Hello and welcome back to Desert Island Books on the blog. I am thrilled to have Deborah Swift joining us this month.
You may remember that I reviewed Deborah's's book, Shadow on the Highway, a couple of months ago. If you would like to read my review you can do so by clicking here. The book is the first in a trilogy.
Her recent publication, The Poison Keeper, is the first in her new Tofana trilogy and I am looking forward to reading it.
Deborah used to be a costume designer for the BBC, before becoming a writer. Now she lives in an old English school house in a village full of 17th Century houses, near the Lake District National Park. She has written fifteen novels to date, and divides her time between writing, teaching and mentoring aspiring novelists.
Deborah, how do you think you would manage life on a desert island?
I think I'd be alright on a desert island as long as I have these books and a good supply of fruit, and date or coconut palms!
My main problem would probably be things like insects, as I'm one of those who gets eaten alive by mosquito's and react really badly to stings and bites.
My imaginary desert island is quite tropical with a beautiful sandy beach and warm sea. I'd be hopeless though if the island turned out to be in the Hebrides or Antarctica.
Jill Has Two Ponies by Ruby Ferguson
As a child I was obsessed by ponies, and by pony books. The ‘Jill’ books were my favourites and I would go every week to WH Smith clutching my pocket money and hoping another one would be out. This one was my favourite where Jill is lucky enough to get two ponies! Ruby Ferguson had a marvellously dry sense of humour and this shines through in the books. It would remind me of happy childhood memories, and be something quintessentially English.
Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
There was something enormously fascinating about the weird world that Mervyn Peake created in this trilogy of books, and as a teenager it appealed to me because I could imagine I was any one of the slightly weird characters that inhabited his world, whilst searching for how I might fit in with my teenage peer group at school. I reread it several times, and its length was one of its appeals. Whilst others were reading Lord of the Rings, I was reading this. I’d choose the second volume if only allowed one of the books!
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
I read all of John Wyndham’s books, which are science fiction/speculative fiction, for those with no knowledge of science. I loved his plots, the brevity of the books, and the possibilities of unusual situations they unleashed. Post the moon landings, I was a child fascinated by space and alien worlds, and these books held just the right amount of speculation whilst being anchored in a world I recognised.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My mother introduced me to this book, and the film of the same name, and it will always remind me of her. Manderley is the ultimate creepy Victorian house, and Mrs Danvers the ultimate creepy servant. The gothic atmosphere of menace is well-created and a million miles away from a shack on a desert island.
Virgin Earth by Philippa Gregory
These are my favourite Philippa Gregory books, set in my favourite period of the 17th Century. I like her books about ordinary people far more than the ones about Kings and Queens. On a desert island I imagine that I will be needing some plant lore. Her books about the Tradescant family and their plantsmen’s adventures appeal to my love of nature. These books are so well researched, and you can feel the excitement for the men of the era of discovering new species in foreign lands.
The Art of Shen Ku by Zeek
This is a large illustrated book with sections on just about everything you can imagine, from health to martial arts, building things, signalling, butchery, archery, survival, fitness and more. Definitely would find many things in this book useful on a desert island, and I love its quirky but clear layout!
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
My family spent a lot of time in India and my father was born there. This book is a touching exploration of an Indian family in the 1970’s, about Darji and his nephew Omprakash, tailors who leave their village to escape poverty and seek their fortune in the city, hoping to return rich enough to fetch their families out of poverty. It is one of my favourite ever books, and it will give me a chance to re-read it at my leisure.
The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke
This is a historical novel about alchemy both in the physical and spiritual sense. This is a novel to remind me that there are other dimensions to time and space, and that if I’m alone, I can still make some sort of connection to something bigger through contemplating the themes in the book. Again, this is a favourite, a Whitbread prize-winner, old but much thumbed and loved and well worth the time to re-read and contemplate.
What a fabulously eclectic selection of books and there are a couple of my personal favourites. Thank you, Deborah, for sharing your choices.
If you are an author and would be interested in taking part, then please get in touch by emailing me at leftontheshelf1@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment