Tuesday 28 April 2009

Gillian Philip: I don’t base my writing on real personal experiences. Except for that one...

We had the wonderful author Gillian Philip doing some events with us last week, and they were great, despite her dreaming otherwise, as she tells us...

So I dreamed I left my notes at home, arrived on the wrong day and went to the wrong place. Fortunately none of that happened despite my huge potential for reading the calendar upside down/losing emails/missing train connections. I made it to the SBT headquarters (right) on Wednesday for the launch of Crossing the Line (with my notes) and to Turriff Academy on Friday for a Big Issue event (and I turned up at the right school). And I’m glad I did, because this week was fun.

Edinburgh’s launch was terrific – many thanks to Jasmine and Chris and everybody at the SBT. A really great audience, a beautiful day, and books plus a Jura whisky miniature for the train home... what more can a writer ask? Friday’s event was similarly blessed with gorgeous weather, a lovely crowd from S3 Turriff Academy (left and below), and a photographer with limitless reserves of patience (either I shut my eyes at the wrong moment, or they simply disappear when I smile. I have a very crinkly face, like certain breeds of dog).


I kept meeting people who came from Aberdeen, so I’ve had to stop pretending that the swimming scene in Crossing The Line doesn’t take place on Aberdeen beach. The water temperature and the sheer idiocy of swimming naked in the North Sea at one in the morning are just too recognisable to anyone who has tottered down the Beach Boulevard in the dark to find the Inversnecky Cafe shut, and nothing better to do... foolish, but refreshing. I don’t base my writing on real personal experiences. No. Well. Except for that one...


Seriously, I loved every minute of both events. If you need an author visit, call me. I do talks, workshops, weddings, bar mitzvahs...

...and until my laptop battery died, I even got a lot of work done on the train. Good news, since that first draft of the new novel is now two weeks overdue...


And if you're curious to know a bit more about Gillian and her books, check out our excellent Q&A with her, where she talks about writing stories, her favourite books and which fictional character she would most like to be!

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