Sunday, September 30, 2007

Neil Gaiman in Bath

Thanks to one of my colleagues alerting me to the fact that Mr Gaiman was in Bath yesterday, we went to the Bath Children's Literature Festival to hear him read from his latest projects, The Graveyard Book and Od and the Frost Giants, both of which were excellent. I can't tell you much about them, as it would be unfair to reveal anything in advance, but The Graveyard Book has a small boy, some ghosts, a vampire, and some ghouls. The ghosts and the vampires are friendly, but the ghouls are distinctly ambivalent. As ever, his writing style gets you hooked and involved in the story straight away - I can't wait till it comes out next summer. Od and the Frost Giants seems to be for younger children, but is still gripping stuff.

1 comment:

Joe said...

Neil is always a pleasure to hear at a reading - I count myself lucky I got to host him for author events several times and the signed books he did for me after the audience had gone home are among my most treasured signed editions (complete with Sandman squiggles in them too!). Still one of my favourite authors - the movie version of Stardust was simply wonderful and I can't wait to see the take he and Roger Avary have on Beowulf.