Rather More Than A Quantum Of SOLACE

Can it really be 18 months since Siobhan Dowd (right) died? The much-lamented Siobhan, author of A SWIFT PURE CRY, THE LONDON EYE MYSTERY and BOG CHILD, has her last novel published by David Fickling Books, SOLACE OF THE ROAD, with the blurb elves twittering thusly:

Memories of Mum are the only thing that make Holly Hogan happy. She hates her foster family with their too-nice ways and their false sympathy. And she hates her life, her stupid school and the way everyone is always on at her. Then she finds the wig, and everything changes. Wearing the long, flowing blonde locks she feels transformed. She’s not Holly any more, she’s Solace: the girl with the slinkster walk and the super-sharp talk. She’s older, more confident - the kind of girl who can walk right out of her humdrum life, hitch to Ireland and find her mum. The kind of girl who can face the world head on. So begins a bittersweet, and sometimes hilarious journey as Solace swaggers and Holly tiptoes across England and through memory, discovering her true self, and unlocking the secrets of her past. SOLACE OF THE ROAD is a wonderful novel from one of the UK’s most talented new writers for teenagers. Holly’s story will leave a lasting impression on all who travel with her.

  Given that Siobhan was born in London to Irish parents, and spent quite a bit of her childhood flitting back and forth across the Irish Sea, it’s hard not to expect SOLACE OF THE ROAD to be the teensiest bit autobiographical, and all the more poignant for that. Go n-eírí an bóthar leat, Holly and Siobhan …

BOG Standard

The Grand Vizier being slavishly devoted to the works of the Durrell brothers, Lawrence and Gerald, and still rather peeved that the wonderful Siobhan Dowd (right) was called away too early to the great scriptorium in the sky, he was very pleased indeed to belatedly stumble across a fine piece in The Independent, in which Peter Stanford spoke with some of Siobhan’s peers about her talent and potential. To wit:

In an age when publishers talk endlessly of “cross-over” titles, for both adult and child readers, [Meg] Rosoff sees A SWIFT PURE CRY as part of a much more exclusive field of classics that are genuinely suitable for all ages. “It is one of the very, very few books, ostensibly written for children, that are equally readable and enjoyable for adults. With lots of so-called ‘cross-over’ books, adults can, of course, read them, but not get so much out of them as children will. I would place A SWIFT PURE CRY in the same category as Gerald Durrell’s MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS or TH White’s THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING. It is luminous, life-affirming and passionate.” […]
  Reading BOG CHILD now, however, Rosoff feels that it contains – for anyone who knew what Dowd was going through as she wrote it – a reflection of the author’s own struggle for life. “I don’t think you would notice it massively if you weren’t aware of Siobhan’s own story, but it is, for me, clearly a book written by a dying woman. At its most obvious it is about the discovery of a ‘bog child’, the body of a dead girl in a peat bog, and how her voice comes back from beyond the grave. The narrative, as it progresses, is more and more about questions of life and death.”
  There is, in the book, the hope of resurrection and of coming back from the brink, but that was not to be for Dowd. The tragedy of her premature death, all are agreed, is that she still had so many more books in her. “Some writers end up writing the book that has always been inside them and then they are done,” says Rosoff. “With Siobhan, I know she had an inexhaustible supply of story ideas. It is impossible not to feel cheated by her death.”

Those of a mind to support The Siobhan Dowd Trust, which carries on Siobhan’s life’s work, ‘to help disadvantaged children in the UK and Ireland discover and experience the joy of reading’, should click on this very link here …

An All-Too-Swift Pure Cry

We mentioned in passing yesterday that there was a memorial service being held in Oxford for the late Siobhan Dowd (right), a wonderful person and a marvellous writer, and when it comes to Siobhan it really doesn’t matter in which order you put those attributes. Ann Giles is a long-time friend of Crime Always Pays, and she’s posted her thoughts on the service over at Bookwitch, some of which runneth thusly:

“I felt compelled to go. So I went, and I’m glad I did. There was a memorial service for Siobhan Dowd in Oxford yesterday. The Holywell Music Rooms was a beautiful place to have it. The weather was beautiful. And the celebration of Siobhan’s life and work was beautifully put together. Siobhan’s husband Geoff and friends started it off by singing Gypsy Rover. Then David Fickling (“the Lancashire Comedian”) and Fiona Dunbar did their Oscars-style presentation. Siobhan’s sisters Denise and Oona talked about their childhood, and read from a favourite book. Bella Pearson read from A SWIFT PURE CRY and Phil Earle from THE LONDON EYE MYSTERY, which just showed us again how good these books are. Geoff read a poem by Siobhan, and Meg Rosoff read an extract from Siobhan’s next book, BOG CHILD. There was a lot of music and singing. Nick Gill played Scott Joplin. Daryl Wells sang Nina Simone. And we had real Bulgarian Gypsy music from Mike Limmer and Morski. There were readings from James Joyce, Irina Ratushinskaya, Henrietta Branford, Ezra Pound and Dylan Thomas …”

It’s all very sad, especially given Siobhan’s talent – she was feted as a future ‘literary lion’ by the Sunday Times earlier this year. Still, they need storytellers in heaven too, don’t they?

The Weekly Yearly Round-Up

Yon Derek Landy is having a particularly good week. First came the gong at the Richard and Judy Kids’ Books bunfight, then the all-important review on Crime Always Pays (see below), and now SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT has fetched up on the Publisher’s Weekly Books of the Year, which comes to us via Becky’s Book Reviews. Also on the list is the late, lamented Siobhan Dowd for A SWIFT PURE CRY (right) – a poignant reminder of her wonderful talent, especially as there is a memorial service for Siobhan being held in Oxford today. No Irish crime writer made it onto the PW ‘Mystery’ list, although kudos to a long-time friend of Crime Always Pays, Richard Aleas, aka Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime, who did with SONGS OF INNOCENCE. One other point of note: James Lee Burke’s THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN got the PW big-up, but in the more literary ‘fiction’ list, rather than the ‘mystery’ list. A sign of things to come in terms of crime fiction being absorbed into the mainstream, or simply a reflection of Burke’s inimitable way with a quill? YOU decide!

Siobhan Dowd RIP

A very sad day, people – today we learned that Siobhan Dowd (right), the author of A Swift Pure Cry and The London Eye Mystery, died on Tuesday after a long struggle with breast cancer. The news came as something of a shock, as we only knew her as a warm, bubbly and funny email buddy, and while she mentioned ‘a touch of exhaustion’ in the wake of the publication of The London Eye Mystery – the novel which had The Times tipping her as a ‘future literary lion’ – she never once complained of illness. Gara LaMarche knew her much, much better than we, to wit:

“I first met Siobhan in 1988 when I was running the Freedom-to-Write Program for PEN American Centre and she was running the International Writers-in-Prison Committee for International PEN in London. Among other things, she kept PEN’s ‘census’ of imprisoned writers on whose behalf members ran campaigns. In those days before the end of the Cold War, there were many hundreds of such writers. I enjoyed our long-distance relationship, and sensed that for various reasons Siobhan was restless for change and challenge, and when I moved on from PEN to Human Rights Watch in 1990, I suggested she move to the U.S. to take over my job, and the switch was made. She was a terrific success in her seven years here, and made many friends who are among the many grieving today. Back in England, she did children’s rights work, edited a book of prison writing, and started writing her own fiction. I read her first book, A Swift Pure Cry, last year. Though it was written for young adults, I thought it was a gem that deserved a wider audience. Perhaps because she was writing against time, given her diagnosis, she was extraordinarily prolific in the last few years, publishing The London Eye Mystery in June and having finished two more novels with a fifth underway at the time of her death.”

Siobhan Dowd, 1960-2007, RIP.

“Honestly, It Was Nice Just To Be Nom … What’s That? I Won? Take THAT, Peons!”

Poor Siobhan Dowd (right, with her editor David Fickling, righter) was feeling a little poorly in the wake of her launch for The London Eye Mystery (absolutely nothing to do with one glass of frizzy too many, we hasten to add), and we were feeling quite sorry for her – but lo! She’s back! With an award thingamabob! Quoth Siobhan:

“I am still a bit green around the gills but much cheered by having won the Branford Boase Award 2007 for A Swift Pure Cry. It is an award to recognise a debut novel for children/young adults and the author receives £1,000 and the author and person who edited the book both receive a hand-crafted wooden box. It was wonderful! A Swift Pure Cry would need the most generous of interpretations to classify as a crime novel – although there is a crime in it ...”

‘Generous Interpretations’ is our middle name, Siobhan. Actually, we’re thinking of suing our parents. Anyone have any advice?

Dispatch From A Perch On London’s Eye

Not a bad week for Siobhan Dowd (right), people – her latest, The London Eye Mystery, launched last Thursday and made Children’s Book of the Week in The Sunday Times three days later, to wit: “Dowd’s story grips the reader from the opening chapter … Dowds’s first book, A Swift Pure Cry, was a deservedly acclaimed young adult novel. This second book, which is aimed at a young audience, demonstrates her versatility.” Which may or may not have prompted a sudden change in publishing schedule. Quoth Siobhan:

“David (Fickling) is insisting on publishing my just-finished fourth book ahead of Solace of the Road, so we’ve done a sudden switch in schedule. Number four is called Bog Child and it’s set on the north-south Irish border in 1981 ... and yes, it is eeerieee (I hope). Now it’s off to New York City to research follow-up to London Eye. My publishers are keen to have my young sleuths Ted and Kat back on another case ... and I can’t wait. I have an art heist in mind this time.”

You go, gal. Just don’t forget to come back to us, eh?

The Real London Eye Mystery: Has Siobhan Dowd Gone And Cloned Herself?

Crikey! It’s all going (exquisitely) Siobhan-shaped, folks: not only is Siobhan Dowd’s novel for kiddie crime fans, The London Eye Mystery, being published by David Fickling on June 7, but her agency is keen to congratulate her on being nominated for Germany’s Jugendliteraturpries Award for A Swift Pure Cry – this coming in the wake of her Irish Bisto Award glory, and a short-listing for both the 2007 Carnegie Medal and the 2007 Branford Boase Award. Oh, and she’s facing into a month of being Book of the Month at Waterstone’s, God love her. Right now she’s slaving away on her fourth novel, but her third, Solace of the Road, a story about a girl who returns to Ireland to find her biological mother, is due in January 2008. Gorblimey, Guv! For an interview with the Woman du Jour, scoot on over to the Irish Post …

We Like To Call Her Elsa: Siobhan Dowd Crowned Sunday Times Literary Lion

Three cheers, two stools and a resounding huzzah for Siobhan Dowd (right), nominated a 'literary lion for the future' in yesterday's Sunday Times on the basis of A Swift Pure Cry, which also scooped the Eilis Dillon award at last week's CBI Bisto Book of the Year Awards. The novel is set in Ireland in the 1980s and based on the unsolved 'Kerry babies' case and the tragic death of Ann Lovett, an Irish teenager who died giving birth in squalid circumstances. See Siobhan in person at the Children's Books Ireland Summer School for Adults on May 26th and 27th, where she's scheduled to give a talk on "Notions of Nationhood" at Sunday's closing session in Pearse Street Library, Dublin 2. Or you could just sit there and read an extract from the novel. Don't worry, we won't judge you ...