Heather Reyes is author of two novels, Zade and Miranda Road, and An Everywhere: a little book about reading - and its 'companion' gift book, Bookworms, Dog-ears, and Squashy Big Armchairs: a book-lover's alphabet, published this autumn. She has also published many short stories, along with essays and reviews of contemporary literature and Virginia Woolf. She has edited nine anthologies of writing about cities for the Oxygen Books' city-pick series - on Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Dublin, Venice, New York, St Petersburg and Istanbul. She's a dedicated lover of cities, jazz, classical music, art, photography, theatre ... and books.
Author photo © Derek Adams
Below is a Q & A with this author.
What led you to write Bookworms, Dog-ears, and Squashy big armchairs: a book-lover's alphabet?
Well, apart from the obvious reason of being a book-lover myself, I wanted to put together something that was fun but informative. My previous book on reading, An Everywhere: a little book about reading, while witty in parts, was basically a more serious book. There were lots of things I wanted to say about books and reading - particularly on 'bibliotherapy' - and I used some personal narratives and memories to hang those ideas on. It was written in the context of serious illness and the resultant period of chemotherapy, and woven throughout the book is the way that reading - in fact a life-time of reading - helped me to cope. Once An Everywhere was published, I wanted to carry on writing on the subject, but much more light-heartedly. I've been told it'll make a good gift book. I can't comment. I just enjoyed writing it.
It seems like a good book for book groups, with its suggestions for 'talking points' and activities. Do you - or have you ever - belonged to a book group?
No, I haven't. I visited some as an author when my novel Zade first came out, and I have a number of friends who belong to book groups. And I think they are wonderful developments in our national literary culture. But because I have so much reading to do for my work, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the reading for the group. I also have a rather 'particular' taste in books: I don't just like English fiction: I love books on history, biography, science, travel, and particularly fiction translated from other languages. But if there were forty-eight hours in a day, rather than twenty-four, I would probably join a book group.
Is your house very full of books?
Yes. It's an insuperable problem - especially as I find it virtually impossible to part with books. The occasional small bag goes to a charity shop, but what leaves the house doesn't keep pace with what comes into it! But I'm a book-lover. I can't help it.
How would you sum up The Book-lover's Alphabet?
I suppose it's a bit personal and idiosyncratic - as well as fun (I hope!). My opinions tend to come through in the way I write the information: for example, I'm passionate about libraries and the recent closure and ill-funding of our wonderful public libraries system makes me furious. This definitely comes through in some of the entries! But perhaps this helps to make it more than a bland book of information about booky things. But we'll have to wait for readers' responses ...
Anything else in the pipeline?
I have a novel coming out initially as an e-book early next year, called Perfectly Fine .... It's a kind of love story, but based on a woman turning fifty. And I'm working on a couple of quite different things, but we'll draw a veil over those for the moment.
