RIP Sybille Bedford

Sybille Bedford, novelist and writer, born March 16 1911; died February 17 2006.

Thank you to katlinel for sending me this link.

David Almond's writing tips

I just finished The Fire-Eaters by David Almond. It is set on the north-east coast during the Cuban missile crisis, and is about a young boy called Bobby Burns, who is struggling with various difficulties, not least his new grammar school and the meaning of sacrifice. Almond's prose is spare and vernacular, and image-laden. Obviously I would give up a leg to write a book like this. Bits of it reminded me of Riddley Walker. Not faint praise.

I had been putting it off reading it, because Skellig was one of my favourite books of 2004, and I was worried it wouldn't be as good, but the library wants it back at the end of the week. As you've probably worked out already, I wasn't disappointed. It's a very similar story to Skellig (about hope and miracles), and I think there are more subtleties to it. I could bang on for ages about how the men and the boys smoke and learn to smoke.

But I'll save you that and instead offer you his writing tips, in lieu of actually going off and doing some writing of my own. It is nice to know that a proper writer also uses tricks like double spacing to cheer himself up about how the damn thing is progessing.