About this blog

This is a window into the weird world of Anglicanism, as experienced on a Cathedral Close. Has anything much happened since Trollope's Barchester Chronicles? You will still see the 'canon in residence' hurrying across to choral Evensong, robes flapping, as the late bell chimes. But look carefully and you will notice he is checking the football score on his iPhone as he runs. This is also a writer's blog. It charts the agony and ecstasy of the novelist's life. And it's a fighter's blog. It charts the agony and ecstasy of the judo mat. Well, the agony, anyway.

Thursday 11 June 2015

UNSEEN THINGS ABOVE--OUT NOW!

It's arrived!  Goodness, I feel as though I'm announcing a birth.  After a long gestation and difficult delivery, both author and novel are doing well.  Here it is:


The cover features another beautiful watercolour ('Masham from the Foot of the Bank') by Ian Scott Massie.  You can see more of his work here: http://www.ianscottmassie.com/ 

I blogged this novel between Easter and Advent of 2014, and after shining it up a bit, sent the MS off to SPCK.  It's published by their new fiction imprint Marylebone House.  With a bit of luck, this will stop bookshops sticking my books in the mindfulness and bible commentary section, where no sane novel-reader will find them.

If you can't get to a bookshop, you can buy a copy here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1910674230
or from the lovely people at SPCK (if you're allergic to Amazon): http://www.spckpublishing.co.uk/shop/unseen-things-above/

I hope you enjoy it, and feel moved to write a positive review.  Bear in mind that I am a judo black belt.  If you write a bad review, I may have to hunt you down like a dog and forgive you.  I will be particularly grumpy if I see any more 1 star reviews saying 'I liked the book, but the print is very small'.  This is a 1 star review of the reader's eyesight, not of my novel.  It is a review of their personal vanity in refusing to get reading glasses.  In fact, if you look on Amazon it actually says 'Frequently bought together: Catherine Fox novel + reading glasses'.

Alternatively, get a Kindle.  With Kindle you can make the print as huge as you LIKE.  But it is a sad irony that the sort of people who are old enough to need reading glasses are also the sort of people who like the feel and smell of a real book.  They can't read a real book, but I suppose they can lie in bed sniffing it and riffling through the pages as they drift off to sleep.

To be honest, I need reading glasses; but I've opted instead to have my contact lens prescription adjusted to monovision.  This means I can very nearly read my own books without glasses.  I can also very nearly read cocktail menus in dimly lit cocktail bars.  I have strategies for overcoming this without resorting to borrowing someone else's reading glasses.  I take a picture of the menu on my phone, then enlarge it.  Or else I call out to the cocktail waiter (in a Lady Bracknell voice) 'Young man!  Would you kindly come here and read this for me?'

Oh, all right: I made that last bit up.  Just as I made up the topless cocktail waiter in Unseen Things Above.  He is not real.  I'm sorry to break it to you.  None of it is real.

That doesn't mean it's not true, though.



4 comments:

  1. I'm so looking forward to the new book. I loved your earlier 3, so was delighted when I found "Acts and omissions" in the Ely Cathedral bookshop. I laughed and cried my way through it last week, so was delighted to discover that it ended with the first chapter of the sequel, AND that it has just been published! Next weekend has been cancelled...

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    1. Glad you discovered the new books. Volume 3 starts in January.

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  2. I am very glad about the 6ft 4in son and the smile. I was going to put more but realised it would be a spoiler. I read Angels and Men when it first came out. I live in Liverpool and visit the Cathedral quite often; it was a bit of a shock to realise you were now here.

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    1. Yes, we've been here three years now. Glad you enjoyed the new book.

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