Skip to content

Your Basket

Items: 0 Items
Total: £0.00

Select Currency
Free Post & Packing - Click for details

Receive the Foyles Newsletter

  • › Author Events
  • › Signings
  • › New Arrivals
  • › Offers
Newsletter sign up form
British Book Awards banner

Browse

[x]

This item has been added to your basket

View Basket

Recent Events at Foyles

Siri Hustvedt
Peter Carey
Jasper Fforde

Siri Hustvedt, 3 February 2010

On Wednesday 3rd February, Foyles, Charing Cross Road was proud to host the only UK event for novelist Siri Hustvedt's new memoir, The Shaking Woman. (Signed first editions available.) Two years ago when speaking at a memorial for her father, she experienced a violent seizure from the neck down, and has continued to suffer fits of shuddering ever since. Her new book is her account of the psychological journey to which this led. This mutual support is something she also has with her husband, of course, the novelist and screenwriter Paul Auster, an author whose writing has often been influenced by the work of one of Charcot's contemporaries, Jacques Lacan.

In some ways, her memoir continues the strong interest in psychology which has been a significant aspect of her fiction. Having edited her sister's thesis on the nineteenth century French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, she found herself using many of his ideas in her last novel

Hustvedt also revealed that she suffers from a condition known as 'mirror touch synaesthesia', which causes her to feel a sympathetic sensation when viewing physical contact. She prefers to avoid violent films as such imagery causes her intense physical discomfort. But the condition is not limited to negative sensations: seeing a mother stroke her child's face induces a rather more pleasant response.

It was the subject of grief which provoked the most questions from the audience. Hustvedt dismisses the concept of closure as simplistic, saying we continue to deal with traumatic events for the rest of our lives. Grief is more of a narrative strand and 'telling stories has a integrative and therapeutic effect'. She also cited Freud's famous essay, 'Mourning and Melancholia', as major influence on her thinking.

The author revealed that she has recently finished a short novel, 'A Summer without Men', to be published either later this year or early in 2011. Her previous two novels were written from a male perspective, about which Hustvedt commented that 'you feel the power' when using a male voice, but she was now returning to women 'with a vengeance'.

The event was filmed by the BBC for an upcoming edition of The Culture Show, so anyone who missed out on a place should look out for it.

Peter Carey, 2 February 2010

Tuesday 2nd February saw another full house in the Gallery at Foyles, Charing Cross Road, with double Booker winner Peter Carey reading from and discussing his new novel Parrot and Olivier in America.. (Signed first editions available.)

Interviewed by J S Rafaeli, freelance writer, lecturer and founder of the band The Bicycle Thieves, Carey began by discussing the challenges of writing a book from two characters' points of view. The difficulty of maintaining the narrative flow, he concluded, was more than compensated for by the opportunity of offering two very different perspectives, the aristocratic and that of the common man.

The book is based in part on the life of Alexis de Tocqueville, the nineteenth century French political thinker who documented America's embracing of democracy. Carey, who has lived in New York for the last 20 years, shares many of de Toqcueville's views on democracy, not least the fact that the popular vote often ends up granting office to less than ideal candidates; Carey cited George W Bush and Dick Cheney as modern examples. Slightly mischievously, he also suggested that, given America's global influence, perhaps we should all get a vote in US elections.

He also tackled the subject of whether democracy is good for art. Parrot, the son of a printer, is a strong believer in the idea that subversion and revolution provide the best fuel for artistic inspiration, whereas peace and democracy tend to dull the creative edge.

Jasper Fforde, 18 January 2010

Monday night saw 150 people squeeze into the Gallery at Foyles, Charing Cross Road to see Jasper Fforde begin his UK tour to promote his latest fantasy creation, Shades of Grey. (Signed first editions available.) Fforde has launched all but one of his eight books at Foyles and is a real favourite with customers and staff alike.

Fforde read from and discussed his latest book, which is set in a world where colour is everything, determining its inhabitants' jobs and social standing, before answering questions from an enthusiastic audience keen to gain insights into how one of Britain's most creative writers manages to keep coming up with such original ideas.

Fforde first made his name with his Thursday Next series of literary detective novels and fans were delighted to hear that a sixth instalment, provisionally entitled One of our Thursdays Is Missing, will be in the shops early next year. He'll be finishing the book this summer, once his tour is over, although his editor noted that he usually submits five or so drafts of each one before he's happy with it. Shades of Grey is the start of another series of at least three books and a third in his Nursery Crimes series is also gestating.

Fans hoping to see Thursday on the big screen are likely to be disappointed, however. Fforde feels that as wordplay and literary references are so large a part of the series' appeal, they wouldn't make for very good films. For now, he's holding onto the film rights and told fans that if, a few years down the line, a film version did materialise, it was a sure sign that he was in need of a new kitchen.