Friday, November 18, 2011

Peter James and Emirates Airlines Literary Festival of Literature

All things being equal or schedules working out, I would have been at the RNA Winter Party last night...instead I had to find a willing photographer to take the pics I normally do. The wonderful Talli Roland did a wonderful job and her pictures of the evening are here.

Now I have to thank the wonderful DJ Kirby for taking this photo of my wonderful agent, Carole Blake (she's Peter James' agent too!) and one of my closest friends, Brigid Coady, holding a proof copy of THE CORNISH HOUSE. So even if i wasn't there in person I was there in book form. (Biddy was hand delivering a copy of the book to the RNA for entry into the Joan Hessayon New Writers Award- thank you Biddy!)

Now, thankfully to take my mind away from a party I was attending the inaugural open door event of the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature....official post here....

It was a beautiful night to be sitting in a 'square' under the stars in my favourite part of  Dubai - the Bastakiya. It was a full 'square' as Isobel Abulhoul welcomed us to the first event of the programme of 'Open Door' evenst and thanked the Sharjah International Book Fair for loaning Peter James for the eveningss. The lovely Aspen quizzed Peter on many things and he entertained with his responses which included tales of his visits to Greek monasteries and favourite crime writers. He says the writer that influenced him most was Graham Greene and particularly Brighton Rock. He said all writers could learn so much from Greene especially how to deliver a character in two sentences.

It was wonderful to see the queues to buy his books...especially his latest thriller Perfect People. The line for to meet Peter after the talk snaked through the beautiful new home of the Festival...Dar Al Adaab (House of Literature).

A perfect evening and one excellent start to a new step for the festival....

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