Monty, would you...?
A few months ago, a very good friend (Sally King - check her out here) asked me to provide her with quote for the cover of her book. I was honoured, of course, but also nervous (yes, I think everything I do is tinged with nerves). I wanted it to be honest, to sum up what I thought of the book and do it simply. Be succinct, if you like. Not an easy task for me. Also (I thought as I bit my nails), why would anyone care what I thought? I’m just a regular person. But perhaps that’s the point.
But Who Am I?
In my time as an avid reader I have been lucky enough to have lots books recommended to me. First by librarians, intrigued by a small child who shunned ‘babyish’ books in favour of ‘The Secret Garden’ and ‘The Red Pony’ (ok I was far too young at nine to have understood the nuances of Steinbeck, but I read everything about horses at that point), and then by teachers and friends. I found that it soon became easy for me to recommend books too. When I worked as a bookseller I loved to be asked ‘What are you reading? What would you suggest?’, beaming brightly I would ask about what they had enjoyed lately and go from there. Shyly pointing those who loved Captian Correlli’s Mandolin to One Hundred Years of Solitude or Isabelle Allende’s House of Spirits. What I soon learned, was that there wasn’t a particular ‘type’ of reader, and that the books I read (from Jilly Cooper to JD Salinger) weren’t of a 'type' either. They were just all good stories. I found that my passion is for all books, from Arundhati Roy’s delicious descriptive prose in The God of Small Things to losing myself in the very real charactors of Armistead Maupin. It doesn’t seem to matter what I read, or how well it’s regarded by critics, as long as I find a voice I haven’t heard before hidden within.
Keep It Simple
So to provide the right recommendation for Sally, I began with how I actually felt about her book. It was wonderful. A warm hug from a good friend. It was so good that I completely forgot that it was written by my friend Sal, and lost myself with Lottie and Grace and the brooding Oliver. I found that I didn’t know Sally as a writer at all. The voice she wrote with is not one I hear her speak with. I think this is the mark of a truly gifted writer. One who gives a true, clear voice to their charactors and allows them to have a life of their own. Sally calls this writing from the heart (she blogged about this here), and I agree.
In the end, I wrote out my quote without fuss - “A wonderful and engrossing read. I couldn’t put it down!” The simple truth about a good book. Regular people all over the world are now reading it and loving it, and I couldn’t be prouder of her.
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