On Friday 4th November at 7pm, at Kenilworth Parochial Hall, as part of Warwick & Kenilworth Books ‘Meet The Author’ series,  Susan Hill will be talking about her new Simon Serrailler crime novel‘The Betrayal Of Trust’ 

 Freak weather and flash floods all over southern England. Lafferton is underwater and a landslip on the Moor has closed the bypass. As the rain slowly drains away a shallow grave – and a skeleton – are exposed; twenty years on, the remains of missing teenager Joanne Lowther have finally been uncovered. The case is re-opened and Simon Serrailler is called in as Senior Investigating Officer. Cold cases are always tough, and in this latest in the acclaimed series from Susan Hill, Serrailler is forced to confront a frustrating, distressing and complex situation.

Susan Hill’s novels and short stories have won the Whitbread, Somerset Maugham and John Llewelyn Rhys awards and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She is the author of over forty books, including the five previous Serrailler crime novels, The Various Haunts of Men, The Pure in Heart, The Risk of Darkness, The Vows of Silence and The Shadows in the Streets. The play adapted from her famous ghost story, The Woman in Black, has been running on the West End stage since 1989; it has also recently been made into a feature film starring Daniel Radcliffe, which will premiere in autumn 2011. Susan Hill was born in Scarborough and educated at King’s College London. She is married to theShakespeare scholar, Stanley Wells, and they have two daughters. She lives in Gloucestershire, where she runs her own small publishing firm, Long Barn Books. www.susan-hill.com

•  ‘Not all great novelists can write crime fiction but when one like Susan Hill does the result is stunning’ – Ruth Rendell
• 
  ‘A crime series that specialises in sidestepping conventions, always to exhilarating effect …These books succeed in harnessing all the genre’s addictive power while maintaining a complexity and fascination entirely their own’ – Independent
• ‘Susan Hill’s Serrailler novels are a real treat’ – Daily Express

This is a Kenilworth Festival Xtra event. Tickets £6 (£5 concessions) are available from Kenilworth Books and Warwick Books. We are very grateful to the publisher Random House for enabling us to put on this evening.

There is so much about a book. From when you first see it on the shelf in the library or bookshop. (There is also the whole cosy feeling of libraries and bookshops that I could go on forever about as well.)The cover that catches your eye. The shape and weight of it as you carefully pick it out and turn it over to read the blurb. The raised writing that you often get on the cover that you run your hands over, whilst deciding if this is the book you want. The buying/taking out of your chosen book and taking it home. Placing it on the shelf, waiting eagerly until you can read it. Going to bed early before you start it so that you can read it for a long time (even after you have been told several times to put the light out.). Then there’s the pretty bookmarks and sentimental items used to keep your place. 

Then the reading. This deserves a new paragraph. The feel of the book as you hold it in your hands. The dry thumbs you get after reading for a long time. The feeling as you turn the page. Finding out about the weight of the paper subconsciously as you turn. The sound as you turn the page. The satisfying sound as you close the book when you can’t keep your eyes open anymore. The smell of the book. How it varies depending on the age of the book and the type of paper used. The different size and style of fonts and the smudges you find. How you tap your birthday presents, listening for that recognisable dull sound that means you have received a book. Reading the dedications page, how you feel related to the author and you see the effort and emotions that have gone into the book. Seeing how much you have read and that feeling when you reach halfway. The strange feeling of sadness and joy as you finish a book. You can start a new one, but the story that has absorbed you is over. 

This is all I can think and have time for right now. Some of it you may not have experienced and you may have experienced different things to me. I know a few things I have mentioned are possible with an E-book but I felt I would include them anyway. I think you can see why the warning was necessary now. Sorry! I think it is obvious that I am strictly against E-books, for all the above-mentioned reasons and because my mum is a librarian so she would be out of a job if E-books became big. There is also the cost which I feel is way too much when you can buy books and experience all of the points above. The only idea I do like with the e-books is the ease of carrying the books. They are all stored on a small electronic device and so I wouldn’t have to take a separate bag full of books when I go on holiday. Oh dear, I really have written an essay here. I apologise for that. Anyway, I think I have written more than enough so I shall stop now. Just one more line. I feel very strongly about e-books but I would be interested to read your thoughts and debate your contradictions! That is finally all.

See more comments from young people on e-books at

http://spinebreakers.campaignserver.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=101#p1553

Trash by Andy Mulligan

Most of us agreed that ‘Trash’ is an excellent book. Based loosely on a place that the author visited whilst working in Manila, it concerns children who live and work on a massive rubbish heap. Whilst we all knew that this happens, we still found the depiction of the appallingly difficult living conditions shocking and challenging. This book is no mere vehicle for getting the word out about a major humanitarian issue, however. Although it does that very effectively, it is also an intensely gripping read. Only one of our group didn’t agree. It’s an adventure story with a difference and a real page turner. The narrative is carried by the three main characters but there are contributions from others too. We enjoyed the somewhat different structure and it was intriguing to watch it all fit together. Although the three main characters are all boys who live on the trash heap, Mulligan distinguishes their voices very effectively, and we warmed to them all in different ways. I should warn you that there are one or two very scary and distressing moments but then the whole story is set in a very disturbing setting.

Do read it. It may not look like obvious holiday reading and you may be shocked but you will also be vastly entertained and moved. It is published by Random House under the David Fickling Books imprint. David Fickling is one of the great and good of children’s publishing. He is still managing to find and promote one-off novels which are that bit different. He takes creative risks in a market which is playing very safe and dull at present. His work is worth supporting if we want children’s fiction to remain a rich treasure house.

On that note, I must sign off. Sadly, the children’s book group has come to an end. The children have grown into teenagers who are going to be busy with exams and feel they cannot necessarily commit to a book group (an interesting reflection on our education system perhaps!). I’m hoping to start another children’s book group in a school so I may still be submitting the occasional review and of course, I hope still to be writing and publishing my own work.

We want to thank all at Warwick Books for allowing us to meet at the shop over the years and for all their other support. We’ve had a great time!

Meg Harper

   A Review By Frances

 I spent several years from the age of five learning to read and by the time I was eight or nine I was a fluent reader.  The skill has been honed over the years so that now, like the majority of our customers, I read at a much faster pace than reading out loud would be.  This can cause problems when, for example, reading some of the conversation in Dickens, where he tries to transcribe accents, the only way to understand is to read the words almost out loud.  David Almond’s new book is written entirely as a non-reader might write and I am afraid I found it impossible to read.  The pleasure for me in reading is following a tense or interesting story line, building up pictures in my imagination of people and places and all of this is normally done without conscious effort.  A book starting, “this tail is told by i that died at birth by i that came into the world…” is hard work.  I hoped that I would soon get used to the style.  In fact I just found it frustrating and annoying and gave up after struggling to read the first few pages.

A New Year at Ragley-on-the-Forest School…It’s 1981, the time of Adam and the Ants, Rubik’s Cube, the Sony Walkman and the Falklands War, as head teacher Jack Sheffield returns to Ragley-on-the-Forest School for another rollercoaster year. Vera, the ever-efficient chool secretary, has to grapple with a new-fangled computer – and enjoys a royal occasion – while Ruby the caretaker rediscovers romance with a Butlin’s Redcoat. And for Jack, wedding bells are in the air.

But the unexpected is just round the corner…