Wendy Robertson
 

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February 2008

Dear Friends,

Well, already 2008! Time goes by in a blur. My weeks charge by in a manic balance of work on my current novel and my work as Writer in Residence at HMP Low Newton. The major event this year was the launch of my novel THE LAVENDER HOUSE in September. This novel, my first set entirely in London and mostly in the present day, was inspired by a real story attached to a particular house.
 

Read a Chapter now

The Lavender House - Out Now!


This inspired me to research that area of North London which in turn led me to 1960s and the undertow of violence in people’s lives, not dissimilar to the present day. A kind of mixture of crime and love story, this book has been very well received. Look out for THE LAVENDER HOUSE in paperback in March. I will have a party to celebrate that in the area of North London where the book is set, which should be fun.

My current pre-occupation is again the 1960s, but this time in the North of England. My new novel is a fictional take on factories and fame in the early 1960s with Sandie Shaw as the invisible but presiding spirit of the times. Factory life – despite being dynamic, exciting, comic and tragic in turns - has little reflection in modern fiction apart from dated, dismissive references to boring processes and dark satanic mills. Yet in the twentieth century factory life was the mainstay of many communities. And many factories - particularly light manufacturing industries - depended on the skilled work of women, My new novel focuses on the lives of three very different women in the week when a great celebrity visits their factory. All this sounds very serious but the provisionally titled  SANDIE SHAW AND THE MILLIONTH MARVELL COOKER has, I hope, that balance of passion. comedy and tragedy that sits at the base of all our lives. Watch for this one in September.

Read the Prologue now!

My work in prison continues to be ever more interesting and absorbing. We had our own Litfest Inside in October and have just published our first book. Called THE SELF REVEALED, it includes poems, memoirs, prose, short stories and novel extracts by the community of women writers at Low Newton. It is a great book – a credit and a tribute to them and is now obtainable on Amazon.

My last good news is that IRON PRESS is to publish a collection of my short stories later this year, to be called KNIVES. Writing short stories is a different kettle of fish than writing novels and has provided me with a nice counterpoint to the writing THE LAVENDER HOUSE and SANDIE. Hard to compare the two forms, really: like spinning fine silk compared to weaving a patterned braid, perhaps.

Wendy Robertson at workNow I am down to reading all things Polish in preparation for a new novel. It goes on!

Happy reading and keep in touch.

                            

 

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