Autumn 2006

I am not quite sure where this summer has vanished too, but vanished it has. One of the reasons is that I have travelled quite a bit on various book tours. In June, I was busy traversing the UK . A high spot were my visits to Lincoln and Spalding where I met and talked to readers. Another memorable moment was leading a book group on Jane Austen's Persuasion , sitting under a tree in the garden at Chawton where it is possible that Jane Austen might have sat. One of the many excellent things about revisiting an beloved old favourite, such as Persuasion , is the joy of rediscovery – and the joy of discovery! As always with a great classic, there are aspects that have been missed on the first reading. Or perhaps it is that one is older and wiser and only now ‘sees' what has been there all along.

In July, I embarked on the US book tour. I think the mean average temperature wherever I went was approximately 90 degrees as the summer heatwave hit the United States . However, I was so well looked after that I never suffered. In fact, there were times when I found myself sneaking out of the air- conditioned hotel in order to sit outside and feel the heat. Since this was my fourth US book tour, I felt I could claim the title of an old hand. Being seasoned meant I knew how to deal with jet-lag better, and how to pace myself as I was flying most days, with stop-overs which can be tiring. Best of all, it meant that I revisited some favourite places such as New York , San Francisco , Milwaukee and Birmingham , Alabama (in the grip of the dog days), and met old friends who I had made on previous tours. But I was also allowed time off and enjoyed myself hugely at San Diego where I took a ferry across the bay, sat on a beach in the sun and watched families having Sunday picnics. Not a bad fate for the writer…

In New York, I met my new editor at Viking Penguin US . Losing a cherished editor is a wrench (something which happens frequently as they move on new pastures), but I need not have worried. She and I had an excellent dinner and discussed the new book which is quietly boiling up inside my head. The idea was for it was triggered by two separate things. Firstly, a trip to Umbria in Italy earlier in the year where I became fascinated by the story of St Francis and St Clare of Assisi and by the Umbrian landscape and the history of the area. Secondly, a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to see a collection of illuminated pages which had been cut out of a medieval Book of Hours painted by Bourdichon, one of the masters of that art form who flourished during the late fifteenth century. At the moment, I am working on the synopsis of The Book of Hours (the title of the new novel). I am never very good at synopses and rather resent the hard slog of producing one. Nevertheless, there is no substitute for knowing your novel inside out before you begin to write it. By that, I do not mean every nuance or nut or bolt – those will emerge during the writing of it - but to know the shape of the novel, and its emotional dynamics and inner scaffolding.

So the autumn and winter will see me wrapping a wet towel around my head and retiring into the study.

 

© Elizabeth Buchan