15 January 2009 - West Sussex Schools Visit
26 January 2009 - West Sussex Schools Visit
August/September 2009 - Edinburgh Festival (exact date to be confirmed). Lauren St John will be talking about her new book, The Elephant’s Tale, the fourth in her White Giraffe series.
3 July 2009 - Hounslow Book Award
Ruth Wilson and friend in Namibia, setting for The Elephant's Tale
Early in 2009, my publishers Orion and I will be launching a Conservation Challenge in schools across the UK. We’ll be asking kids to get creative to increase awareness of critically endangered animals and raise money for a special wildlife project in Africa. Competition forms will be available to download from a brilliant new website, linked to mine, and we’d love you to get involved. There are loads of cool prizes, including an invitation to a pop concert at the Royal Albert Hall in November. Watch this space for details.
Ruth Wilson, the BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated actress who did such an awesome job of reading the abridged White Giraffe and Dolphin Song audio books and who, coincidentally, has spent most of the year filming a remake of 70s TV cult classic, The Prisoner, in Cape Town and Namibia, setting for my next book, The Elephant’s Tale, will star in the BBC drama of Andrea Levy’s bestselling novel of love, war and prejudice, Small Island. Also in the stellar cast are David Oyelowo, Naomie Harris, Benedict Cumberbatch and Nikki Amuka-Bird. Small Island is scheduled to hit our screens in Autumn 2009.
The Elephant’s Tale, the fourth book in The White Giraffe series, will be out in hardback on 6 August 2009, one month after the publication in paperback of The Last Leopard.
Rainbow’s End, my memoir of growing up in the war in 70s Rhodesia has made the top 50 of Spread the Word’s “Most Talked About Books”. If you enjoyed Rainbow’s End and have a spare minute, please vote for it at: http://www.spread-the-word.org.uk/pages/books-2009/book_results.asp?task=filter&cat=Non_Fiction
Stephen Jones, one of The Sunday Times‘ most prodigiously gifted sports writers, has listed Shooting at Clouds, my 1990 account of life on the PGA European Tour, as one of his top ten sports books of all time. “A young and star-crossed fledgling journalist arrives with no money or commissions and follows the European golf tour down its highways and nooks and crannies. Unashamedly used as the inspiration for Endless Winter, the film about skiing.” See the rest of the list at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article5238338.ece?token=null&offset=36&page=4
Incidently, Stephen Jones’ Endless Winter, which wasn’t on the list, is one of the best sports books ever written.
Whenever I leave the house, even if it’s only for a pint of milk, I get the sense that I should be carrying a survival kit, like Martine in the White Giraffe Series. That feeling gets stronger if I go anywhere requiring a passport. In fact, my survival kit is generally the first item I pack but, since it’s stuffed with every emergency supply from suture kits to space blankets, Superglue and surgical scissors and is the size and weight of three gold ingots, it’s also always the first item to be left behind.
It’s not just paranoia, or a side effect of reading too many adventure novels and thrillers. A lot of it stems from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) incurred on family vacations – specifically vacations involving my mother.
DOLPHIN SONG AUDIO BOOK
Ruth Wilson, the BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated actress who read the abridged audio book of The White Giraffe, has followed it by reading Dolphin Song. Apart from being one of the nicest people on earth, Ruth has a unique ability to inhabit characters and bring a story to life. Her voice is quite wonderful. By coincidence, she is currently on location in both Namibia, setting for The Elephant’s Tale, and Cape Town, not far from Martine’s fictional home town of Storm Crossing in The White Giraffe series, where she is filming a remake of the 70s sci fi television cult classic, The Prisoner, with Sir Ian McKellen and James Caviezel.
Go to the audio section to hear sample clips of The White Giraffe and Dolphin Song, and an interview with Ruth and I conducted by The Sunday Times‘ children’s book reviewer, Nicolette Jones. The unabridged audio books, read by the very gifted Adjoa Andoh, are available from: www.listeninglibrary.com.
LAST LEOPARD REVIEW
Here is a pdf of Amanda Craig’s lovely Times’ feature on The Last Leopard. The cat in the photo is my Bengal rescue, Max.
Or simply click on this link: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/children/article4442728.ece
Lauren St John and Peter Godwin will be signing books and discussing their memoirs of Zimbabwe at Stanfords Bookshop, Bristol at 7pm on Wednesday 8 October, 2008. To purchase tickets in advance, click on the link below or contact Stanfords on: 0117 929 9966.
http://www.stanfords.co.uk/events/peter-godwin-and-lauren-st-john-zimbabwe-evening,117,EV.html
