CID with people he has prosecuted and who will always hate him.

Other challenges come with writing about real places and events, such as in The Naming of the Dead. This novel was set during the 2005 G8 Summit in Auchterarder, Scotland, allowing for an encounter between President George W. Bush and DI John Rebus. When the London bombings took place during the Summit Rankin was compelled to also include them in his plot. There are humorous incidents which lead from this too, such as when readers visit the St Leonards Police Station or the Oxford Bar expecting to find the fictional Rebus!

Rankin went on to describe how his latest novel received its title: it is a mondegreen - a mishearing of a lyric by the Scottish songwriter and folk musician, Jackie Levin, to whom the novel is dedicated. He was a long time friend of Ian Rankin and they released a joint album entitled Jackie Leven Said. Unfortunately Levin died during the writing of the novel and Rankin has sprinkled many of his lyrics throughout the novel in homage. The true words are, “standing in another man's rain”.

Rankin feels that as a crime writer he can explore everything he wants to in his fiction - complex characters, a strong sense of place, the pleasure of a who-dunnit with the pieces coming together to a neat end, the vicarious thrill of a roller coaster ride for the reader, but also the ability to look quite deeply at society and tackle the big moral questions such as why do we continue to do bad things to each other? What is evil? To this end Rankin investigated the nature of evil and how it is manifested in a three-part documentary series named Ian Rankin’s Evil Thoughts. In the course of his travels, he met philosophers, theologians, historians, neurologists, psychiatrists, criminals and victims, and explored their widely differing notions of evil, and examined how evil is perceived and portrayed today.

Rankin shared his writing style with us, telling us that he makes up the story as he goes along and that he writes as though he were Rebus, as equally in the dark as to the identity of the killer until very close to the end. It is only then, after the first draft is written that he goes back to research and plug the holes so that the whole fits neatly and completely.

We eagerly await being illuminated by Rankin’s next book – despite his assertions of not being sure how it will pan out as he has no ideas for it at all. He only knows it has to be delivered in June 2013.

That's good enough for us!

Pre-order Your Ian Rankin Signed Copy

Our event with Ian Rankin on Thursday November 22nd at Leichhardt Town Hall is unfortunately booked out, but you can order a signed copy of his latest novel Standing in Another Man's Grave. It’s twenty-five years since John Rebus first appeared on the scene, and five years since he retired. But 2012 sees his return in Standing in Another Man's Grave. Not only is Rebus as stubborn and anarchic as ever, but he finds himself in trouble with Rankin’s latest creation, Malcolm Fox of Edinburgh’s internal affairs unit.

Pre-order your signed copy by calling Shearer's on (02) 9572 7766.

Barbara on ABC Radio 702 Sydney with Dom Knight

Last week Barbara was on Dom Knight's show on ABC Radio 702 Sydney. She spoke about a couple of new release books that she loves - if you missed her on the radio here are Barbara's reviews.

Ratburger by David Walliams 
$19.99 in paperback

Ratburger is the 5th hilarious adventure from David Walliams, the English comedian best known for his partnership with Matt Lucas in Little Britain. David is the fastest selling UK kids' author at the momen, selling 20,000 of his books every week. He has a steadily growing audience in Australia and has even been compared to Roald Dahl - big shoes to fill!

Ratburger tells the rather sad story of Zoe, who lives with her unemployed Dad and her ghastly and lazy stepmum Sheila. Things just keep going from bad to worse as villain Burt, who will no doubt go down in kids' books history as a character that everyone loves to hate, has some rather unsavoury plans for her pet rat... the clue is in the title.

Ratburger isn't as grim as it sounds though, it's full of roll on the floor laugh out loud moments, and Zoe's Dad does redeem himself in the end. The novel is a clever way of making kids aware of how food is made, but it's also a wonderful story about a little girl who never loses sight of her dreams, no matter how tough things get. David's novels are great for boys and girls from 7 up to early teenage, and for kids who are looking for that next tstep up from Wimpy Kid or Andy Griffiths.

Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin
$32.99 in paperback

Arthur Conan Doyle brought Sherlock Holmes back from the dead following public outcry. Ian Rankin has just yanked Detective Inspector John Rebus out of retirement but the news has thrilled his fans around the world. The dour Scottish detective is back in Ian's latest novel that's just been released.

Standing in Another Man's Grave is the first crime novel to feature Rebus since he retired in 2007's Exit Music. Rebus finds himself at odds with Rankin's latest protagonist Malcolm Fox when all he really wants to do is discover the truth about a series of seemingly unconnected disappearances stretching back to 2000.

Rebus wants to investigate the crimes but nobody else is interested. Of course that doesn't thwart Rebus - not even when his own life and the careers of those around him are on the line. Ian Rankin not only creates great characters, but his description of place is so stunning I even looked up an atlas to follow the areas of Scotland he was visiting in search of answers. The title, the first scene and the last scene all come together in a very clever piece of writing. Mr Rankin in a great storyteller.

Collectomania: From Objects to Magnificent Obsession by Claudia Chan Shaw
$35 in paperback

According to Claudia Chan Shaw, the world is made up of collectors and non-collectors. Some collect for investment, others for fun. Some love the social interaction of collecting and others love to preserve the past.

Claudia, host of ABC TV series The Collectors,  likens collecting to an addiction. She is always thrilled by the pursuit, the hunt, and the final possession and sense of accomplishment. She developed a penchant for collecting from an early age; from tin robots, to Humphrey Bogart, to fashion. She's a fashion designer and company director for internationally acclaimed Australian fashion label Vivan Chan Shaw.

Collectomania has just been published. If you're a collector, or would like to start collecting items such as jewellery, art, wine, dolls, even snow domes, Claudia gives you wonderfully practical ideas. I found the chapter on Where Do You Get It fascinating - there are just so many ways to start or continue collecting objects of interest to you.

Mrs Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn
$29.99 in paperback

If you enjoyed Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader you will certainly get pleasure out of reading Mrs Queen Takes the Train. It's a charming, whimsical story exploring what happens when a long-serving and long-suffering monarch happens to go AWOL. One morning, in a spur-of-a-moment decision, The Queen decides to leave the palace by herself. Only six people know of her escapade, and when things get slightly out of hand they vow to bring her back to the palace before MI5 and the media turn her disappearance into a national crisis.

There are some hilarious moments in the novel, and you'll finish the story relaxed, with a smile on your face. The author, historian William Kuhn, was inspired by his research inside the Royal Archives of Windsor Castle, and time spent with courtiers listening to their stories. I think Her Majesty would enjoy reading Mrs Queen Takes the Train and may be even a tad envious. You can even get a free mug with the book while stocks last.