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Let's begin the important business of choosing what we're going to read this summer. Here are my choices (in no particular order):
THE POWER by NAOMI ALDERMAN Teenage girls who can harm men with an electric shock... the world is turned upside down and inside out when this 'power' spreads to every female on the planet. We follow three women - Roxy, Allie and Margot - and one man - Tunde - as they learn to live in this new reality. The Power asks the question: what would the world look like if women had physical power over men? And the answer is not always good... For fans of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood; Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel; The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey. #speculativefiction #thepower #naomialderman THINGS A BRIGHT GIRL CAN DO by SALLY NICHOLLS Set in 1914-8, three women - Evelyn, May and Nell are involved with the campaign for women to get the vote. Sacrifice, violence, imprisonment, war and love are the ingredients of this wonderful book. For fans of I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith; I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. #historicalfiction #thingsabrightgirlcando #sallynicholls THE WONDER DOWN UNDER by NINA BROCHMAN AND ELLEN STOKKEN DAHL Written by two Norwegian medical students, The Wonder Down Under is a non-fiction book about the vagina - I know - right?! It covers everything: which holes are which, icky things like discharge and periods, pregnancy, contraception, sex, orgasms, masturbation, female health. This book is a right hoot: I laughed out loud several times at their no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is style. And the detail! Wow. They know they stuff - and now, so do I. Everyone who has a vagina or who would like, at some stage in their life, to go near a vagina, should read this book. I can truly say that if I had read this book when I was in my teens, it would have changed my life for the better. I first heard about this book through their Ted Talk. For fans of A Book for Her by Bridget Christie; Sex and Lovers: A Practical Guide by Anne-Marlene Henning and Tina Bremmer-Olszewski. #nonfiction #thewonderdownunder #ninabrochman #ellenstokkendahl FORCE OF NATURE by JANE HARPER The follow up to Jane Harper's excellent The Dry, which made me feel hot and thirsty and sunburnt all the way through. I like a good murder mystery every now and then - and this one was particularly well written. For fans of Tana French and Robert Galbraith. #crimefiction #forceofnature #janeharper HOW TO BE FAMOUS by CAITLIN MORAN I haven't even read this book yet but I loved How to Build a Girl (plus everything else that Caitlin Moran has written) and I know I'm going to love this - so it goes on the list. By the way, a few years ago I lent someone my copy of How to Build a Girl and I never got it back. If I knew who you were, I'd never talk to you again. #giveitback #feministfiction #howtobefamous #caitlinmoran NO NUMBER NINE by ME Sorry, just couldn't resist... #nonumbernine #fjcampbell #summerreadinglist So, if you like any of these books or you want to recommend other similar books, please post a comment below or go to Instagram or Twitter and leave a comment there - the more the merrier!
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Q: What's with the initials, FJ?
A: I prefer to be anonymous because I want to keep my writing separate from the rest of my life. And if JK can do it, so can I. Q: Is that your motto? A: No, my motto is, "When being chased by a hungry lion, you do not have to be faster than the lion, you just have to be faster than the slowest person in your group." Q: Nice motto. Remind me never to go on safari with you. Are you a man or a woman? A: Who cares, these days? Q: Tell us about your life. A: That's not a question. Q: Are you always this annoying? A: Yep. Q: [sighs] What can you tell us about your life? A: Not much to tell - I don't lead a very interesting life. I was born, I have parents and siblings, I moved around a lot, I like reading (duh). Are you asleep yet? Q: [stifling a yawn] I'll ask the questions, thanks. By the way, nice question-dodge. A: Thank you. Maybe if you asked me about my writing, we could get somewhere... Q: OK. I give up. Any advice for aspiring authors? A: Write the kind of book that you'd read yourself. Q: How did you get started with writing? A: I re-read 'Far from the Madding Crowd' with my book group (hello book group!) and thought "Wow, Bathsheba Everdene is a kick-arse feminist heroine and I want to write a modern-day story about her." I rattled off 'The Islanders' in a few months and then spent many more months editing it. After that, more and more ideas for stories pinged into my head, mostly on long boring car journeys. Q: What are you planning to write next? A: I have an idea for a follow-up to 'No Number Nine' - it's going to be from Nadine's point of view, so might be filthy. It will be set when Pip and Nadine are in their thirties, and there's going to be stuff about pregnancies - I'm provisionally calling it 'Just for Kicks'. Q: What are your favourite books? A: What, ever? Have you got all day? I love Caitlin Moran and have read every word she's written. I love Gold by Chris Cleave and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty and everything by Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy and Margaret Atwood. Q: All right, all right. Is 'The Islanders' autobiographical? A: A few things are familiar to me. I went to boarding school for a while. I directed a school play, badly. I've been to Cornwall on holiday. But the story is inspired by 'Far from the Madding Crowd' so it's definitely not about me. Q: How about 'No Number Nine' - is that autobiographical? A: Not really. I lived in Munich, I was an au pair, I was sacked from being an au pair, I went to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. All the rest is made up. Q: Do you, like Pip, speak German? A: Ja. Q: Any chance 'No Number Nine' will be translated into German soon? A: Ja. Aber nicht von mir. Q: Um. Right. Did the ending of 'No Number Nine' actually happen, or was it in Pip's imagination? A: You get to decide that. Also if you read 'Just for Kicks' you'll find out, won't you? Q: What about hockey? Do you play? A: I used to and still have a stick, somewhere, that I dust off from time to time. I've played for lots of clubs: Canterbury, Manchester University, Freiburg University, Wimbledon, Battersea Wanderers, Richmond, Rot-Weiss Munich, Grasshoppers Zurich. Q: Which team will you cheer on in the hockey World Cup 2018? A: England. Q: Aha! So you're English then? A: No shit, Sherlock. Q: Do you think anyone's still reading this Q&A? A: The chances are slim. Q: What shall we do now? A: Coffee? |
AuthorFJ Campbell was born in the twentieth century in a seaside town and has moved around a lot, in Britain and Europe. Archives
April 2020
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