An enjoyable evening in March at Writers in the
Brewery with Chris Keil who is working on his 4th novel in 20 years!
It is about Russian oligarchs in London. However, he mostly talked about his
third novel, Flirting at the Funeral (Cillian Press Limited). It sounded very interesting,
featuring love, sex, money and power during the Portuguese revolution of
1974-75. He read an extract, where the heroine was in a jazz club, which showed
what an amazing talent he has for getting across a sense of atmosphere.
The first part of his talk was quite formal and
scripted, but during the second half, he had us laughing and thoroughly engaged
in an enjoyable discussion of writing, its pleasures and its pitfalls. I’m not
sure how relevant my input was, but I had a memory of the Eurovision Song Contest
during the Portuguese Revolution, when the Portuguese singer was in uniform,
with a pistol on his hip. According to Chris, that was 1974, the year Abba won
with Waterloo!
Writers in
the Brewery
For more about Writers in
the Brewery see the New Brewery Arts website http://www.newbreweryarts.org.uk/making-a-visit/writers-in-the-brewery
Writers in the Brewery events are held in the
Theatre of New Brewery Arts (next to WH Smiths) on the last Thursday of each
month, doors open 7pm for a 7:30pm start and 9:00pm finish. Price £4, which
goes to the venue (as does the bar money), so supporting the raffle which helps
with the expenses of the speakers/performers. Events are organized by, creative
writing teaching, Dr Rona Laycock.
Next Writers in the Brewery
Kevan Manwaring (http://www.kevanmanwaring.co.uk/about-kevan.html
) on 29 May 2014.
