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Tag Archives: Tracy Chevalier

Every Writer Needs a Cat

02 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by ninevoices in Maggie

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Dr Johnson, Maggie O'Farrell, Margaret Atwood, Tracy Chevalier

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Are writers attracted to cats? Or cats to writers?

In a Zoom interview last year, Maggie O’Farrell spoke of retreating to the solitude of her children’s Wendy House to tackle a poignant passage needed for her book Hamnet. Accompanied by her cat. The previous summer, I attended a talk by Tracy Chevalier during which she admitted that much of her writing was done, not at her computer, but curled up with a pen and notebook on her sofa. Accompanied by her cat. A handful of years before that, Margaret Atwood regaled a masterclass in central London with the story of a stranger knocking on her door with a gift of prawns for her cat, which he had befriended on his walks to the station. He did not know she was a famous author, only someone who would be happy to deliver his gift to her feline friend.

Authors who have complex relations with their cats are not new. Dr Johnson, author of one of the most influential English dictionaries in history, is known for considering his cats as more than useful rodent operators. His most famous feline companion was called Hodge, of whom James Boswell, Johnson’s biographer wrote:

“I never shall forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge… I recollect him one day scrambling up Dr Johnson’s breast, apparently with much satisfaction, while my friend smiling and half-whistling, rubbed down his back, and pulled him by the tail; and when I observed he was a fine cat, saying, ‘Why yes, sir, but I had cats whom I liked better than this, and then as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, adding, “but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed.'”

Hodge lived with Johnson at 17 Gough Square, off Fleet Street in London, his home from 1748 to 1759. Both Boswell and the writer Hester Thrale mention how Johnson would go out himself to buy oysters for Hodge because he did not want his servants to feel demeaned by doing errands for a cat. Which shows not only Johnson’s consideration for his servants, but how much he wanted Hodge to enjoy a favourite treat.

Johnson further demonstrated the Hodge’s importance in his life by inviting his acquaintance, the writer Percival Stockdale, to write the cat’s epitaph:

“Who by his manner when caressed

Warmly his gratitude expressed;

And never failed his thanks to purr

Whene’er he stroaked his sable fur?”

It is surely fitting that outside 17 Gough Square, now a museum to Dr Johnson, stands a statue of Hodge with oyster shells at his feet which was sculpted in 1997 by John Bickly. The animal, modelled on Bickly’s own pet, stands at “about shoulder height for the average adult, which is just right for putting an arm around.”

A writer, like a cat, often needs their own space. And what better companion can there be than a feline presence, perhaps curled on the corner of their desk? In my own establishment, Gizzie will happily allow me to read passages of my work-in-progress out loud to her when I struggle with a piece of difficult prose. Doing that to my husband would put him in an difficult position: might criticism land him in the spare room? Reading aloud to oneself feels awkward: one expects the men in white coats to turn up at any moment. But a pair of considering and intelligent golden eyes will concentrate the mind wonderfully.

A Chance to Get Your Debut Novel onto the Bookshelves?

15 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions to Enter, Finding an Agent, Maggie

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The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier

 

To celebrate the 120 years since Albert Curtis Brown founded his literary agency, and their authors past and present, Curtis Brown have just announced their inaugural Curtis Brown First Novel Prize. Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and Single Thread, will chair a judging panel formed of Curtis Brown Agents and the Curtis Brown Creative Team.

The prize is open to manuscripts, both finished and unfinished, across all genres of adult fiction. Entry is FREE, but must be online. Authors must be 18 or over and not represented by an agent.

Applications are open until midday on August 1st of this year, but the summer will slip past, so you might want to concentrate your mind now. There is even sufficient time to pen the 10,000-words required for entry from scratch.

A shortlist of six will be chosen for consideration by the judging panel.

The author of the winning novel will be offered representation by Curtis Brown, plus a prize of £3,000. The first runner-up will receive a place on a three-month novel-writing course and a mentoring session with one of their literary agent team. A further four shortlisted entrants will be offered a place on a six-week online course with Curtis Brown Creative and a mentoring session with one of their agent team.

To enter, send the opening of your novel, (up to 10,000-words, including any prologue), together with a single page synopsis (up to 400 words).

If you are not already aware of it, Curtis Brown produce an excellent newsletter, packed with advice and information. Currently it concentrates on how to perfect your submission, from format to the opening; from the synopsis to the title. Worth subscribing to, even if you don’t intend to enter this particular competition.

I suspect more than one member of ninevoices will consider this too good an offer to refuse.

Details and rules are available on http://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/first-novel-prize and should be checked before entry. For example, they will not accept a manuscript which has already won a prize.

Since Curtis Brown are anxious to publicise this great opportunity, I don’t imagine they’ll mind me lifting the quote from their announcement:

‘Every book starts with a first line, every career with a first moment of inspiration.’

 

 

The Cambridge Literary Festival

21 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by ninevoices in Ed, Festivals

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Andy Stanton, Cambridge, David Hare, Howard Jacobson, Jackie Kay, Kate Tempest, Sebastian Barry, Shakespeare, Tracy Chevalier

There are three wonderful literary festivals lined up this spring, at Cambridge, Oxford and Charleston (the great Bloomsbury house near Lewes in Sussex).  Lots of authors to see and listen to, and buy books from – and other famous names from the media and other worlds are on show too.

The Cambridge Literary Festival – 5-14 April

The website (http://www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com ) says, “This year’s eclectic and vibrant line-up is bigger than ever and presents leading lights from the worlds of comedy and current affairs, history and hip-hop, finance and fiction, science and Shakespeare and poetry and politics.”

The programme includes: Akala, Sebastian Barry, Tracy Chevalier, David Hare, Horrible Science, Howard Jacobson, Jackie Kay, Ken Livingstone, Ben Miller, Alexei Sayle, Andy Stanton, Kate Tempest, Edmund de Waal and Ruby Wax.

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