Comments on: Cambridge Law Don Revealed to be a Comedy Author!

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:26:03 +0000

Oh, and I forgot to add:

Virtute non vi

By: ireneintheworld

ireneintheworld — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:14:07 +0000

now that’s a novel in itself rosy! and it went down very well with my morning coffee. nice one dear.

irene x

By: Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome

Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:22:46 +0000

One of the joys about writing fantasy is that you never get the comparisons to real life.

It’s funny how everyone reacts – I’m such an exhibitionist that I would have been prancing around the halls handing out copies (or at least reviews so that people go buy copies). But the world if full off different types.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:43:39 +0000

What a wonderful story Rosie – I love the way you led a double life with writing being your secret vice I feel much the same way at times – my guilty secret that keeps me awake at night!.

By: Rosy Thornton

Rosy Thornton — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:39:20 +0000

Thanks Annie, Sara, Rupert.

And yes, Rupert, I remember your somewhat tentative relationship with textbooks, especially in your second year…

By: Rupert

Rupert — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:26:59 +0000

Is there any way to separate the two, Rosy? Having, yes, read your writing, it seemed inextricably linked – that’s not to say that I think you wrote autobiographically, but certainly I heard your voice as I read it. It’s brilliant to have more than one string to the bow, and I can’t for a moment think that students will think you’re anything except slightly cooler than all those people who just write textbooks (which some students are far less likely to read).

All the best from Ipswich, where I am (ha ha ha) writing Opinions on trust law at the moment.

By: Sara Ratcliffe

Sara Ratcliffe — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:22:36 +0000

Hi Rosy

A fantastic insight into being an academic with a guilty secret – almost like a double life ‘Schizophrenic confusion’ – a great way to describe it!!

I love it when people bring the institutionalised world of Oxbridge to life – it makes for such comic reading. Keep up the good work.

Sara

By: anniegirl1138

anniegirl1138 — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:23:28 +0000

Interesting topic. I use my life and practically everyone else I know too for characters and ideas. Did you ever seen Soderbergh’s Full Frontal? The movie within is littered with things from the film writer’s life in big and very small ways. I don’t think a writer can completely avoid “borrowing” from life as it swirls around him/her.

By: Rosy Thornton

Rosy Thornton — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:08:16 +0000

Spot on, Suburbanlife, about people thinking they are in it – or assuming that things in it are about the author! A former colleague who read the book wrote to me, referring to the college where she and I were once both Fellows, and saying, ‘I don’t remember us being that conflicted’. She clearly assumed I was writing about our own college – and she has not been the only one to make that assumption. ‘IT’S FICTION’, I sometimes want to shout!

Thanks for commenting, Caro, Sarah, Geri and Eve.

By: suburbanlife

suburbanlife — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:52:44 +0000

I venture that one of the dangers of writing close to home is having readers who know you assuming that some characters in your novel are composites of various individuals known to them and you and of trying to suss out who they might ‘be’? Maybe some readers are more subtle and never beard you with pointed questions about this – however they are surely curious and make assumptions re: characters based on reality, anyway.
I must say I rather like the ring of the title ‘Property Disrepair and Dilapidations: A Guide to the Law’. Can see why it never became a best-seller – doesn’t have ’sex’, ‘lust’, ‘love’ in the title, nor any reference to clever humour – even if it was informative. G