Word Soup: The Baby Aisle

Last night I read a slightly surreal story called 'The baby Aisle' at Word Soup. The story got lots of laughs (I was expecting wry smiles since it was more sinister than funny) and it was nice to read something lighthearted and irreverent.


I had a lovely time and it was fabulous to see some friendly, writerly faces in the audience: Avril Scott, Claire Massey, Carol Fenlon and Amanda Richardson.


Now I have absolutely no excuse not to get stuck into the thing that I'm trying to research at the moment which begins with 'n'. The thing that I don't want to talk about for fear of jinxing it: my n..... 

Helen Simpson and Jane Feaver.

On Saturday I attended a reading by Helen Simpson and Jane Feaver.

Jane read a story called 'Dancing on a Pin' from her collection Love Me Tender which was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. Love Me Tender is described as a 'daisy chain of stories' in a review here and 'Dancing on a Pin' comes in for particular praise in this review. I haven't read Jane's writing, but I enjoyed her reading.

Helen read two stories from her collection In-Flight Entertainment, (reviewed here) 'The Festival of the Immortals' and 'Dairy of an Interesting Year.' It was really interesting to listen to Helen read. She reads in a measured, contemplative way. Despite having read both stories more than once, I was lost in her words and surprised at the time when the reading finished. Afterwards I asked her to sign In-Flight Entertainment for me. She thanked me for buying it and I gauchely informed her that I have every one of her short story collections. It was hard not to sound like Annie Wilkes after that, so I thanked her for signing the book and left.

Reading at the Bluecoat.

Yesterday I read at 'Next Up' at the Bluecoat as part of the 'Chapter and Verse' Literature Festival. It was my first reading.

Earlier in the day I had a dental appointment (something I always dread, despite my wonderfully eccentric dentist's hilarious bedside manner - quotes from yesterday's appointment include: 'I know a lot of psychopaths' and 'I'm fascinated by serial killers').

While I was lying in the dentist's chair my phone rang. It was son 2's school to say he had been involved in an accident and had been taken to Alder Hey Children's hospital. When the dentist finished rectifying the damage from my recent bout of teeth-grinding, I got in the car and drove from Leyland, near Preston to Alder Hey - I didn't have a clue where I was going or how to get there, but I ended up in the right place.

Fortunately, son 2's eye looked worse than it was; there was only damage to the eye lid, the eye itself was fine. We were at the hospital for hours though and I was beginning to think that I might have to miss the reading. However, he was discharged in time for me to drive back to Southport, pick the rest of the family up, drive to Crosby for his parents' evening and drive on to the Bluecoat just in time for the reading.

Having been so busy during the day, I didn't really have time to be nervous and although I felt apprehensive as 'Next Up' began, once it was time for me to read 'My Burglar' I felt absolutely fine. I didn't make any mistakes and actually enjoyed myself - phew.