I recently came across the first pages of a crime novel, written when I was eleven. It was called The Hair of the Dog and was about an author who steals someone else’s plot and is subsequently murdered. At this point in my life I’d never met a writer or written a book. Why was I already so interested in books about books?
When I was finally published, just before my fortieth birthday, my first novel was a fictionalised account of my father’s life, called The Italian Quarter and written under my real name, Domenica de Rosa. Four years later I wrote Summer School which follows the fortunes of a group of students on a creative writing course in Tuscany. I adored writing this book, especially the parts where I could become the different writers: the aspiring children’s author, the smug lifestyle guru, the businessman who thinks it must be easy to write a best-seller, the horror fan and the retired civil servant turned crime writer. Their tutor, Jeremy, had a huge success with a book called Belly Flop but has been unable to put pen to paper since. He tells his students what to avoid in a plot: legacies, marriage proposals, happy endings, a hero on a white horse. Of course, all these things happen in Summer School.
I thought Summer School would be my big break but that turned out to be the little crime novel that I wrote on the side. My original publishers didn’t want The Crossing Places so my agent suggested I change my name to something more ‘crimey’. I became Elly Griffiths and acquired a new publisher. Quercus (and Mariner in the US) have now published thirty Elly Griffiths books and, with the thirtieth, The Last Word, I’ve come right back to my original preoccupation: the dastardly deeds of writers. The Last Word starts with Edwin, self-styled ‘oldest sleuth in the country’, reading the newspaper obituaries. He starts to notice a sinister trend and the trail leads my trio of amateur detectives to a very sinister writing retreat and an even more sinister book group.
To celebrate, here are ten of my favourite books about books.
Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang
This story of a writer who steals her dead friend’s unpublished manuscript was deservedly a smash hit. It is by turns hilarious and tragic and says important things about cultural appropriation and the corrosive nature of success. I used to be an editor and I defy any ex-publisher not to cringe at the editorial scenes.
Possession by A.S. Byatt
This is a literary tour-de-force including letters, diary entries and reams of poetry supposedly written by fictional Victorian writers Henry Ash and Cristobel LaMotte. Their love story is decoded by two modern-day academics, Ronald Mitchell and Maud Bailey. Did the dead authors have a relationship and possibly even a child? What is the written evidence and to whom does it belong? The investigation involves love, betrayal and even grave-robbing. Possession is, ultimately, both a detective story and a romance. It also has one of the best epilogues in fiction.
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Delilah Harris
Nella Rodgers is the only black employee at a New York publishing house. Why, when another black woman joins, do people listen to her views while Nella’s are ignored? Part office comedy, part fantasy, this book asks serious questions about diversity in the writing world. Once again, the editorial meetings are spot on.
The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves
Ann Cleeves is one of the most successful crime writers in Britain. She also a great champion of books, reading and libraries. This book is set at a writer’s retreat with a stunning glass observatory. It’s the perfect location for a classic locked-room mystery with Ann’s usual clever twists and hall-of-mirrors misdirection. What’s not to love? As an added bonus, you have the delight of DI Vera Stanhope mixing with the arty types.
If We Were Villains by ML Rio
What do you get when you take a group of actors, add a country house with a sinister lake and garnish with Shakespeare quotations? The answer is a chilling murder mystery where you are never sure if the characters are acting of their own volition or whether an unseen director is pulling the strings. Do we suspect Richard, who is always the hero, or Alexander, who is always the villain? And what about Oliver and James, who are somewhere between the two? An assured and compelling debut novel.
The Children’s Book by AS Byatt
This is very much not a children’s book. Olive and Humphry live with their numerous offspring in a rural bohemian paradise. But all is not quite as it seems; there’s tension, sexual abuse and so many extra-marital affairs that several of the children are not sure of their parentage. Olive adores her son Tom, so much so that she writes a book just for him. However ‘Tom Underground’ is a nightmarish tale that eventually destroys its muse. Byatt was inspired by the tragic death of Kenneth Grahame’s son, Alastair, for whom The Wind in the Willows was written. The book spans the period from 1895 to 1918 and does not spare us any of the horrors.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Amy writes a diary. So far, so straight-forward. But is the girl in the diary the real Amy or are we, the readers, becoming co-conspirators in a plot to implicate Amy’s husband Nick? And what about ‘Diary Amy’, the character we have grown to like and trust? Does she even exist? No-one has ever played the unreliable narrator trick better than Gillian Flynn.
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
Part road trip, part literary fiction, this book follows retired doctor Geoffrey Braithwaite in his journey across France, visiting sites related to the author Gustave Flaubert. But how can Geoffrey ever discover the real Flaubert when even his parrot seems to exist in two places at once?
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
This classic dystopian novel is set in a world where reading is outlawed. Guy Montag is a fireman employed to burn books. Then, one day, he decides to read a book instead of burning it. What happens to society when creativity and imagination are silenced? Written in 1953 this book is still as relevant today.
Real People by Alison Lurie
The late, much-missed Alison Lurie is one of my favourite writers. This deceptively slim volume is set at an exclusive artists’ retreat. Janet Belle Smith, a moderately successful author, is thrilled to be amongst what she sees as her peers. Illyria is the perfect setting for a writer but why can’t Janet write there? It seems that, over the years, Janet has been taking away from reality rather than adding to it. This is why her stories are becoming shorter and her life less fulfilling. A cautionary tale for any creative.
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