Beautiful blossom, lakes, fells and books

I'm back and scheduling some blog posts, and I thought I'd share a photograph of the beautiful blossom we are lucky enough to have in the garden at the moment. I love seeing the blossom out and there are some beautiful colours around. 

It was a wonderful, warm sunny bank holiday Monday here in our part of the UK yesterday, which is quite a rarity, and we worked hard in the front garden; we're trying to remove all the grey concrete slabs and begin to create a cottage garden. Daisy was of course on hand to offer her help; well, actually she was quite sensibly sleeping peacefully in the shade most of the day. 

She, along with us, enjoyed the break we had in the Lake District. We even had lunch outside one day near to Ullswater with the fells around us as a stunning backdrop.

Such a wonderful part of the world. We did some lovely walks and enjoyed the fabulous scenery. I also found time to browse around some of the bookshops, of course, and in particular I enjoyed looking in Fred Holdsworth's, an independent bookshop in Ambleside. Here's a photo of the notice in the window highlighting the books that have been selling well there. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink was one of their World Book Night books which I thought was an excellent choice as that's the one I gave away too! 

I'll leave you for now with a photo of Grasmere and the surrounding fells. The one on the left of the dip is Helm Crag which we have walked up on a previous visit. 

Orange Prize Evening - Madeline Miller and Georgina Harding, & Simon Mawer event

I was delighted to be able to attend a wonderful evening at the lovely independent bookshop Topping & Company Bookshop in Ely last week dedicated to the Orange Prize for Fiction, with the two guest authors being none other than the 2012 Orange Prize Winner, Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles, and another of the shortlisted authors, Georgina Harding, author of Painter of Silence.

It was a brilliant evening, wonderful to hear both authors read sections from their respective novels, and then lots of time for a variety of questions and answers with the audience. I plucked up the courage to ask a question this time - I asked if both authors were at work on new books, which they are. Madeline Miller was delighted to have won the prize, and Georgina Harding commented on how brilliant such a shortlist is in terms of gaining more exposure for a book, reaching a wider audience than perhaps you otherwise might have. Georgina's novel is set in Romania, and she spoke of her affection for this country, which she has visited numerous times now. I'm afraid I didn't take notes and am relying on recall so, as I don't want to misquote anyone I will leave my thoughts here - a great opportunity to meet these authors.

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I also went along to an evening with writer Simon Mawer the previous week, which was equally good. He discussed and read from his new novel, The Girl Who Fell From The Sky, which I have read, and which is one of my favourite books of 2012 thus far. It was great to hear about some of the background to this novel, the organisation that the main character Marian is part of, and to hear about the times in which it is set.

It's a really wonderful opportunity to attend author events like these where possible, I find that they are inspirational, and so special when held at such a beautiful bookshop too. There are some great events coming up too, as you might be able to see from the photograph above, including Hilary Mantel.

Thanks to everyone involved.

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