Bookswap Preview

Next Thursday is our regular Firestation Bookswap night and for once I have actually been sent the books far enough in advance to do a proper preview. Previous bookswap authors look away now... Gone? OK. The rest of you, usually I get the books so late I have to finish them on the train to Windsor. OK bookswap authors, you can look back now.

First up, we have Aliya Whiteley, author of Light Reading. Light Reading is a murder mystery - or is it? - in which two neglected air force wives stave off boredom and try to avoid thinking about their own problems by investigating a suspicious suicide in a sinister seaside resort. The cover, with its "A Lena and Pru Mystery!" sticker, makes it look like cheerful but conventional fun, but it's far darker and more unusual than that, and actually I can't figure out whether of the book's being missold or I'm missing the irony of the packaging. A question I'll be putting to Aliya.

Joining Aliya will be Bronia Kita, whose Wild West novel The Swansong of Wilbur McCrum reads like a cross between Forrest Gump and Little House on the Prairie. Wilbur McCrum, a cow-phobic, fit-ridden outlaw, narrates his peripatetic life story from the bottom of a well, where he is drowning after trying to escape a vengeful posse while disguised in women's clothes. No need to say more - that's a premise which sells itself.

STOP PRESS. At this point I wrote a whole lot of information which is now completely inaccurate. Like, as of five minutes after I posted. And which I will now delete. So I started off by saying that we're doing a bookswap at the London Review Bookshop on Thursday August 5th, which is still true, and then -

la la la la la la la -

He'll

[but who? The author who isn't coming, that's who. For entirely respectable reasons, I should add]

be joined by James Miller, whose book I don't yet have, but whose website promises the following:

Other than writing, my main passion is Jamaican and African-American music. I have a ridiculous collection of reggae, dub, dancehall, soul, blues and gospel music. My other obsessions include drinking coffee, wandering around London, going to Italy and taking pictures of buildings. I'm also interested in Civil Rights history, psycho-analysis, post-colonial theory, anti-capitalist protest, Middle East politics, Modern, pre-Raphaelite and Renaissance art, mega-cities and anything that might offer an insight into our present postmodern nightmare.

He doesn't mention cake. But clearly a man with plenty to talk about.

I think the LRB event is going to be fantastic, but please, please book ahead - I am fairly certain it will sell out. The event's not on their website quite yet (at time of writing anyway) but you could try calling them on 020 7269 9030. (Usual bookswap rules of free entry for those who bring home-baked cake will apply.)