While I’m in the middle of writing my next book I try not to take any time off, but I couldn’t knock back an invitation from ABC-TV to appear on one of Jennifer Byrne’s specials. This time it was a departure from her usual format, as she was concentrating only on popular fiction and the programme was to be called, “Blockbusters and Bestsellers”. Jennifer said they’d been wanting to do such a format for ages and now they had a dream team – the top three Aussie bestsellers, Matthew Reilly, Bryce Courtenay and me, and the number one NY Times bestseller – Lee Child. They were over the moon.
I flew to Sydney the day before and managed a quick shop in DJs, then caught up for coffee with my former Editor now Publishing Director at Random House, Nikki Christer. She had worked on my early books, especially my break-through novel, ‘Tears of the Moon’, so we’ve been friends for around fifteen years. Later, in the early evening, I went to my lawyer’s offices at Holding Redlich for a reception for Federal MP Maxine McKew who is also an old friend. There were fifty movers and shakers there, including the federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, whom I hadn’t met before and we talked about surfing. He grew up on the Sunshine Coast and is a keen surfer and said that he wished he could be “out the back” in Bali but as we both agreed, taking off to surf during the GFC wasn’t a good look. He’s a keen reader, too, which was nice to hear. Maxine and Mr Swan gave a brief and enlightening speech and then I went off to dinner with James Fraser, my publisher, and lawyer, Ian Robertson. We went to Lucios in Paddington as I am over large noisy restaurants and quite a few years ago James and I had a fabulous lunch at Lucios which is in a quiet leafy street and was a calm and luscious meal, so I expected much the same thing. Unfortunately, this evening, it was jammed, noisy, and the waiters too attentive. We felt we were being rushed and the food I found a bit too rich including their signature dish of green spaghetti with crab sauce. However I enjoy the company, Ian always make me laugh. By the time I got back to the oasis of the Observatory Hotel it was nearly eleven pm and I was out the door at 6.45am the next morning to appear on Channel 7’s hit breakfast program, “Sunrise.”
This was my first appearance on Sunrise as they’d asked me to launch their Sunrise Book Club which I think is a great initiative. Anything to get people reading! Their first book is The Girl with Dragon Tattoo . . . an absorbing book, and, of course a massive seller. Before I introduced the Sunrise Book Club, host David Koch, “Kochie” invited me to be on his panel of “Angels” where three women discuss a topic of the day.
Don’t get me started on the first topic where a tourist was bashed and fell and was in a critical condition in hospital – his assailants were teenagers, one just 13 years old and it was 3.30am! Everyone thought that their parents should take responsibility for them. Anyway, we had a bit of fun with the next two topics with the two other angels, Fifi Le Box, and Sophie Faulkner. Kochie has kindly invited me back to don my wings and fly into Sunrise anytime I’m in Sydney.
Natalie Barr, the newsreader who interviewed me about the Sunrise Book Club, was very warm and put me at ease instructing me to look at her, not worry about the cameras, not to be nervous . . . I don’t think she knew I had eight years of daily live breakfast TV under my belt. (See my piece about the Breakfast TV article in the Sun Herald…a Serious Oversight!)
After all my years working in a proper TV station I found the Sunrise studio in the basement of a bank building in Sydney’s Martin Place (with the public visible outside) rather casual. It had a very temporary feel, though Sunrise is very popular and is obviously here to stay.
Back to the hotel for breakfast, quick glance at the newspapers, and check out. Louise, my sweet new publicist (who wears the greatest shoes) collected me to go to the ABC TV studios in Ultimo. Here it was comfortable and felt like home. They were taping next months’ First Tuesday Book Club so I caught up with the adorable and clever Marieke Hardy (I knew her grandfather, the wonderful writer Frank Hardy) who told me she was rushing from the show, to fly Iceland for a friend’s wedding. She was going on her own, so decided to break the journey in Copenhagen and found an amazing hotel to stay – the Hotel Fox. Every room was designed and illustrated by a different International artist/graphic designer, making it a creative and interesting fantasy, lifestyle hotel. Google it and have a look!
Big hug from Jason Steger, lots of gossip and laughter in the make-up room and then it was into the green room to see mates, Bryce and Matthew. Jennifer and her lovely Executive Producer and assistants were all there and they were quite bemused by our chit chat. Jennifer said it was quite different from the conversations of literary authors. Lee Child arrived, late as he’d been swamped at his Literary Lunch. I’m not a crime reader but knowing I was meeting Lee Child I grabbed his latest book ‘61 Hours’ to read before I met him. He was very polite, a lovely cross of the cool Briton who’s learned to schmooze, as he lives in New York. He shook hands all around, telling each of us he was “such a fan.”
Seated on the set I found I was at number one spot in the semi circle which, unfortunately, meant I was always asked questions first, though we all jumped in at Jennifer’s invitation as well. It was a wide ranging discussion, but I was tired from all my other activities and found I that I wasn’t thinking quickly and wished I wasn’t always asked things first. In retrospect, I keep kicking myself for not saying this or saying that. Jennifer asked us how we were we reviewed when we started out. I wish I’d told the story of how I didn’t get reviewed for years. Commercial, or popular fiction isn’t deemed “worthy” enough by the literary pages in newspapers to be given space. This attitude also applied to Bryce and Matthew. When I finally got my first review for “The Last Mile Home” in a big national newspaper, the reviewer took me to task for mentioning a white Pomeranian dog which was a throwaway line and in no way a crucial part of the story. The reviewer declared that there was no such animal and thus cast doubt on my credibility. Well thankfully, my readers sent her pictures of white Pomeranian dogs. But although she had the grace to write me a letter of apology, that didn’t appear in the national newspaper.
Anyway all four of us aired our grievances about being considered lightweight, because we write popular fiction. But why is it popular? Because it sells and because our books are easy to read. However, this is considered by some to be therefore less worthy than creating dense, hard to read books, that no one reads. We have even been criticised for having our name in gold lettering on the covers!
I discovered that Lee Child is a created persona! He is English, worked in TV and got retrenched at 40. He decided to reinvent himself as a crime thriller writer and so moved his wife and daughter to Manhattan, changed his name to Lee Child because a surname starting with “c” is high up on shelves at eye level. Child, as a surname, has warm and fuzzy connotations, and Lee sounds American. Then he invented his character Jack Reacher and has sold a squillion books. To sell a million books in the USA you have to write about America. Mind you, the Brits can be a bit parochial too! And while US and UK books are promoted here, it is difficult to get books like mine, with Australian settings, to be accepted in the US/UK book market.
We talked for an hour and Jennifer raised another literary point (do books actually exist if they haven’t been read?) and the talk was about literary versus popular fiction writers. I couldn’t help thinking that in another life when Jennifer was a book publisher, I wonder if she would have preferred to have a list of literary authors or the four of us among authors on her list! For if it wasn’t for the income of bestselling popular writers, where would publishers find the money to publish smaller selling literary writers?
At the end of the conversation Lee shook his head in amazement and said there was no way such a great discussion about books would go to air on prime time, free to air channels in the USA or UK – their books shows are apparently pretty pathetic.
I was sorry I couldn’t hang around for a glass of wine and to chit chat but I had a plane to catch. By the time I got home in the cold and dark to an elated welcome from the dogs,and Boris waiting with a glass of cold wine, I was quite pooped!
Jennifer Byrne Presents – “Blockbusters and Bestsellers” will air on ABC-TV May 11. Repeated Sunday May 16 on ABC TV2 at 6.30pm
Read an article about the show here
Di's latest novel, The Silent Country, is out now.