Something rather nice. Paul Magrs, the novelist whose modern Gothic novels I admire, came across a copy of FAMILY TIES, and emailed me the following: Dear Wendy, I've just this morning finished reading 'Family Ties'. I loved it - it's patterned like a north-eastern Shakespearean comedy, with those sexy triplets and the secretive, clever women. I really admire the plotting of it and the characters will stick with me for a long time. Paul
What a great person he is!

Talking about Gothic - alongside Paul and other writers, I met some very nice booksellers this month at the Headline Great Northern Dinner at the Malmaison Hotel: a glamorous place on the stunning Newcastle Quayside.

The Malmaison, a restored grain warehouse, is all purple, brown and grey with glossy black surfaces and dim lighting, A good place for a haunting. Or a seduction... The booksellers seemed to like the look and the story of my new novel SANDIE SHAW AND THE MILLIONTH MARVELL COOKER.

Peter, from W H Smith, and I shared memories of that age of Rockn'Roll innocence, when celebrity was a very new thing. As well as being (they say) a cracking story, SANDIE... is my tribute some wonderful people I got to know one summer working in a factory. See my tribute

One highlight this month has been our participation, in prison, in the Orange Prize process. There has been good deal of rather humourless debate about whether such a literary prize just for women should exist. However, it seemed rather appropriate to participate in the process from a women's prison. A group of us – prisoners, tutors, governors – formed a equal-status reading group to rate the Orange Prize shortlist. We then read the books and discussed them through six weeks, in order to compare our judgment with that of the judges. One of the judges, Philippa Gregory, joined one of our meetings and shared her views on the process and the books. She had to rush off towards the end and one of the group – a keen reader – was disappointed, saying, 'She didn't even stay for cakes!'

We shared with Phillipa the group's strong views on one of the novels, which involved both self-harm and prison. Many around the table had first hand experience of both of these things and were unconvinced by the fiction. This group were innocent of any previous knowledge of the shortlisted writers, so it was without prejudice that eventually they went for THE ROAD HOME by Rose Tremain as their winner. There were celebrations when we realised that the prestigious national judges had been of the same opinion. And we did stay for cakes, that day ... It is interesting to note in passing that Philip Pullman, writing in the Guardian, pulled my positive comment on THE ROAD HOME off the Orange Prize website, contrasting it with a much more negative blog on the book.

The women in my prison reading group, feeling some ownership of their winning book, thought this was great. Philip Pullman referred to me as 'reader Wendy Robertson'. Well, I am that, as well as being a writer. I often think that writers – and aspiring writers – do not read enough. Reading other good writers is a way of celebrating what we do ourselves.

Enjoy your summer reads. I hope one of my novels is among them!

Best wishes