M L Stedman again! - Author event

We both read and loved M L Stedman's debut tug-of love novel The Light Between Oceans when it was published last year (it even made it into Maryom's Picks of the Year list ) and have been to a previous event of hers at Lowdham Festival 2012, so when we discovered she was visiting our local Waterstones last week we had to go. We regularly go to events at Waterstones but they're normally at the larger Nottingham store and this was the first one we'd been to at our smaller local store in Derby. When we arrived the space allocated was on the ground floor and with easy access to the door but as the the time to the start of the event ticked away more people arrived and more seats had to be found. As this was a lunch time, mid week, I had not expected a reading followed by q&a as I anticipated people dropping in and dashing out again. However a very informal event followed with Stedman reading from a few parts of the book and then it felt more like a cosy group chat as people asked questions and shared their view of aspects of the book.

With author events of this type it's always  a debate as to what to share about what was learned at the event but here are a few things.

• Stedman is currently 'reading',  Daniel Deronda after finding an audio book of this very large tome. Stedman is very much a fan of audio books as they give her the chance to 'read' at times when she otherwise couldn't.
• An important theme running through The Light Between Oceans is war, specifically the First World War and its impact on Australian volunteers and on communities at home and this is one particular aspect of the story that she researched greatly and seems to have been affected by deeply.
• It's always exciting to hear that a book you've loved is going to be made into a film and Light Between Oceans has been 'optioned' and is actually going through the screenwriting stage. I'm often worried about how it will be interpreted for the screen - will the casting feel right? will the location be altered to suit the production crew? and worst of all, will some or all of the plot be changed?- These were all questions that the audience had to ask Ms Stedman. Her main concerns were with the ending and the emotional integrity of the  novel being maintained more than its location and these are things she thinks she has protected in the choice of filming company - something she did have a say in which certainly surprised me.
• The book has been translated into 32 languages and sold nearly 800,000 copies worldwide.
• There have been many different covers and everyone seems to have there own favourite. The one we saw at the event was an 'Exclusive to Waterstones' cover so if you are a collector...

As many of the audience had 'dropped in' over lunch the event had to end on time so they could return to work but Stedman was more than willing, showing her approachability, to stay chatting with individuals and signing books.

An excellent event and I hope we'll see more of  them in our local store. Oh, and the biscuits were nice too!

Maryom's review 
The Mole's review

Maryom's Picks of the Year

 I'm starting with a rather obvious sort of choice; Hilary Mantel's Bring Up The Bodies, the 'sequel' to Wolf Hall and the continuing political machinations of Thomas Cromwell. Not everyone's cup of tea but I loved it!








Next - two very atmospheric and very different novels

Archipelago by Monique Roffey  - a hauntingly beautiful story of loss and recovery set against the backdrop of the Caribbean

 and
The Book of Summers by Emylia Hall  - a wonderful evocation of long, hot Hungarian summers mixed with long hidden family secrets









Two historical novels both asking the question How do you define family - by birth or by upbringing?

Ben Elton's family-history inspired Two Brothers


and ML Stedman's The Light Between Oceans










 Two crime novels;
 The Calling by Neil Cross - spin off from BBC's Luther series; hard-hitting and violent, a story that left me reeling.

and the marginally cosier (though not by much) Vanished by Liza Marklund








                                                    


Three books that I'll rather loosely label as 'local'

David Calcutt's re-telling of the traditional tales of Robin Hood




Steven Dunn's rather too close to home thriller, Deity






and Edward Hogan's The Hunger Trace

For teens, YA and anyone really  - Celia Rees' This Is Not Forgiveness 

 a compelling, disturbing read that I couldn't put down 

For younger readers, the magical Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable -  a wonderful, enthralling delight of a book set in an abandoned Russian palace in the depths of a snowy forest.

Lowdham Book Festival

A few months ago I had the delight of reading ML Stedman's début novel The Light Between Oceans - a wonderfully atmospheric and engrossing tug-of-love story - so when I heard the author would be appearing at the relatively local Lowdham Book Festival I told The Mole we had to go! I also suggested he read the novel first - which he did.

The event was billed as Coffee and Cake with debut novelists Rachel Joyce and ML Stedman to be chaired by Alison Barrow from Transworld Publishers and held in the slightly unusual but very beautiful St Mary's Church. As it turned out, due to hold-ups with the train bringing ML Stedman and Alison Barrow, the audience started on the coffee and cake before they arrived - an excellent way to keep everyone happy and occupied while waiting for the vagaries of transport.

The real event started with Rachel Joyce and ML Stedman reading short teaser sections from their respective novels and then chatting to Alison Barrow before throwing the discussion open to the audience. Topics covered included the authors approach to writing, how and where to get their thoughts into words, striking a balance between the creative world and the real one, the route to publication, future novel writing plans. A comment of ML Stedman's that particularly struck me was how she sees her novel as a chrysalis (while working on it) now turned into a butterfly heading out among readers and coming back with their thoughts of what the book meant to them or how they saw the characters.
I normally go to events involving an author whose work I've read and loved, I suppose in the hope of gleaning extra insight into their novels or them as a person. This time there was an author who had deeply impressed me - and one of whom I knew nothing. The extract from and talk of Rachel Joyce's novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry have whetted by appetite enough that I now intend to track it down and read it.

Both books are published by Transworld.

The event still has a few days to run and the timetable shows that the events are varied and include a cooking demonstration by the kind person that provided the cakes for this event.

Read The Mole's review and/or mine

The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman

The Blurring of Right and Wrong
Review by The Mole


Tom Sherbourne came through the first world war unscathed and carries the scars of guilt and the horrors he endured. He has joined the lighthouse service to get away from people and to heal although he meets Izzy and they marry and return to the remote lighthouse, Janus,
 where Izzy longs for a child. Shortly after her third miscarriage a boat washes up with a dead man and a baby wrapped in a ladies cardigan and Izzy persuades Tom to do the 'wrong' thing for once.

What is 'right' and what is 'wrong' though?

If you want a tale of bunnies with a happy ending and justice for all then may I recommend that this is not the book for you - try Beatrix Potter either The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies or Peter Rabbit. It is the story of a moment's decision that has to be lived with for the rest of life.

Everyone of the characters came to life for me. First there was Tom who I wanted to shake and say 'no, no, no!' almost from the word go and at several points in the story. I felt both his and Izzy's pain and dilemma and understood them.When we met Hannah I could see her viewpoint and understand her but I wanted her to see what that decision would do and was doing. Gwen... well I didn't really get her that well, I would have expected at least some real loyalty but both sets of grandparents were so true to life, and the police men with their mixture of humanity and ambitions. In fact the entire cast of characters leapt out at me and that made the final chapter even more difficult. This chapter is one of the longest nine pages I have ever read. Before embarking on chapter 37 I strongly recommend having a box of tissues at hand. A BIG box. And if you normally weep easily get a friend to hold your hand while you read it.

Maryom and I have debated the ending... it was the ending she wanted but not the one I expected although having finished a few days ago I can reflect and look back at it and say that there could not be a better ending.

A story of life, love, prejudices and natural justice. I highly recommend this book to... well anyone really.

Maryom reviewed this book as well.

Publisher - Doubleday
Genre - adult fiction

Buy The Light Between Oceans from Amazon

The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman

review by Maryom

Tom Sherbourne is the lighthouse keeper on remote Janus Rock, situated nearly a hundred miles off the Australian coast between the Indian and Great Southern oceans. He and his wife Isabel live there in isolation apart from the occasional visits of the supply boat. After the horrors of the first world war, Tom has found a perfect spot to heal his mental scars. The only shadow in their life is their childlessness.
When a small boat is washed ashore Isabel believes her prayers have been answered - for in the boat, alongside a dead man, is a baby. After a series of miscarriages, she is desperate for a child and sees this as her chance to become a mother.
After some doubts, Tom is persuaded to not report the finding of the boat and the couple bring the child up as their own, naming her Lucy, after the light that governs their lives. It's only on a rare visit to the mainland that they realise that Lucy's natural mother is still hoping that her daughter, actually called Grace, will be found one day. The couple return to the refuge of Janus Rock with Lucy but Tom's doubts about whether Lucy belongs with them are increasing and life is never settled again.

The Light Between Oceans is a wonderfully atmospheric and engrossing tug-of-love story that manages to pull the reader's heart strings without becoming sentimental or 'soppy'. The descriptions of Janus Rock bring it to life so vividly that it seems possible to feel the sea-breeze and constantly changing ocean, though at the same time it mirrors Tom and Isabel's moral situation - isolated but not totally free from the world.

The characters tie themselves into such a knot that it's impossible to see a way out for them. I was torn first one way then another in trying to decide where and with whom Lucy/Grace belonged - sometimes veering in favour of Tom and Isabel, sometimes of her real mother. I was a bit afraid that the author would untangle it by some lazy 'happy ever after' twist - for the credibility of the story, I'm glad she didn't.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Doubleday
Genre - adult fiction

Buy The Light Between Oceans from Amazon