The Penguin Blog

The Diamond Street App

Rachel Lichtenstein is an artist, archivist and writer. She is the author of Rodinsky’s Whitechapel and co-author, with Iain Sinclair, of Rodinsky’s Room.

Diamond Street is the second in a trilogy of books by Rachel on London streets. On Brick Lane was the first and both will be followed by a volume on Portobello Road, also to be published by Hamish Hamilton. Find out more about Rachel by visiting her site.

After receiving the fantastic news in 2012 that my application to the Arts Council to produce a digital app to coincide with the paperback edition of my latest book Diamond Street: the hidden world of Hatton Garden had been successful, I have spent the best part of a year working in collaboration with an amazing team of experts in the digital media, film, design, literary and historical fields to produce this new media project. 

The development of a digital app may at first seem like an odd choice for a non fiction writer with absolutely no experience of or skills in this type of medium but from the first time I heard about GPS technology being used in locative apps, I immediately recognised what a great tool this could be for me. I have always worked in a very multi-disciplinary way, having trained as a sculptor before becoming a writer. My creative practise currently involves writing of course, alongside walking, intensive archival research, photography, audio recording, painting, site-specific art installationsand making short films. The multi-media capabilities of a digital app seemed to offer a good way for my readers to experience my work not just as a printed text but also through digital space, new media and in real time.

Before starting this project I spent a long time imagining what a digital app could offer that a printed book could not and how new technologies could be used not to replace but to enhance and support a book.

I wanted the app to offer new insights for my readers into both the stories in the book and the places and people I have written about. I’m really pleased to say that after a lot of hard work I really do believe this has been achieved. Mainly due to the exceptional team I have been collaborating with who have made this magic happen.

Work on the app began with paper plans, budget discussions and meetings with Simon Poulter, Metal Culture’s digital arts officer who was co-producer of the project. We brainstormed on my original idea: ‘to pick up on traces of the history of the place as you wandered around, with images, audio and text being activated by geo-technology.’ We literally ripped the printed book apart and imagined these pages being scattered around the Hatton Garden area, transformed into different digital media, which would then beactivated as users passed by specific locations. The idea was to develop an experimental drift through an area, rather than a guided, chronological linear walk. 

Ripping the book apart – September 2012

From paper designs formulated during this process we developed the rough outline for a design for both the virtual (armchair version) and the GPS on location versions of the app.

The next stage of the development involved intensive meetings with Phantom Production who produced and mixed the extraordinary sound files for the app. Phantom consist of an amazing team of audio producers headed by the multiple-award winning sound artist Francesca Panetta, who runs the Guardian’s audio team. Francesca was one of the first to work on this type of GPS activated app (Soho Stories App). Her knowledge and expertise has greatly enhanced the project and through Francesca I was introduced to Calvium, app developers based in Bristol, worldwide leaders in the field of GPS activated apps.

Before working on the back end of development I spent a considerable amount of time storyboarding the app. I found this a painful process, after five years of researching the area and its history and a book’s worth of material gathered and more, it was hard for me to cut this down. I eventually decided on 12 different story zones, which take you through the story of the historic quarter of Hatton Garden, from its time as a medieval rural monastic landscape in the Fleet Valley, to its transformation in the nineteenth century into a jewellery quarter and the contemporary story of the place today. 

Even though I had already conducted hundreds of hours worth of audio recordings of people who work in the Hatton Garden jewellery trade, it was decided these needed to be re-recorded. The quality of my recordings was just not high enough for the project. So I contacted a number of people who had been involved in the book, from Iain Sinclair, to geologist Diana Clements, to orthodox diamond dealers and sewer flushers and then BBC broadcaster India Rakusen re-recorded my interviewees. These recordings were then mixed with bespoke soundscapes and music to create 12 beautifully produced and extremely high quality sound files, which really form the core of the GPS experience. As you walk around with your smartphone in your pocket and your headphones in your ears the secrets of the streets around you are revealed. Have a listen to some of the sound files we used on the Diamond Street App here. 

After spending a lot of time in different archives, deciding on which images to use in the app and editing down some of the text from the book, we had all the content ready to go. The next stage got a lot more techy! In November 2012 Simon Poulter and I attended an intensive training day with app developers Calvium learning how to use Calvium’s specially developed platform for GPS located apps.

In collaboration with Phantom Production and Calvium we decided on location zones and then placed the sound files and images within these zones. A period of intensive testing ensued, with extensive notes on any issues on site (such as leakage of sound files from one zone to another, or places where sound files overlapped) being taken and then reported back to Calvium who made continual adjustments to the back end of the app. There were many small problems to iron out and a lot of testing was needed before the app was working well. Most of the testing took place throughout the coldest winter on record and I can’t say it was all an enjoyable experience, but hearing those stories come to life in place as I wandered around was undeniably really exciting, a very contemporary way of conducting pyschogeography in place.

I really did jump into the deep end with this project. I had to learn a whole new language fast, as developers and digital artists asked me questions about ‘front ends’ and ‘back ends’, ‘story zones’ and ‘location zones’. To try and explain what I mean, below is a screen shot of the ‘back end’ of the app in development.

Appfurnace build (back end), showing the sound and location zones of diamondstreetapp. The diamond icons represent sound files

Alongside intensive testing on location we began to develop the designs for the armchair version of the app, which eventually became a swiping timeline through the stories in the book, with embedded text, images, films and sound.

I’m delighted to say the Diamond Street App has now been published and is available as a free download both in the iTunes store and for the Android market. I’m really excited about the project, which I hope has achieved its aim of giving readers a much deeper, interactive, dynamic and live experience of the locations, people and stories described within my printed text.

For me, working for the first time with these new mediums has completely altered my outlook on digital publishing and the potential of using new media to connect with new readers and audiences. I’ve found the collaborative multi-media way of working both really exciting and really challenging and whilst I’m looking forward to some quality time alone with my computer, cracking on with my next book, I can certainly imagine working on more digital app projects in the future.

www.diamondstreetapp.com

The Pride of Penguin/DK Charity Walk 2013: putting it all together

 

Every year Penguin Group employees around the world take part in a team walk in aid of a charity of the company's choice. Lorna Broomfeld, who works for Penguin UK, tells us all about this year's event in London, as well as our supported charity the Children's Reading Fund, and the challenges presented by organising so many Penguins at once.

It’s a mere 11 short days until Penguin holds it’s sixth annual, global, charity walk. Golly. The walk first began back in 2008, when a team of walkers in our London office got together to raise an incredible £25,000 for the Woodland Trust (that equates to 18,000 trees, all of which were planted by the charity in locations across the UK) but over the last five years it has become THE event of the year – and not just in London, but right across the globe too - with staff clambering for the chance to puff their Penguin chests out with pride and raise money for a very good cause (while donning extremely fetching bright orange t-shirts). When dawn breaks on Friday 14^th June 2013, Penguins here in London will be joined by colleagues all over the world, from Auckland and Melbourne to New Delhi, Beijing, Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, New York, Toronto and Dublin. And the best bit is that we’ll all be united with one aim – to raise awareness of literacy and spread a love of books and reading. How very Penguin.

This is the fifth time that I have personally been involved in pulling the event together and it’s still a task that I embrace with the utmost enthusiasm. The organisation of this year’s Pride of Penguin & DK Walk (to use its official title) has been undertaken by our small, but perfectly formed, committee. We’ve been plugging away since February - it takes time to pull together an event this good, y’know – coming up with everything from the “celebration” theme (it’s about celebrating some of Penguin and DK's best authors, characters, books and the joy of reading); the route (our journey will take us to some of London’s hotspots – think Trafalgar Square, Kensington Gardens, Buckingham Palace and King’s Road, Chelsea – and to areas where some of Penguin and DK's most popular and famous literary figures have lived, worked and visited - from Dickens to Dahl and Peter Pan to Peppa Pig); the t-shirt design (which, this year, features our very own walking Penguin and has been expertly designed by our in-house designer Ben Hughes); to our charity partner (Booktrust’s Children’s Reading Fund – which helps some of the UK's most vulnerable and disadvantaged children develop and grow through the power of stories and reading).

Although our charity affiliations have moved from environmental (The Woodland Trust) to human (for the past three years literacy has become our focus – with previous partners including Room to Read and Bookaid), we always ensure that we support a cause that is close to our hearts. Last year, as well as raising funds to supply books to communities that don’t otherwise have access, we made a decision to encourage a love of reading among members of our own community – the London public - by handing out books en route. Responses ranged from the suspicious ('Nah thanks darling') to the delighted ('how kind of you, I've always wanted to read that'), and as the reactions were overwhelmingly positive – just check out the delighted faces below – we’re arranging to do the same this year. Given that we’re partnering with the Children’s Reading Fund we’re hoping to catch the imagination of children of all ages with some fantastic titles, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Peppa Meets the Queen to RHS Wildlife Garden and Eyewitness Dinosaur.

Teaming up with the Children’s Reading Fund has meant that we’ve had to work closely together to design jointly branded materials and plan how the two organisations can come together on the day to get as many people as possible reading. While we’ll be giving away a fabulous orange Penguin bag containing one of the books mentioned above and some Children’s Reading Fund materials, we have also enlisted the help of two of Booktrust’s partner schools – ST Barnabus in Pimlico and Park Walk (very aptly named!) just off Fulham Road – whose pupils will be supplying our weary walkers with refreshments en route (for a donation to the cause, of course – they won’t let us off lightly!). To say a mighty big thank you, we’ll be donating a parcel of books to the school libraries and getting one of our extremely kind authors to pay the kids a visit.

As the day approaches, plans are coming together nicely. We’re at the stage of working out the boring logistical arrangements - like how and when people will collect their t-shirts and how many packets of sweets each marshall will be given to hand out to passing walkers (obviously a pretty essential detail) – encouraging (or mildly browbeating) colleagues to raise sponsorship; and dodging the throng of people who are “in training”, shunning the lifts to walk the stairs to the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th floors.

So while I go away to practice my stair walking, bully my friends and family into donating money to the cause, and pray to the weather gods for a sunny afternoon, I bid you farewell. But remember, if you happen to be in Central London on the afternoon of the 14^th June, look out for the high-vis orange Penguins, ask for a book to read to the child in your life, and spread the word about the Children’s Reading Fund – a truly fabulous cause - at #PenguinDKwalk. 

To sponsor us on the Pride of Penguin/DK walk, please visit our JustGiving page here.

My Fantasy Britain by Bee Ridgway

Bee Ridgway grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. She attended Oberlin College (B.A.), then worked for a year as an editorial assistant at Elle magazine. She studied literature at Cornell University (M.A. and Ph.D.) and has worked at Bryn Mawr College since 2001. She lives in Philadelphia, PA. The River of No Return is Bee's debut novel. It publishes today.

The River of No Return - Bee Ridgway

So yep, I’m an American. In fact, thinking about being American is how I make my living.  I’m a professor of American literature, and I spend my days teaching Moby-Dick to young Americans.   But about two years ago I sat down and started writing The River of No Return.  It’s a big, busty time travel novel, a genre mash-up that combines adventure, romance, spy thriller, mystery.  It’s set in Vermont, in contemporary London and in Georgian England.  Its two main characters are British. I surprised myself: shouldn’t a scholar of American history and literature write an American novel?  Instead, a frothy tale of time-traveling Regency aristocrats, beautiful medieval beet farmers and faceless corporate heavies from an ominous future was flowing from my fingers.

I had tossed my academic hat aside, my hair had come tumbling down, and I was tapping into fantasy.  And if there’s anything Americans love to fantasize about, it’s England (not Britain – England). Of course you fantasize about us right back, and always have.  Brits have more to say about Yanks than Yanks do, and Americans are fiercely protective of an idealized England that no British person would recognize.  The number of times an American has yelled at my British partner for not enjoying tea would astonish you.

This used to tick me off.  I’ve spent years in both countries, I have a pretty good grasp of the “real” Britain and the “real” US, and I used to roll my eyes at the notions each nation harbors about the other. 

But that was a humorless mood.  The fact is, fantasy is pleasurable and admitting it keeps us honest and makes us more generous, in art and in life.  The fun house mirror that someone else holds up teaches you to laugh at yourself. I am now a thoroughgoing fan of the fictional versions of our two nations that we dream up between us.  And there are always new ones.  Remember that amazing Dr. Who episode where Britain is zooming through outer space on the back of a white whale?  Remember how I told you that I teach Moby-Dick? Our mutual and often absurd fascination may not have had particularly savory effects on the world stage, but the“special relationship” has made for some terrific popular fiction, going back a long way. 

If I may put my academic chapeau back on for a moment, and regale you with some literary history?  Some of the most archetypically “English” writers bounced their portraits of Albion off America.  Arthur Conan Doyle grew up reading American penny dreadfuls: the first Sherlock Holmes story is largely set in Utah. Agatha Christie’s father was American. P.G. Wodehouse spent vast portions of his adult life in America. Frances Hodgson Burnett immigrated to the U.S. when she was sixteen.  Rudyard Kipling married an American and lived in Vermont for four years – he adored it and was wildly prolific while there, writing The Jungle Book and reams of poetry. I’ve chosen the “popular” writers of yesteryear to make this point, because it’s the “popular” fantasies that we swap back and forth to this day.  The Hollywood and BBC portraits of one another that we love to hate . . . and hate to love.

So yep.  I’m an American, and I’ve written a fantastical novel about Britain. My time-travelly Britain is also – through a side window and around some corners – a portrait of America.  I wrote the novel because it was incredibly fun to do so.  I enjoyed myself thoroughly, wallowing in the alternative versions of reality that I had given myself permission to explore. I offer it to you with a grain of salt (for flavor), and I hope that you enjoy it, too.

The River of No Return is out today. For a gentle introduction to the novel, here's Bee talking about it on Penguin YouTube. 

Giovanna Fletcher presents: A day in the life of me...

Author, actress and freelance journalist, Giovanna Fletcher is married to Tom Fletcher from McFly. She grew up in Essex with her Italian dad Mario, mum Kim, big sister Giorgina and little brother Mario, and spent most of her childhood talking to herself (it seems no one wanted to listen) or reading books. Giovanna is a firm believer in the power of magpies and positive energy. To find out more about Giovanna, view her blog or follow her on Twitter.

Her debut novel, Billy and Me, is out this Thursday (23rd May 2013).

Anyway, over to Giovanna as she tells us about a day in her life...

Every day varies, but my writing days are a fairly consistent array of distractions that I struggle to knock on the head before getting on with the pressing task of writing.

I get up at a respectable eight o'clock (I'm conveniently forgetting the times I struggle to get out of bed before ten - they’re rare!), and potter around having breakfast with the hubby, showering, getting into a fresh pair of PJs or comfies, and then pottering around for an hour or so. I then like to watch the beginning of This Morning for their quick round up of the news. Now, this can sometimes work against me as occasionally there'll be someone being interviewed that I think will be interesting to watch. But, let's say this is a day I prise myself away from the telly . . .

I then go to the office and sit at my desk in front of my laptop. First task? Checking my Twitter, Facebook and the Mail Online (I like the pictures), and then, before I know it, it's one o'clock and its time for lunch. Not that I've earned the break, of course!

After lunch (usually soup in case you're wondering), I start reading what I'd worked on the previous day to get my mind focused . . . Occasionally I feel tired and have a nap at this point (let's blame the Italian in me - I love a siesta), although I've tried to stop myself from doing that - grabbing a quick cuppa is much more time effective. I'm then ready to write for the rest of the day and late into the evening, usually getting a solid six hours distraction-free-writing in the bag. 

Yes, reading back over this, my working day is pretty disgusting really. I promise to rid myself of a few distractions and leap over obstacles with speed so that I can get to work a little quicker in the future . . . This is said from my PJs while I nurse yet another cuppa. I guess with writing it's all about finding a way that works for you and gets the creative juices flowing.

10 myths about authors as explored by...an author.

Joanna Rossiter is the author of The Sea Change (her first novel). She grew up in Dorset and studied English at Cambridge University before working as a researcher in the House of Commons and as a copy writer. In 2011 she completed an MA in Writing at Warwick University. She lives and writes in London. Last week The Sea Change was announced as one of the Richard and Judy Summer 2013 Book Club titles. Here Joanna expands on some common misconceptions about the wonderful world of writers.

The Sea Change by Joanna Rossiter

 

1.    Being an author is glamorous.

Before I had managed to write a book, I had an image of what an author should be in my mind that was something akin to Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge; sitting down melancholically in the middle of the night at his type writer with the Eiffel Tower outside his window and, after a sip of absinth, typing the words ‘This is a story about love’.

In reality, novels are rarely the results of flashes of inspiration, although they may often begin this way. I like to think of them as a long-standing marriage; the writer weds themselves to one particular idea and then sticks with it through thick and thin, through romance and conflict – times when they wish they could separate and times when they feel like they want to do nothing else but spend time together. Sometimes writing is a lonely business – to finish a book, authors must spend days and evenings in a room on their own filling their head with made-up people. Often, there’s little chance for genuine feedback until the book is complete and nobody except the writer can see the full picture until the book is written.  There is a lot of hard graft and very little glamour, but it’s worth it for the satisfaction of a well-told story.

2.    Authors are full of new ideas.

It has been said that all the plots in the world can be summarized in one of two phrases: ‘A stranger comes to town’ or ‘a hero leaves home’.  Whilst I wouldn’t go this far, I would argue that modern day culture places a lot of emphasis on originality when, more often than not, stories are found rather than invented. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays from stories he had come across elsewhere; renaissance writers recognised that the talent of a writer lies not as much in the chosen story but in the way that story is told.

3.    Authors don’t read reviews of their own novels.

Given than my first novel only came out last Thursday, I have had very limited experience of this! However, already I’m finding that the desire for feedback from readers has overtaken my fear of reading a bad review. Authors spend long spells alone with their books in order to get them written and it’s a joy when we finally get to meet people who have read our books and hear what they have to say about them. Every writer writes for a reader, whether they admit it or not.

Note from the Editor: You can read Richard and Judy's reviews of The Sea Change here. 

4.    Authors write word-perfect first drafts.

Novels are born out of an enduring desire to persevere with an idea until it is fully realized on the page.  I spend far more time editing than I do writing; for me, it’s the most satisfying part of creating a book. Once the bones of the story are on paper, it’s a great feeling to be able to start drawing out a structure and looking for the hidden meanings in each scene. I often don’t know exactly what a story is trying to say until I have written a first draft; the imagery and echoes and symbols that I want to build on only become clear when I start to edit.

5.    Authors never plan their books.

Even though a lot of a story’s nuances can’t be determined until it is written, authors still put large amounts of time and energy into planning their novels before they put pen to paper. The level of detail varies from author to author but I would say that it’s almost impossible to write an engaging novel without a plan to follow. Without a preconceived plot structure, it is difficult to convince the reader early on in the novel that you, the author, know where the story is going and have control over its outcome. It’s like being on a rollercoaster; for the reader it’s great fun not knowing where the twists and turns lie but the ride can only be enjoyed if the reader is confident that the author has built a trustworthy track for the story to follow.

6.    A book can be written in a month.

Initiatives like NaNoWriMo are a wonderful tool for helping people get started on books and cultivating the commitment required to finish them. However, they are also misleading in the perception they create about novels. Contrary to what they suggest, I think it’s impossible to write anything readable in a month (others may prove me wrong!). Novels, like wine, need time to mature. They need to be laid to rest and then picked back up again at a later date in order to be read and edited with a fresh, objective mind.

7.    Having a story to tell is the only ingredient required to write a book.

The most common response I get when I tell people that I’m an author is not ‘what do you write about?’; it’s actually something along the lines of ‘I’ve got a great idea for a novel myself; I’d turn it into a book if I had the time.’  One of the wonderful things about writing is how accessible it is: unlike paint or a musical instrument, language is a tool that the majority of us use on a daily basis. As a result, there is an unspoken assumption that any one of us could write a book if we had the time.  I do believe that anyone can learn to craft a good story, just like anyone can learn a musical instrument. However, there is a craft involved and this craft takes more than time; it takes practice. You wouldn’t expect someone who had never played the trumpet before to pick one up and come out with perfect jazz. Similarly, stories require skill and perseverance and they are as much a practiced art as music or sculpture. 

8.    If an author’s book is good enough, it will get published.

There can be a lot of snobbery on the side of published authors towards unpublished authors. And yet, the fact that a certain author is published is not just down to the quality of their writing; as a published author myself, I would be the first to admit that at some point along the line, there is an element of chance involved. Editors are inundated with manuscripts on a weekly basis. My own editor is sent ten manuscripts from new authors via literary agents every week and, out of those manuscripts, she publishes only three or four a year. There are far more publishable manuscripts out there than there is scope for publishing them.  A whole host of factors outside of a writer’s hands go into the decision to publish a book: from the extent to which a story resonates with the culture of the time to its appeal to a particular audience to whether or not it complements the other books on that publisher’s list. As much as editors want to nurture new talent, publishing is a profit making venture and one eye always has to be kept on the ability of a book to generate sales.  Yes, there are plenty of manuscripts that are turned down because they are poorly written but there are also thousands that are rejected for reasons outside of an author’s control. A large part of me does want to believe that a good book will always find a way through eventually…

9.    Authors are creative types who don’t care about the bottom line.

We all dream of making a living from the thing we love to do the most and authors are no different. Whilst we can convince ourselves that it isn’t about the sales, which writer would turn down the chance to have a bestseller? With the move into the digital space squeezing the amount of money a writer makes from each book, it’s not a career that is entered into for financial security. In most cases, it’s a hand-to-mouth profession that goes alongside a series of other day jobs.  However, writers, like everybody else, will (albeit sometimes secretly) welcome the affirmation that good sales figures bring. Popularity is not always seen as a good thing in the literary world: literature that is valuable and literature that is popular are often viewed as being in contention with each other.  Yet, deep down, I don’t think any author would turn their nose up at the prospect of more readers, a higher profile for their writing and, yes, a royalty statement that doesn’t make you want to weep into your green tea.

10.    Novels are always, in some shape or form, autobiographical.

All authors ‘borrow’ aspects or experiences from their own lives when they write. In order to create compelling characters, writers often need to be able to relate to the characters themselves and this can mean incorporating into them certain traits that we have seen in our own lives or in others. Whilst stories have their root in the author’s personal experience, they often grow into something else entirely. I’m a great believer in readers forming the meaning of a story for themselves; it’s more about the experiences that they bring to the page than it is about the author’s. In fact, I as a writer can often only spot the resonances of a particular novel to my own life once I have written it and become a reader myself. A good author can present their reader with a carefully chosen set of ingredients that complement each other; but, more often than not, it’s the reader who decides what to concoct.

The Sea Change is out now.

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The journey of 'The Aftermath': From the screen, to the page, and back again

Will Hammond is commissioning editor at Viking Books, and edited Rhidian Brook's emotional wartime thriller The Aftermath, out today. He assisted Brook during the process of turning his original film script and 60-page treatment into a novel; now, the journey is set to come full circle with the news that The Aftermath is to be adapted into a film. Here he argues why the story of The Aftermath is one that needed to be told as a novel, and examines why film-makers consistently look to the publishing industry for inspiration.

One way to measure a novel’s success is to ask whether they’ve made a film of it yet. The Third Man, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Graduate: dozens of screen classics began life as Penguin Classics. A film adaptation is a sign that a book has made its mark in the culture. And in some exceptional cases, such as Rhidian Brook’s The Aftermath, a film is already in the works, despite the fact that we are only publishing it today. Is this a sign that The Aftermath has some classic quality to it? What is this love affair between films and books?

When these film adaptations hit the screen, the publisher will usually see a handy boost for their author’s book. Hence Penguin’s tie-in editions of Victor Hugo’s epic Les Miserables, Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. Watch out next for the tie-in edition of The Great Gatsby alongside Baz Luhrman’s remake. For some reason, the experience of watching a film inspires people to seek out the novel on which it was based. If they’ve enjoyed the experience in one form, the other form presents an opportunity to enjoy it all over again in a different way. The book leads to a film, which in turn leads back to the book.

No wonder, then, that book editors are continually scouring for news of forthcoming film adaptations in the hope of acquiring rights in novels that have films in the works. One particularly canny colleague of mine at Viking acquired the UK publishing rights in two books that last year became the films Argo and Lincoln. If push comes to shove, a publisher might even commission a novelisation of a film, which results in good books such as John Briley’s Cry Freedom on the one hand, and far more dubious creations on the other.

It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to understand why book publishers greet news of film adaptations with relish. Happy the publisher of Life of Pi when that chicken came home to roost. Indeed, it’s now almost expected that a big book launch comes with a film-style trailer, and some of these, such as John le Carré’s this week, have such high production values that you might be forgiven for mistaking them for actual film trailers. Online, meanwhile, publishers need ways to communicate their verbal  or written content visually: hence the remarkable rise of Cognitive Media, famed for their RSA animates.

But what’s interesting is that just as often, it’s the film industry who look to the book industry to take the lead, and not the other way round. Film scouts are continually asking book editors what’s hot so they can pick up the film rights in a book in advance of its publication. What is it that draws the film industry time and again to books -- even those that seem to defy adaptation, such as Cloud Atlas? What is it that draws film-goers, who know how the story pans out, back to the original prose?

An extraordinary novel that Penguin is publishing this week illustrates the situation perfectly. The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook is set in British-occupied Hamburg in 1946, a city utterly razed by the Allies’ ferocious bombing campaign of Operation Gomorrah. It tells the story of Colonel Lewis Morgan, whose job it is to rebuild the devastated city, and it begins with an extraordinary choice.

At its opening, Lewis is awaiting the arrival from England of his grieving wife and only remaining son. Like all British officers of the time, a large house has been requisitioned for him and his family to live in. But rather than turf out its owners, a German widower and his teenage daughter, forcing them into billets, he decides, in a spirit of reconciliation, that the house is big enough for both families. He decides that they will live together – with the enemy.

 

It’s a brilliant premise, spring-loaded with tension, and the story that unfolds from it is intensely involving. It was on this premise that Viking – and eighteen other publishers around the world – entered into highly competitive auctions to acquire the rights to Rhidian Brook’s novel. For at that point, Rhidian Brook had written only its first 60 pages. 

But he had also written a film script, based on the same premise, which had been commissioned by Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions and was in development with BBC Films, with the backing of one of the major global film distributors. It goes without saying that, at this point, there was no guarantee that the film would ever be made. But once a deal for the novel was in place, it would take exceptional circumstances to prevent the book from being published. The possibility of the film no doubt played a part in publishers’ interest in the novel, but no publisher would acquire a book purely on the basis that a film of it might be in the works. It was the brilliant premise, conveyed in 60 brilliant pages of prose, that had everyone convinced – not the script.

Having begun his writing career as a novelist, Rhidian Brook had long wanted to write the story of The Aftermath as a novel. But having turned his attention to screenwriting over the last ten years, it was as a film script that the opportunity finally presented itself. In the event, Rhidian Brook’s agent convinced him to put the script to one side after a first draft, and to tell the story in the form in which he had first conceived it – to write those fateful 60 pages. So was this a case of a publisher acquiring rights in the book of a film? Or was it actually a case of a film producer taking an option on a novel in progress? Which came first, the book or the film?

The answer is neither. What came first was that extraordinary choice: a choice that Rhidian Brook’s own grandfather made as a British army officer when he was himself based in Hamburg after the war, when he decided that his family would share their home with a German family. It was a choice that had lodged itself in Rhidian Brook’s mind many years ago as the beginning of a story that had to be told.

As Chuck Palahniuk points out in his essay ‘The Guts Effect’, prose has a power all of its own, as he found when reading his short story ‘Guts’, which had the alarming effect of inducing vomiting and fainting in some of his listeners. When reading (or hearing) prose, the action takes place in our heads – not on a screen in front of us. It’s an invasion of our minds. When reading of Colonel Morgan’s choice in prose, we feel that we are making it ourselves.

Publishers are no doubt attracted, for quite straightforward commercial reasons, to books that are made into films. But as with all readers, perhaps what attracts film-makers to books is the experience of inhabiting a character’s mind entirely – the experience, in fact, of experience itself.

The Aftermath is available to buy from today in hardback and e-Book formats.

World Book Night 2013: Treasure Island and Me Before You

Today (April 23rd) is World Book Night, a time for readers and publishers accross the world to come together to celebrate our favourite things: books.

As well as live events in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Liverpool, World Book Night, along with publishers across the country, will give 20,000 volunteers half a million books to give away to members of their community who do not or are unable to regularly read.

At Penguin we're proud to have contributed two books to this year's list of 20 World Book Night titles. The first book is an enduring classic, one of the most famous adventure stories of all time...

Penguin Press editor Simon Winder says of Treasure Island:

"Within moments of starting to read it you realize that Stevenson has set out very self-consciously to write as enjoyable and gripping a book as possible, and - because Stevenson was a genius - he pulls it off.  He distills the essence of every pirate tale, takes the brilliant decision to see it all through the eyes of a boy, and simply lets rip. 

Parrots, doubloons, curses, shanties, castaways, a map and of course treasure pour from the story.  The villains could not be more villainous (surely Blind Pew must be in any rationally managed Top Ten), the forces of good more colourless.  I envy anyone who has not read Treasure Island as they have something wonderful to look forward to.  But, having read it myself off and on for some forty years, I can't say that it ever gets less good."

Also as part of World Book Night, we're distributing 20,000 copies of JoJo Moyes's heart-breaking Me Before You.

Julia Bookford, World Book Night CEO, had this to say about this best-seller:

"We all read for different reasons, and those reasons will change by the day, the time, our mood and our perception of a book and what we expect to get from it. It could be that I enjoyed Me Before You so much because I wasn't expecting to (based purely on my judgement of it's cover), but I completely fell in love with it. I was intrigued, I was gripped, I was entranced, I was educated and in the end I emerged a little bit changed by having read it.

It is, of course, a love story (but aren't all our lives to some extent?) but it's about as far as 'girl meets boy, they go through some complications but eventually live happily ever after' as it can get. It's about playing the hand we were dealt, however unfair it may be and what happens if we decide we simply don't want to play any more and about how our lives can be utterly changed by meeting the wrong person at the wrong time. There's a good chance, if you're that way inclined, that you might cry your eyes out at the end (I did, but please don't let that put you off if you're not quite so sentimental!), but whatever your emotional state I challenge you not to be a tiny bit effected by the story."

We'll be hosting hourly book bundle giveaways on our Twitter feed all evening tonight - be sure to follow us and look out for the links from 4pm to win a selection of fantastic books. From classics to cookbooks, and erotic fiction to hot literary prospects, we've tried to cater to something for everybody, and demonstrate the breadth of delights that await you in your local library or bookstore.

So why not close your laptop, switch off your monitor, put your phone on silent, and settle down with a good book this evening?

A very happy World Book Night from all at Penguin!

 

A Q&A with Graeme Simsion, author of 'The Rosie Project'

 

The Rosie Project was originally a screenplay. What’s the story there?

I’d always wanted to write a novel, but didn’t think I had the ability. When, at 50, I made a mid-life career change, I decided to enrol in a screenwriting program rather than creative (prose) writing. I had previously written a screenplay for a feature-length film made purely for fun, so I thought I could do that. So The Rosie Project was my school project over five years. Two factors drove me to adapt it into a novel: the first was that with a story in place, I thought the jump to writing a novel was not so great so I could achieve that ambition; the second was to get more attention for the script to help fund the making of the film.

How difficult was it to adapt it as a novel?

I found the “reverse adaptation” very straightforward. In fact, I realised that the story was perhaps better told as a novel. I was able to work quite quickly – the first draft took only four weeks. I already had a clear plot, characters and dialogue. The big addition was Don’s inner world – his thoughts. Although these were not on the page in the screenplay, they were very clear in my mind, so quite easy to add. They are, in the novel, an important source of comedy. In a film, you can generate comedy from physical movement and expressions and from timing – these tools are not really available to the novelist. So in the novel, the main source of comedy moves from the external world to what’s happening in Don’s head.

Did you do a lot of research on Asperger’s Syndrome or Autism?

I did read a couple of technical books and a couple of memoirs but their influence on the character of Don Tillman was minimal. My first degree was in physics – lots of science and maths! Then I worked for many years in information technology and also taught and did research at several universities. So I met many people who were technically very capable and often had “left field” ideas, but who struggled with understanding and communicating with other people. I guess today, many of these (mainly male) guys would be diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, but that diagnosis really only became popular in the 1990s.

Is Don Tillman based on anyone in particular?

They say a character is a third someone you know, a third yourself and a third made up. A particular friend, an information technology guru, had a dramatic true-life story around his quite-focused “Wife Project” and this was the original inspiration for the script. Initially I channelled his voice, but Don soon took on its own character. I was also a bit of a nerd in my youth, and a bit beyond. And I added in mannerisms and stories from others – “greetings” and “I’m in human sponge mode” come from colleagues.

How do you feel about using autism / Asperger’s as a source of humour?

Don is a person with big strengths (high intelligence) and weaknesses (poor social skills). I see him as atypical rather than disabled. Most stories, drama or comedy, require the hero to overcome a weakness to achieve their goal. Comedy arises when the hero is seriously under-equipped for the journey. And sometimes Don’s view of the world makes more sense than ours. So far, the novel has been very well received by people with Asperger’s, their families and organisations. Many have commented that they appreciate the socially-challenged person being the hero and the person we identify with rather than someone for the real hero to learn from (as in, for example, Rain Man). No doubt there will be other views but if the book prompts discussion, all the better.

Does Don actually have Asperger’s? You never say he does in the book.

That was a very deliberate decision. As soon as you say “Asperger’s” or “Autism”, people, in my experience, focus on the syndrome rather than the character. Don is not a bunch of symptoms – he’s a quirky guy who probably would be diagnosed as being on the Autism spectrum – but I don’t claim to be an expert. The citation for the Victorian Premier’s Award said Don had “undiagnosed Asperger’s” and I say “undiagnosed except by the judges of a literary award.”  If, reading The Rosie Project, you note that Don drinks alcohol, and you think (as one psychiatrist friend did) that “aspies don’t drink”, then, in your diagnosis, he doesn’t have Asperger’s. Fair enough. Read on.

Where did the Rosie character come from?

The original story was titled The Klara Project, and Klara was a nerdy Hungarian studying for her PhD in physics. There was a plot around plagiarism and Don helping her out. About 2 ½ years into the project, I decided that Klara wasn’t a strong-enough character – she didn’t require such a big change and effort from Don. And he didn’t learn as much as I wanted him to. So I replaced her with the antithesis of what Don was looking for – to see how far he could go. I didn’t consciously base her on anyone but there are elements of a couple of people I know in there.

Have you ever met anyone like Gene? I mean, really? At a university?

Yes.

What happened to the screenplay?

We have had firm offers from production companies in UK, Australia and the US. I’m very confident we will do a deal and have every hope that the film will be made.

 

Who would you like to play Don?

I don’t answer this question, because it puts an idea, and not always a good one, of what Don is like in the heads of people who read the book. One of the joys of reading is to use your imagination. But I want the film to be laugh-out-loud funny – genuine comedy. So the most important factor is the comedic chemistry amongst Don, Rosie and the director.

Will there be a sequel?

I am working on one now.

Your wife writes erotic fiction. How does that work?

She writes under the name Simone Sinna – and is currently working on a mainstream novel. We work well together – we discuss story ideas, review each other’s work, and know that if the other person is on a roll, it’s our turn to make dinner. Or order in.

How does it feel having rights for The Rosie Project sold in 35 countries?

It’s great that people in such a range of cultures – from China to Iceland - can relate to the story and particularly to Don. On the financial side, I’ve been able to give up my day job to focus on writing.

What was your day job? What exactly is data modelling?

I was an information technology specialist focusing on data modelling, which is basically specifying how data will be organised and represented in a database. I wrote a couple of books on the subject – one is entering its fourth edition. In the 80s I founded a consultancy that I sold in 1999 – and after that I focused on teaching data modeling and consulting skills around the world. I met quite a few people like Don.

What advice would you give to writers?

I’ve written a few things about this on my blog, but basically I work with a plan, which I update as I go. If you’re writing well without a plan, I’m not going to suggest you change, but if writing without a plan isn’t working for you…  
And good writing is re-writing. You can always make it better. Enrol in a writing class or join a writers group or both – for feedback, knowledge sharing and encouragement. Write for publication.

How do you think The Rosie Project compares with The Big Bang Theory / The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time / One Day?

I haven’t seen / read any of them. Deliberately. Once I realised I was working in the same territory, I avoided reading them so as not to be hamstrung by worrying about copying. Sometimes different writers just end up at the same place, coincidentally or because some things are just common to certain types of people. Of course now people thrust Asperger’s-themed books at me to review...

What do you read?

Not much fiction when I’m writing. In the past I read a lot – typically taking an author and reading all of his / her works until I got exhausted – when I was in teens / early 20s Hemingway, Camus, Solzhenitsyn, Kurt Vonnegut…  later Philip Roth, John Irving, Joanne Harris, Rose Tremain, John Fowles.

As an adolescent, I read science fiction – lots and lots of it. The most recent books I’ve read were Addition by Toni Jordan (a book Rosie has been compared with) and Waiting for the Barbarians by J M Coetzee.

What books influenced The Rosie Project?

Many years ago (I’d have been in my teens) I read a 1950s book that was a huge hit in Australia – They’re a Weird Mob by Nino Culotta (John O’Grady).  It was the model of a humorous book, first person, about a fish out of water, an Italian in Australia. I never consciously drew from it, but in retrospect it probably provided the first model for Rosie. I like John Irving’s ability to create character and plot that seem just a bit heightened – but never actually incredible.

Don is a bit of a foodie – and a wine buff. Where did that come from?

Me.  I like to cook, eat and drink. I do a lot of travelling – in the past with seminars, now with the book – and an interest in food and wine fits well with travel.  And I was keen to give Don some characteristics that were not traditionally associated with Asperger’s.

The Rosie Project is available now in hardback, eBook and audio book formats. 

10 Tips on How to Stay Sane as a Debut Novelist

  

 

 

 

Jennifer McVeigh's debut novel The Fever Tree, the epic tale of a British woman embarking on a new life in nineteenth-century southern Africa, has been critically acclaimed and selected for Richard and Judy's Book Club in March. Here, she reveals her 10 Tips on How to Stay Sane as a Debut Novelist.

1. Don’t quit your job before you have a book deal. Very sensible advice that I spectacularly failed to follow. I left my job as a literary agent and stepped into the terrifying world of no salary, no professional support and no real hope of achieving what I was setting out to achieve. It was a very rocky ride.
2. Do join a writing group – they will keep you sane, help you to stay on track, and remind you that there are other people in the world crazy enough to be battling all day with words on paper.
3. Don’t divulge your plot, or writing problems for that matter, to friends at dinner – they’ll say very unhelpful things like: Isn’t that a bit predictable? How can you not know what’s going to happen at the end? And – most gruelling of all - hasn’t Wilbur Smith written a novel just like that?
4. When you’re writing sex scenes, don’t imagine your parents looking over your shoulder – a passionate kiss will quickly disintegrate into a prudish peck on the cheek.
5. Don’t obsess over the perfection of other novels. Read them, learn from them, but don’t let them cast your own into shadow. I always wanted my protagonist to be as dynamic and real as Cathy or Emma, but it wasn’t until I had reached the end of her story that I felt I really knew her.
6. Don’t let yourself imagine all the unpublished authors in the world being turned down by agents, like the millions of lost souls waiting at the gates of heaven. If you have written something good, then someone will spot it – you just need to have faith and determination.
7. Don’t be your own judge. After I had written my novel I shelved it in despair, convinced that it was worthless. It was only by some stroke of luck – a chance meeting with a literary agent – that I was convinced to send it out into the world. Thank goodness I did.
8. Don’t demonise the agents who reject you. More than likely your manuscript fell into the hands of some poor, unpaid 17 year old intern with a hangover, desperately trying to reduce the size of the slush pile. Wait a few months, and send it in again. I was offered representation by an agent who must have afterwards let my manuscript fall into the slush pile. A month later I received an earnest typed letter from the agency: “Dear Miss McVeigh, many thanks for sending in your manuscript. I’m very sorry to inform you that…”
9. Once you are published - in the interests of sanity – try not to check your Amazon sales rank more than twice (OK – that’s not realistic – perhaps 5 times) a day. If sales are good your publisher will tell you, and a shift from 3050 to 2095 is almost certainly meaningless.
10. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you’ve got one novel behind you, the second will be easier. It won’t. Sweating over a novel is part of what makes it brilliant. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. I do have a very frustrating writer friend who keeps telling me that her second novel is a breeze…

The Fever Tree is available now in paperback (RRP £7.99). Follow author Jennifer McVeigh on Twitter and Facebook.

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Jennifer McVeigh discusses her inspiration for 'The Fever Tree'

EXCLUSIVE: Author Doris Kearns Goodwin discusses Team of Rivals, the book behind the Oscar-winning Lincoln

To celebrate the Oscar successes of Argo, Lincoln, and Les Miserables, we're offering 50% off the books at Penguin.co.uk for today (February 25) only. To claim your discount, simply enter the coupon code 'readthefilm' at checkout.

Doris Kearns Goodwin has loved history all her life. She has focused her career on the lives and stories of presidents past: Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and presently Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.

For four decades, she has lived with dead presidents. She wakes up with them in the morning, and thinks about them when she goes to bed at night. She has imagined them in their youth, in the White House, with their families and friends. She has spent significant time thinking about how their voices sound, the cadence of their speech, their posture and stride. She has sought to understand the inner person behind the public figure. For her, this study brings the presidents to life and allows us to learn from their past successes and struggles. Through her writing, she hopes readers will feel like they, too, know these presidents in a new and intimate way.

Goodwin’s bestselling book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln was the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln film. She visited the set in Richmond, Virginia, and saw up close and personal Lincoln’s world coming to life.

Q: Let’s start with your book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, which was the basis for the movie Lincoln. How did you expect the movie to tackle the 900-plus pages?

A: I knew that they couldn’t deal with the whole book. The only way to make the story come alive in a feature film was to make a story within a story. So Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner decided to focus on Lincoln’s tumultuous final four months in office, the ending of slavery with the passage of the 13^th amendment, and the Union victory in the Civil War. The only way to tell the whole story is through a miniseries. Maybe that will be next!

Q: This is the first of your books to be made into a feature film. How does that feel?

A: Seeing all the actors in their costumes, the cinematographer, the lighting people, the technicians and dozens of people working on the set, and knowing that somehow this book helped to inspire Spielberg’s team to create an entire world is very exciting.

Q: And what thoughts did you have upon arriving in Richmond and visiting the sets as Lincoln’s world was coming to life in this old pinball factory?

A: What Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner have been able to do so masterfully is tell a big, historical story in such an intimate way. It’s an up-close and very personal, detailed look at the life Lincoln led and the people closest to him during this most important time. For the 10 years I spent writing Team of Rivals, everyday I imagined the world Lincoln inhabited.The loving fidelity the filmmakers paid to recreate his life, his world, is astonishing. I felt magically transported back in time to the 1860s.

Q: One of the most important locations in the film is Lincoln’s office, which was essentially the center of the Lincoln White House. Was it comforting or unsettling to be in that room that you must have imagined time and time again.

A:  As I walked in the Lincoln office, I had a sense that I was really there. I could see him there, sitting in his chair, picking up his pen. It was so much like what I had imagined while I was writing my book, that I could almost smell the cigar smoke lingering in the draperies! It was an extraordinary experience to see the attention to details: from the genuine Belter piece to theold maps on the wall and the portrait of President Andrew Jackson.

Q: Lincoln’s desk is a beautiful and important piece of furniture. Set designer Jim Erickson said he added all those cubbyholes for authenticity. Please tell us about the particular meaning the desk holds.

A: I suppose it’s because Lincoln’s office is at the heart of the movie.He would sometimes write little fragments of his speeches and tuck them away in the drawers and cubbyholes. People thought he wrote his speeches at the last minute, but he had thought about themes and sentences for weeks. The desk drawer is also where he would put his hot letters, the letters he would write in a moment of anger or frustration. He would not send the letters, but would wait for his emotions to settle. Especially near to me are the first-edition books atop the desk; books that he would have read at the time – The Poetical Works of John Milton and The Bigelow Papers.

Q: The attention to detail, as you mentioned, is extraordinary. How do those details impact or enhance the storytelling?

A: The research that went into replicating the furniture, the gas lighting, carpeting, and wallpapers is exceptional. I loved hearing about how they found a place in England to hand-weave the carpet and in Richmond to make the wallpaper using silk screening. But yet, even with the beautiful sets and furniture, costumes and linens, clocks, candelabras, china and crystal, and books, bringing Lincoln to life is the most important thing in the whole movie. Obviously, the story matters and the 13th Amendment, but people adore this man Lincoln and he fascinates them. And if you can better create him through his surroundings and the people who mattered, then all of that makes a profound difference.

Q: So tell us, what did you ultimately think of Daniel Day-Lewis’s performance as Lincoln?

A: Daniel Day-Lewis has brought this iconic figure to life in a way that I could not envision before seeing his performance on the big screen. I was told that when he arrived to start filming, he completely embodied Lincoln – and didn’t break character. His performance was remarkable in every way - from the way he looked to his posture and gait. His storytelling ability, and way his face lit up with those sparkling eyes, to that voice that could carry throughout the land were spellbinding.

Q: When you see the movie, there is something so particular about his posture and the way in which he walks. How would you describe it?

A: Lincoln at 6-feet-4-inches tall had this singular way of walking, which gave the impression that his long, gaunt frame needed oiling. He seemed to plod forward in a slightly awkward manner, his hands hanging at his sides or folded behind his back. His step had no spring; he lifted his whole foot at once rather than lifting from the toes and then he would thrust his foot down on the ground rather than landing on his heel.

Q: Tell us about Lincoln’s voice. There had been some online chatter that people were critical of the high pitch.

A:Lincoln’s voice was thin and high pitched, but I think you’ll see in this movie that his voice also had tremendous range. In his day, Lincoln’s voice had much carrying power, allowing it to be heard from the far reaches of the crowd. He would also become increasingly impassioned as he spoke, gesturing with his head and body rather than with his hands. His speaking went to the heart because it came from the heart. Lincoln’s eloquence was of the higher type, which produced conviction in others because of the conviction he possessed.

Q: When he speaks, it seems to me his face changes dramatically. Do you agree?

A: Yes, when Lincoln would begin to speak, his expression of sorrow dropped immediately. His face lit up with a winning smile – a genuine, deep and knowing smile. It was through his words and his facial expressions that one could know his keen intelligence and genuine kindness of heart.

Q: Tell me what surprised you most in your own research of Lincoln and how is that demonstrated in the movie?

A: The vitality of the man, the magnetism of his personality, and the life-affirming sense of humor were much greater than I had realized. His sense of humor was one of the ways in which he combatted his own melancholy. Those who knew Lincoln described him as a very funny man. Lincoln himself recognized that humor was an essential aspect of his temperament. He laughed, he explained, so he did not weep. He saw laughter as the joyous, universal evergreen of life. His stories were intended to whistle off sadness.

Q: You have mentioned that Lincoln’s storytelling was key to his personal and professional success. Can you tell us how it helped him and brought him closer to the people of histime?

A: He had hundreds of stories that he could all on at any time. The stories often had a point relevant to the moment, but sometimes were just hilarious. His humor would today rival that of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. I think he could have matched them one for one. There’s a moment when somebody says to him, "Lincoln, you're two-faced." And he looks right back, he said, "If I had two faces, do you think I'd be wearing this face?" So many people say that he couldn't possibly be elected in today’s time. But I disagree. With his strength of conviction, with his humor, with his intelligence, with his lovability, our country would really be in trouble if we couldn't elect him today.

Q: At the core of your book and presumably this movie, is Abraham Lincoln’s political genius.

A: Both movie and the book focuson the political genius of this man at a time when we're so distrustful of politicians. The movie demonstrates that it takes compromise, attention to detail, willingness to bargain and masterful timing to get something done, but the system can work. And that's an important lesson for today.

Q: What is it about Lincoln that continues to interest and excite people generations later?

A: People feel a deep emotional attachment to Lincoln than perhaps any other president. In part, it is his life story, the trail of losses and failures before he reached the presidency.  And of course, the soaring words that have been studied and memorized by generations of students.

Q. What do you hope readers will take away from your book and the movie?

A. I would like people to realize that in the hands of a truly great politician the qualities we normally associate with decency and morality—honesty, sensitivity, compassion and empathy—can also be great political resources.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln is available now, RRP £12.99.