Madge Eekal Reviews

Here’s an interview I did with Madge Eekal reviews, including childhood memories of a book loving guinea pig.

Madge Eekal Reviews

Huge thanks to Madge Eekal Reviews for this lovely review of Night of the Party.

If you’re a children’s books fan, you’ll want to check out the rest of their site too: it’s fairly new, but already has a good range of interesting and thoughtfully written reviews of books for children of all ages.

Night of the Party: London scenes

London in Night of the Party is a bit of a mash up of what’s real and what’s imagined; so when Zara stares downriver from the footbridge over the Thames she’s seeing more half finished sky-scrapers than actually exist here and now. But Hampstead Heath in the book and in life are pretty much exactly the same. Here are some pictures of where Ash and Zara run together: the woods, the cafe, the bandstand and the mound of dark trees where he first tells her about Sophie.

 

 

Night of the (Launch) Party

Some memories of a brilliant launch party: massive thanks to Scholastic for arranging such a great evening, and to all the friends and family who came along to share it.

Night of the Party: blog tour day five

Thank you Chouett blog for hosting today’s stop on the tour: check it out for a chance to read an extract from the book, and to win a signed copy!

Night of the Party: blog tour day four

Thanks to Drawing on Books for hosting me today on the Night of the Party blog tour.

Night of the Party blog tour: day three

Thanks to Page to Stage reviews for hosting today’s stop on the blog tour. Zarina interviewed me about writing in general with some specific questions about how Night of the Party came into existence. There’s also a chance to win one of 5 signed copies of the book!

Night of the Party blog tour day two

Thanks to Faye at A Daydreamer’s Thoughts for hosting me today, with some Q&A about writing, reading and Night of the Party.

 

Night of the Party blog tour: day one

Today, I’m delighted to be visiting The Pewter Wolf Blog with some reflections on how real life politics influenced me when I was writing Night of the Party.

 

Night of the Party – Lulu

One of the main characters of Night of the Party is Lulu the dog. All the other characters are out of my imagination, but Lulu is taken from life; she is my friend’s dog.

I was looking after her one day at a very early stage of developing the characters and story of the novel, and as I walked her round the block I suddenly thought, ‘Oh. This is what Ash does. He walks his dead sister’s dog.’

It was a transformative moment for the book. Lulu’s presence brought many scenes to life.  She became somehow symbolic of Sophie and her memory: when Ash thinks all that life he is thinking equally of Lulu and of Sophie.

And as I worked and reworked the story, Lulu ended up having a major impact on how the latter stages of the plot unfolded. If it wasn’t for her, Ash reflects at one point, none of this would be happening. 

Here she is.