Here’s a piece I wrote for the Wonders & Marvels blog.
Some Early Reviews
It’s traditional on your own site to turn a blind eye to basically any review that could be construed as negative. But I’m in a quandary about the review of The Ingenious Mr Pyke which appeared this week in the Columbus Dispatch. I mean, in no way could it be described as a rave review. It will not have the good people of Columbus, Ohio, rushing out to their local bookstores and demanding to buy the book. But nor is it, to use the technical term, a stinker.
Anyway it’s online for all to see, as is this rather more upbeat review from The Christian Science Monitor.
Cambridge
I’ll soon be back in Cambridge, the city where Pyke was almost certainly at his happiest, to give a talk with Rick Stroud and Michael Prodger on Friday 17th April, 4pm. It’s part of the Cambridge Literary Festival. Our theme is English Eccentrics. Come along if you’re in town.
Reviews…
With The Ingenious Mr Pyke nearing US publication we’ve just had several trade reviews in. Here’s the one from Kirkus Reviews, and another in Publishers Weekly. Meanwhile, closer to home, Lord Rothermere has clearly bought shares in Pyke: both the Mail on Sunday (can’t find this online, you’ll have to take my word for it) and the Daily Mail have run nice reviews.
In other news I should v soon have an announcement to make about the follow-up to Churchill’s Iceman.
Some Talks
Thank you to everyone who’s attended one of the talks I’ve given over the last few weeks. Giving more or less the same lecture again and again should be boring, but the questions afterwards have made the whole experience fascinating. At almost every talk there’s been a ‘why haven’t I heard of him?’ Or ‘was he a spy?’ The latter I try to avoid answering only because not knowing probably makes the book more enjoyable. Then there are the more daunting ones like ‘how does a Freudian kindergarten work?’ Harder still: ‘why did he think this was a good idea?’
Many thanks to those at Dulwich Books, Jewish Book Week and the Eton Historical Society who have made these talks possible.
Next stop on the Geoffrey Pyke World Tour: Doha.
More soon.