somethingchanged: I have had a strange day....

I have had a strange day. London is rioting, including in Hackney (the name for the larger area or zone where I live, which is London Fields). I couldn’t get a hold on what was happening: people on Twitter using #londonriots were largely either joking in that annoying aggressively too-soon “humorous” Twitter way, or piously condemning rioters, or making rude remarks about them, or repeating silly rumours like “A friend of my co-worker said that…”

Instead of barricading myself in my house, I decided to keep on with my long-held plans for this evening: seeing an author I revere talk about a book I love. Even though he has A Stranger’s Child out now, Alan Hollinghurst was at some Guardian Review event to talk about The Line of Beauty.

He was exactly as I had hoped: when he first spoke through his weird Madonna-style headset he recoiled and said “there’s a weird echo in here,” which is what I always say when I speak through any medium that carries or modifies my voice. He had pleasingly rounded and expressive hand movements like a conductor or musician. He was witty and dry and had a sexy voice. Anyway, when I got up to him in the line I just wordlessly handed him my book to sign. Then:

Me: I-don’t-know-if-everyone-says-this-but-your-books-are-SO-FUNNY!

Him (glowing): Ahh! They don’t! I suppose because they can be serious, about, you know, the AIDS thing.

Me (a la Rachel Fedden): Mmm…

Him: But I laugh ALL the way through writing them!

Then I glowed all the way out to the taxi, whose driver unchivalrously refused to take me up to London Fields because he had heard it was dangerous, so I had to walk alone and without a duck umbrella for protection. (I left it on a bus recently. Ugh!) The streets were almost completely empty and - touch wood - completely fine.

I hope we wake up to some sanity tomorrow and that Londoners stay safe.

And here is a picture of dog-eared, many-times-reread, and now signed, book!

(Previously in gushing book-signings.)

somethingchanged:

I have had a strange day. London is rioting, including in Hackney (the name for the larger area or zone where I live, which is London Fields). I couldn’t get a hold on what was happening: people on Twitter using #londonriots were largely either joking in that annoying aggressively too-soon “humorous” Twitter way, or piously condemning rioters, or making rude remarks about them, or repeating silly rumours like “A friend of my co-worker said that…”

Instead of barricading myself in my house, I decided to keep on with my long-held plans for this evening: seeing an author I revere talk about a book I love. Even though he has A Stranger’s Child out now, Alan Hollinghurst was at some Guardian Review event to talk about The Line of Beauty.

He was exactly as I had hoped: when he first spoke through his weird Madonna-style headset he recoiled and said “there’s a weird echo in here,” which is what I always say when I speak through any medium that carries or modifies my voice. He had pleasingly rounded and expressive hand movements like a conductor or musician. He was witty and dry and had a sexy voice. Anyway, when I got up to him in the line I just wordlessly handed him my book to sign. Then:

Me: I-don’t-know-if-everyone-says-this-but-your-books-are-SO-FUNNY!

Him (glowing): Ahh! They don’t! I suppose because they can be serious, about, you know, the AIDS thing.

Me (a la Rachel Fedden): Mmm…

Him: But I laugh ALL the way through writing them!

Then I glowed all the way out to the taxi, whose driver unchivalrously refused to take me up to London Fields because he had heard it was dangerous, so I had to walk alone and without a duck umbrella for protection. (I left it on a bus recently. Ugh!) The streets were almost completely empty and - touch wood - completely fine.

I hope we wake up to some sanity tomorrow and that Londoners stay safe.

And here is a picture of dog-eared, many-times-reread, and now signed, book!

(Previously in gushing book-signings.)