Friday 30 October 2009

A weekend in Cognac

A couple of weekends ago I went to France for an awards dinner. Twisted Wing, or Les Visages du Mal as it's called on the other side of the Channel, was nominated for Le Prix Polar International. Travelling on Eurostar for the first time (it's great!), we navigated the Metro and the French railway system to arrive in the pretty town of Cognac on Friday night.


I lost out to fellow Brit Lord Jeffrey Archer (above), author of the multimillion-selling Kane & Abel (among other works), on the night, but met some lovely and interesting people. Anne-France, my editor at Editions France, was utterly charming, as were her colleagues Isabelle and Chantal. Lord Archer (or "Jeff", as I like to call him) was very entertaining and encouraging. Journalist Bertrand Rosenthal told us fascinating anecdotes of his time as a correspondent in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and Cuba. And French author Sire Cedric made me jealous as he told me he spent six months writing then six months partying! I currently spend five days working, half a day writing, half a day playing Xbox and the rest of the time asleep. At least I got to experience a brief weekend of glamour!

5 comments:

Una McCormack said...

Awesome photo!

Judy said...

Can we ask questions? I read Twisted Wing on the plane coming home. I wondered about the description of Eliza's boots, and later Paula's, starting on page 156 of my copy. This was done so sexily that I thought it must have some later significance, but I think I missed it. Did I miss it, or was it just a passage about two young women looking good in boots?

Ruth Newman said...

Sorry for the delay in responding Judy! I'm afraid it is just a passage about two young women looking good in boots :-)

One of my friends did actually lick another friend's boot to the tune of "Shiny Boots of Leather" during my time at college, but that's another story!

Lea said...

Hi:)
I'm from Hong Kong and I enjoyed reading your book. Love the whole story:) Like Sophie Hannah said, it is very very hard to put down >.<

Ruth Newman said...

Thanks Lea, that's very kind of you! I hope you enjoy the next one just as much. x