.

Lots of hot author action in the shop today. First of all we had Sarah Waters in signing copies of her latest, Night Watch, which is the Crockatt & Powell book of the month, as well as Tipping the Velvet in paperback. We're selling Night Watch for a limited period at £12.99 (down from £16.99) and if you want a signed copy you will have to be super speedy as a hot cake stall couldn't keep up with our sales. Then Nick McDonell, author of Twelve, was passing through and spontaneously offered to sign his latest, The Third Brother - McDonell as a rule does not do signings, so again, if you want a copy, best get your skates on. Lastly we had it confirmed that James Meek will be stopping by on Friday to sign copies of the paperback of his Booker-longlisted People's Act of Love - massively critically acclaimed and one of Matthew's faves from last year. All only available while stocks last - but if you'd like to reserve a copy before they disappear you can e-mail us on info@crockattpowell.com

Well it continues - day after bleeding day - Life - and the Lessons...

This morning an e-mail. From Scott Pack. Yes him. The Evil One. (For new readers check the early posts where I boldly challange Scott Pack - Waterwotsit's chief buyer to an "actual" fight)

I have learned two things.

1: There is nowhere to hide on the internet. Everything you say is recorded in stone and kept to be used as evidence against you.

2: Scott Pack is clearly a top bloke - with a sense of humour and everything...

We want you to be EVIL Scott! We need to feed off your EVIL so that we feel GOOD.

Bollocks of course. Never black and white is it?

So if in future (after the latest dose of "celebrity" Big B surely anything is possible) you come across Scott and I trading weedy slaps on TV just remember this - it's not what it seems. It is just a publicity stunt and after the fisticuffs we are probably in the pub having a few drinks on someone else's expense account...

And Flashing Helmet - before you start - I thought I was making you up!

PS As you might have noticed, Marie started work today. We now have soap and everything. (Legend has it that soap is useful for cleaning things.) It's good to have some oestrogen in the place - HELLO and WELCOME to the C & P family...

I'm here! I'm here! It's so exciting! Most pleasing development: the men are much better looking in this shop than I'm used to (and I'm not just talking about the staff.) The shop I worked in before had a specialist clientele of the over-70s, which is certainly not the case here. Here we get proper blokes who haven't retired! Men in their thirties who read! My favourite kind! I have been getting all flustered, trying to impress with my recommendations and then forgetting how to use the till. Not a good look. Tomorrow I may wear lipstick, who knows.

Oh yeah, and have sold some books, and stuff.

In a sad day for literature, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, undoubtedly one of the world's greatest living writers, has announced his retirement from novel writing.

I was trawling the net for some more information about this and I found a letter that Marquez, who has cancer, supposedly wrote to say farewell to his friends. My god. It was so awful. Kind of like one of those "wear sunscreen" chain letters. If this is the kind of crap he is coming out with these days, I thought, he is doing us all a favour by retiring, and I'll just reread Love in the Time of Cholera, thanks. Surely, it can't be real, I thought. Surely, surely, surely.

It isn't.

This is what Marquez had to say about it:

"The only thing that worries me is that I'll die with the shame that people believe I wrote something so tasteless. I read it not long ago and what surprises me most is that my readers could believe that it was written by me."

And if, just for the yuk factor, you want to read the horrible thing itself, you can find it here.

As for the his real words, Marquez is often argued to have written the best opening line in the history of literature, from One Hundred Years of Solitude:

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

And now it seems he has written his last words too, in fiction anyway. We can only hope that he stays true to his promise and completes the second and third volumes of his autobiography.

The Prophet returned and, as the shop was empty, I got a right earful.

(For new readers check the start of the blog for first impressions of I and I.)

"Hello my brother..." that's how it always starts. But I was wrong about Mary Jane and her elevating properties. No - he's anti-rasta. "They sing about peace and love but nowhere does God ever say fill your body wit smoke!"

You guessed it - he's born again. "I used to smoke, drink, take drugs, chase women and then one day the Lord..." I am still smiling and nodding but my face hurts by now.

He had an interesting comment to add to the great Britishness debate though. According to Eye and I (He has a third eye under his hat with which he SEES the truth!) the word British is derived of two Hebrew words - Brit and Ish.

Brit means Contract or covenant while Ish means Man - so British means something like the Covenant of Man. Someone should tell Gordon eh?

I have to confess to having a soft spot for the guy. (I can hear Adam groaning somewhere!) He showed me pics of his kids and also spoke about where he grew up - in a hut in Jamaica.

A confused man certainly but also a man who is trying, in his own way, to make the world a better place.

His final words as I explained that, despite all evidence to the contrary, I was busy were:

"Next time you see me brother you will break down and cry - because you will have realised I WAS RIGHT!"

We'll see...

Over on my other blog, I recently did a meme, one of the questions of which was to name seven books that I love.

Tricky.

As it turns out, there is a huge difference between naming books that you love and books that you think are great works of literature. If I had been asked about the latter, I would have come up with a very impressive list, featuring plenty of the usual suspects (Dickens et al) with maybe a few modern classics thrown in (e.g. Underworld) and you would have all been bowled over by my stunning intellect and wide range of literary interests. And I would have enjoyed all the books that I'd named; it wouldn't have been a lie.

But love is different. It's personal. As we all know from looking at the person we wake up next to (or wish we woke up next to), it embraces flaws. Some people will never understand what we love.

In the end, this is the embarrassingly unliterary, unintellectual list that I came up with. I don't know if it's the seven books I love the most, but it gives you a fair idea of what my heart, not my head, wants to read:

- Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
- A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
- Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
- Once More With Feeling - Victoria Coren and Charlie Skelton
- Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
- Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
- Frog In Winter - Max Velthuijs

So, go on. Which books do you love?

A few years ago I got into the habit of opening books I had read recently, sticking a finger on the page and reading what was written there. It was just something I started doing. I don't know why.

One night I picked up Iain Sinclair's Downriver. I had found the book fascinating but hadn't actually finished it. I often find his fiction rather wears me down - I prefer the psychogeography. But I digress.

I opened the book and saw the following written beneath the tip of my index finger.

Death is like stabbing your finger at random into an open book.

I don't believe in all that Jazz but...kind of weird?

Can you top it?

(The sentence in question is 2/3 of the way down page 386 - I have the place marked with a receipt from Habitat in Hammersmith dated Nov 2000. )

www.crockattpowell.com

On the subject of astronomy and the lib dems spectacular supernova-esque career suicide soon to become a political black hole of the heaviest magnitude out of which no media light will shine for a billion years...

...but, did the appearance of the whale in our waters last week have anything to do with libdems current beaching? Whales are notorious for losing their sense of direction and commiting mass suicide...

...and was it just a coincidence that the london whale was attempting to 'Go West' before it was 'rescued', smothered in vaseline and hosed down before being put out of it's misery in the icy shallows of the big drink...

Well the arts may be dying and here's the perfect reason they need to be kept alive.

A new "earth-like" planet is discovered.

Literature (particularly sci-fi) is full of other planets with cool names:

Thalassa - Arthur C Clarke

Salusa Secundus from Frank Herbert

Magrathea from Hitch-hiker's guide

Pern - Anne McCaffrey

What do scientists call this new "earth like" planet?

OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb

Scientists - what are you like!

Reading the local newspaper where I currently am staying in Dorset, I come across the following, in a column by a local resident:

"The District Council last year held a meeting to allocate a windfall fund that had come their way. I was there to get some of it for film festival shows, so suggested that they include some to support the arts. I realised the hopelessness of my case when the District Councillor said that in his opinion there was already adequate arts provision in Purbeck for it contained several shooting clubs."

No wonder we are seeing the disappearance of our local theatres, cinemas and (yes) bookshops. Sometimes I feel very privileged to live in London.

I dunno, sometimes customer service is a thankless task...

Lady comes in wanting a book - it is re-printing, new edition not due for months. Go into 90% of the bookshops in the country and you will get a "computer says no" style response. It is reprinting. We can't get it.

Come into Crockatt & Powell!

We got a second-hand copy for the lady NEXT DAY -

AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH...etc

Was she pleased?

Oh yeah thanks...she says...

(PS If said lady is reading this then this post is a work of fiction, any similarity to situations you may have recntly experienced is entirely co-incidental etc - same goes for my mate Flashing Helmet - If you are really real then I apologise! I thought I was making you up...)

YES! We just sold a copy of my uncle's poetry book Blizzards of the Inner Eye!

Apparently there is a problem with commenting at the moment - will try to get it sorted. Apologies for any frustration.

Meanwhile it appears that Flashing Helmet Guy has been spotted further afield! Please keep us posted with any further sightings - either via comments if you can, or by e-mail - crockattpowell@tiscali.co.uk .

UPDATE: Problem solved I think - try commenting without putting in the code (that's just for trackback.) Please could someone comment and let me know!

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Thanks Alexander - apparently the way to do it is to use the comments code (didn't realise there was one, they don't ask me for it because it's my site) but also to make sure you have something in every field that they ask for (URL etc.) Any good?

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: And using the Preview function doesn't seem to help matters...

Delighted to see Hilary Spurling's exceptional Matisse the Master win this year's Whitbread Book of the Year - and indeed the last Whitbread Book of the Year, as they are now shopping for a new sponsor (any suggestions as to whom should take it on? Personally I've never liked the Man Booker, as it suggests that only a man could win it - maybe in the interests of fairness, we should have the Feminax Book of the Year?) You may recall that certain literary experts always thought that she had it in her. Personally I've been a Spurling fan ever since I listened to her brilliant audio commentary (usually they send me to sleep) for the Matisse: His Art and His Textiles exhibition at the Royal Academy - itself a fantastic show. Fascinating, insightful, exhaustive yet clear. An entirely well-deserved win.

Peter Hobbs is the first of what I hope will become a host of new and interesting writers who will be reading at Crockatt & Powell as part of our events program. We are passionate about books, well probably a bit too passionate really, but WE CARE we REALLY REALLY CARE...

Ok, you probably get the message.

So what can we do to tempt you cyber hoardes down to the Marsh? We aim to pack the place out on Feb 28th. This will send out a message to publishers that Crockatt & Powell events ROCK and that their hot new star MUST read there...

It won't be boring. There are loads of pubs around so the night can continue long after the bookshop closes (for those with stamina) and lovely places to eat (for the more civilised) and lots of transport links (for those with young children, jobs to get up for, TV programs to watch)

Support the events now and things will go from strength to strength. As I said in one of the earliest posts this is not just about selling books it's about adding something to London culture.

It's not about hype, Crockatt & Powell's main aim has been from the start and always will be a simple one - we want to get people reading great books. That's it. Pete is reading because I thought The Short Day Dying was among the finest debut novels I have read.

So E-mail Marie on crockattpowell@tiscali.co.uk and book your place on Pete's Cool Blue Train - it's going to be quite a ride...

You can read a review of Pete's first novel, The Short Day Dying, here.

(Whitbread Shortlisted Peter Hobbs reads at Crockatt & Powell on Tuesday Feb 28th at 7pm)

I have a few different e-mail addresses for different functions, but for some reason the one that gets the most junk mail is the Crockatt & Powell one.

Today I receive the following:

ATTRACT ANY WOMAN OR MAN WITH POWER SEDUCTION! A Revolutionary Mind Control Method Attract women with increased charisma !!! Attract all the romance you desire. Remotely! Master remote hypnosis techniques. Size up and influence any person. Successfully demand a raise from your boss. Entrance and attract any woman or man with mind power seduction.

Reading it I can't help but think: does this have anything to do with Flashing Helmet Guy?

Fellow lovers of literature Zembla are putting on this night at the V & A on Friday. As you will notice there's an exclusive story from Pete Hobbs involved...He really is a rising star you know!

Born Free at the Victoria & Albert Museum
Friday, 27th of January, 18:30 - 22.00
Free Entry

For their late-night opening of the V&A on the last Friday of this month, the editorial and design teams behind Zembla Magazine have created a one-off literary tour through the museum. You will be able to pick up a booklet at the entrance and then roam the galleries while reading site-specific stories by novelists Nicholas Royle, Lucy Caldwell, Peter Hobbs and Shiromi Pinto.

On the night, there will also be a workshop, a short film festival, as well as music and drinks.

It would be a pleasure to see you there.

With best wishes,

Philip Oltermann & Dan Crowe

Sarah Waters, local and also brilliant author (Fingersmith, Tipping the Velvet etc) has got a new novel out at the beginning of February, The Night Watch, set in World War Two in London. I've not had the chance to read it yet - though believe me, I will - but according to this glowing review from the Guardian it's "magically convincing... beautifully judged and discreetly virtuosic... a truthful, lovely book." So it's just as well we're going to have a stack of signed copies for you to buy as of January 31st.

A reminder of our other events: Whitbread-shortlisted Peter Hobbs is reading from I Could Ride All Day In My Cool Blue Train on Tuesday February 28th at 7pm, and our first bookgroup meeting in on Monday February 6th, also at 7pm - we will be discussing Orhan Pamuk's Snow. For Pete Hobbs you need to reserve your space from crockattpowell@tiscali.co.uk , but for the bookgroup, just show up, and if you fancy a tipple, bring a bottle with you.

The prophet returns:

"Do you have any K - Moose?"

K - Moose? What the hell is that? (I am still getting my head around the tragic death of the London Whale. Among other indignities the poor beast was slathered with KY jelly. Try Boots down the road I am thinking.)

He stands in the doorway, helmet flashing, head tilted to one side...

Oh...of course...Camus...

Naturally we have just about everything Camus wrote in stock. The outback alien stands there and examines the shelves.

"I need a copy of the Plague. I've got one at 'ome somewhere but there's words missing, someone tore through a couple of the pages..."

For a moment I think he might actually be about to make a purchase. But no. He's run out of money and will have to come back. On the way out he notices a card with two kittens playing on it. He stops.

"I like that card."

Then he is gone, into the night. His helmet has different coloured lights on. I thought they were all red but there are yellow and green ones too.

The saga continues!

No 1 in a series:

What do you specialize in?

Sounds innocent? WRONG!

This is a question right out of the late 80s early 90s, from the days when the big W was a pretty decent chain of bookshops and had pretty much wiped the general local bookshop off the face of town centres everywhere.

Specialisation was the key. Find a niche - cook books, travel, windsurfing, potatoes, watch-straps - whatever, and hide yourself in it. When the punters asked for a book that fell outside of the narrow confines of the subject in which your shop was the Expert Specialist you could scream WE DON'T HAVE IT BECAUSE WE ARE A COOK BOOK/TRAVEL/WINDSURFING/POTATOES/WATCH-STRAP BOOKSHOP! ! ! ! !

Said punter would then retreat in humiliated silence and never darken the doors of yr establishment again.

Crockatt & Powell does not specialize in any thing in particular. We have a SELECTION of great books in the shop. Beyond that WE CAN GET YOU ANYTHING in or out of print...usually in 24hours, always within a week or so...

To all you men (Why is it always men that ask these passive/aggressive questions?) with your little backpacks and droopy comb-overs (Yeah YOU!) don't do it...when the mouth opens...shut it again...

PS That goes for all of the people who have wished us GOOD LUCK in a loaded fashion that, reading between the lines, clearly means FAIL SOON!

OK Rant over...

(If you come early you can hear Adam and I singing our C & P motivational song. Soon, very soon, Marie will add a soprano...It goes a little something like this: Customer service is the key, we love you all, without you we would be ranting madly on the street, Have a Nice Day)

Orhan Pamuk escapes from his trial nightmare - YAY!

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article340466.ece

Another writer with the same name as me recently tracked me down and sent me a nice message to say hi, thus sending me into an instant spiral of panic and self-doubt. Obviously, you can hate your parents if they are stupid enough to call you Charles Dickens, but there's not much you or they can do about people with your name getting famous in your own lifetime. Right now there must be a fair few pissed-off Mark Oatens wondering around, trying to get by in their day-to-day lives of insurance assessment without having the piss ripped out of them constantly. I somehow feel it's even worse if said namesake succeeds in your own field. Pity the poor Saturday league footballer named David Beckham, the aspiring singer called Madonna Louise Ciccone (well maybe not).

In writing it's the worst of all because so few writers have faces to their names. If you want to publish a novel and your name is Margaret Atwood, but you're not *the* Margaret Atwood, tough luck. You are changing your name, and don't expect anyone from your past to find that novel and think, wow, my old friend has fulfilled her dream and become an author. And in an industry where every reader counts, those twenty-six primary school chums who won't pick up your novel out of sheer curiosity and to see if they are in it (that's the first thing everyone wants to know - you know, there is a reason they call it fiction - never mind), well, you and your agent will feel it hard in your pockets.

So in short, no, I'm not delighted to see that another aspiring author and I are in a race to see who gets to put our own name on the book jacket. Still, when I'm forced bring my book out as cpmarie, at least you lot will all know it's me and pick up a copy, right? Right?

I walk to work, forty minutes through the back streets of Southwark, then Lambeth. Today I decided I would record what the city had to say for itself, making a note of any signs or sentences scrawled on walls that caught my attention - an Iain Sinclairesque idea...

Man and Van for Hire

This year Sicily will speak to you through theatre

Hmmm...any psychogeographers out there who can enlighten me?

God I am hungry...It's 18:05 and we close at 19:00...

I was too busy to eat lunch today, just munched a couple of small pieces of fruit.

Later my wife is coming in and we are going to eat Japanese food at the Japanese cafe over the road. Then we are going across the river to a friend's art ting where there is free beer all night.

So things are looking good in the near future but right now I am really hungry. My stomach keeps rumbling loudly and, though we have a bit of jazz on in the background, it is not quite enough to hush the grumbles.

Puts me in mind of the classic Hunger by Knut Hamsun. Marie refers to herself as Strugglingauthor but the narrator in Hunger is the ultimate - he barely survives on the few words he manages to get published and hallucinates his way through the streets of Oslo. A great read.

weird

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4631396.stm

Peter Hobbs is the first of what I hope will become a host of new and interesting writers who will be reading at Crockatt & Powell as part of our events program. We are passionate about books, well probably a bit too passionate really, but WE CARE we REALLY REALLY CARE...

Ok, you probably get the message.

So what can we do to tempt you cyber hoardes down to the Marsh? We aim to pack the place out on Feb 28th. This will send out a message to publishers that Crockatt & Powell events ROCK and that their hot new star MUST read there...

It won't be boring. There are loads of pubs around so the night can continue long after the bookshop closes (for those with stamina) and lovely places to eat (for the more civilised) and lots of transport links (for those with young children, jobs to get up for, TV programs to watch)

Support the events now and things will go from strength to strength. As I said in one of the earliest posts this is not just about selling books it's about adding something to London culture.

It's not about hype, Crockatt & Powell's main aim has been from the start and always will be a simple one - we want to get people reading great books. That's it. Pete is reading because I thought The Short Day Dying was among the finest debut novels I have read.

So E-mail Marie on crockattpowell@tiscali.co.uk and book your place on Pete's Cool Blue Train - it's going to be quite a ride...

You can read a review of Pete's first novel, The Short Day Dying, here.

(Whitbread Shortlisted Peter Hobbs reads at Crockatt & Powell on Tuesday Feb 28th at 7pm)

Just thought I'd mention, casually, y'know, not for any particular reason, or anything, that Time Out is running a poll for the best independent bookshops in London. I mean, god knows why I thought it worth mentioning, because obviously we don't care if we get nominated or not, etc, but just in case you can think of a deserving shop, the e-mail address is bookshops@timeout.com but hey, no skin off our nose if we don't get nominated, it's not like it means anything or that we're desperate for a mention in Time Out.

Oh go on. Pleeeeeeeeease.

[for some reason that e-mail address is coming up weird, but I'm sure you can figure it out, if you need to, for any reason.]

I dunno - you open a bookshop so as to sit on yer arse all day reading and call it "work" and whaddayouknow?

You lot love it so much we're kept too busy to blog...

(Thanks People!)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

(That was time passing)

I'm home now and still working. Nobody said this was going to be easy but I kind of hoped it would be! (I was always the lazy kid - not the bad kid, they were kind of cool - I was the dull but lazy type who came out with weird shit in class)

Have a look at the newsletter on the website. There are now links so that you can find out more about the authors we feature. Cool huh? Not impressed? Oh too cruel!

The website has all sorts of hidden nooks you know.

"Seek and ye shall find" as God or someone once said...

Same goes for the bookshop. As Skuds found out there are all sorts of gems awaiting your discovery. (And soon Marie!) But you got to WORK and FIND em see...

Very excited as we've just confirmed that the lovely and very talented Peter Hobbs will be doing a reading for us on Tuesday February 28th at 7pm. Pete was shortlisted for this year's Whitbread First Novel Award with his excellent "The Short Day Dying" and will be reading from his forthcoming short story collection, "I Could Ride All Day In My Cool Blue Train." We in the shop have had a sneaky preview peek at it and it looks fantastic. It's got zebras in it. What more could you want? The event is free and tickets must be reserved from me, Marie, at crockattpowell@tiscali.co.uk . Cancel all your plans and write it into your diary in fat black marker pen, ruining the page below.

Looky look! We got a review! Thanks Skuds. He seems pretty content despite the lack of Brookmyre (any recommendation as to which of his in particular we should stock?) That bit of graffiti he mentions on the side wall has a Banksy-like quality that I think should be preserved - we sadly had to paint over a similarly Banksy-like Moomin on the front of the shop.

Anyway I particularly appreciated this:

"When I went to pay for the book, the chap pointed out that Gladwell has a new book about to come out. (Blink - out tomorrow in hardback) I did already know that, but its still good to get a bit of conversation and a relevant and useful recommendation at the checkout."

I think that's what we're all about really.

If anyone is wondering why he didn't mention the really foxy chick behind the counter, that's because I don't start til January 30th. Set your watches lads!

Anyway Skuds, thanks for coming by and for the write-up. We do appreciate it.

Or does anyone else find they regularly identify with the wrong characters in a book (or on TV)?

I have recently been introduced to Curb Your Enthusiasm the new (ish) show from Larry David. I am always doing the kind of dumb things Larry does, the wrong words pile out of my mouth. I was sitting watching the second episode with my wife and she was saying how sorry she felt for Larry David's wife and I was thinking - but he's just like me!

I also started drinking J & B because that was Patrick Bateman's preferred tipple in American Psycho...

I found We Need To Talk About Kevin laugh out loud funny. Yes. A book about shooting your school friends...

I'm in good company though. When Milton wrote Paradise Lost he made the Devil so much cooler than God - to the extent that local SE1 author Bill Blake commented that "The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it."

Maybe that's it...I'm a Poet!

(See below for Flashing Helmet - My homage to William Carlos Williams)

Well done to Carol Ann Duffy for winning the TS Eliot prize for poetry.

Haven't been posting these last few days as I've been trying to come to grips with the shop website. The content is growing and I've been doing that most unprofessional of things and letting anyone keep track of progress by uploading what I've done as I go along. I know you're supposed to leave a sign on the site saying 'Under Construction' and then voila, a beautiful and fully formed piece of web magic appears but I like process - sketchbooks, drawings on napkins, doodles. Also, any comments or suggestions would be welcome even though they'll be likely ignored.

I know all you web purists out there will think it's a real dog's dinner of a site but as I'm still in web kindergarden, I'm playing in the sandbox so leave me alone.

A word of warning for anyone intending on undertaking their own website - when you sit at your computer you enter some kind of gap in the space time continuum, you disappear and you won't re-emerge for many, many hours...

www.crockattpowell.com

Have recently discovered Sarah Waters lives in Kennington - just down the road from the shop!

Even more recently (7:30 this evening) attended a reading from her new novel The Night Watch, published by Virago on 2nd Feb.

Book sounds brilliant. She read a passage set during the blitz - very evocative and moving as a female ambulance driver goes to investigate a bombed house - and another section about drinking by the river in Hammersmith...

It just so happens I was myself drinking by the river in Hammersmith this weekend (after watching the mighty cottagers defeat the capital allergic geordies 1 - 0).

There were lots of folk in the audience who were resident in Kennington during the blitz and who remembered and were clearly moved by the scenes described. When asked if she had relied on primary sources for her research or spoken to people who were there at the time, Sarah Waters had some interesting points to make. She said she used mostly diaries written at the time and other primary sources for research but then let people read the manuscript. If there were sections that did not ring true she would change them but - most interestingly - some of the things she was picked up on by her readers DID happen but had been altered in people's memories over the years. On several occasions she had to lead people back to the primary sources to show that their memories were innacurate. I thought this was