Reading from The Finn´s Tale

I´m reading from my novel, The Finn´s Tale, in Helsinki on Friday, 14 September. The address is Fredrikinkatu 20 A, the reading starts at 19.00. I´m looking forward to meeting any of my blog readers who are in the area.

On a Country Road in Finland

Here´s a new poem with a Finnish theme. It´s not deadly serious, as you will see.


On a Country Road in Finland

It was after turning at the Mihari junction
and heading for the main road from Hämeenkyrö
to Ylöjärvi that the most unlikely
police car in southern Finland pulled us up.

The beat-up Volvo I was driving
had all its lights working and its doors shut
thanks to Jukka´s firm hand on the off-side rear.
Still, we looked suspect, apparently.

One officer approached my open window.
His mate stood at a distance, arms akimbo.
I had a driving licence and showed it;
I knew the registration number and told it.

He relaxed a bit and directed his torch over
my shoulder. A bale of hay sat in the hollow
where the back seat used to be,
Jukka beside it on an upturned beer crate.

Jukka didn´t make eye contact. Good
body language. The beam flicked through
the scented air. We waited in silence. `Okay,´
said the one with the light, `on your way.´

Two events in the near future

I´m going to be at the London Poetry Book Fair on Saturday 8 September. The venue is the Candid Arts Trust in Torrens Street, Islington, London. The nearest tube station is Angel. If anyone is in the area and interested in visiting, look me up at the Ward Wood publisher´s table. I´ll give you a private reading of a couple of poems from my collection, Midas Touch. I expect to be in the hall from 11.00 until 13.00 at least and if I´m not actually at the table, I´ll be close by and not gone for long.

The poetry book fair looks like it´s going to be a great event. There are a lot of publishers exhibiting, both mainstream and small independent presses. There are readings all through the day and books for sale, of course, with signings by the poets present. There´s a very good website with full information at:

www.poetrybookfair.com


Then, on Friday 14 September at 18.00-19.00 I´m giving a talk and reading from my novel, The Finn´s Tale, to the Finnish-British Society in Helsinki. The venue address is: Fredrikinkatu 20 A in the centre of Helsinki. I believe that non-members are also welcome. Copies of both The Finn´s Tale and my poetry collection, Midas Touch, will be available to purchase.

I´d love to meet you at one (or both!) of these events.

Reading from The Finn´s Tale

Here´s a video of me reading a passage from my novel, The Finn´s Tale. The passage occurs a little after half way through the novel when Len, a 3rd generation Finnish-American who is visiting his Finnish relatives, and Päivi, his second cousin, go to pick chanterelles. The book´s cover picture alludes to this scene.







The Finn´s Tale is available online from:

www.bookdepository.co.uk

www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk

www.amazon.com / www.amazon.co.uk (also in Kindle version)

from selected branches of Akateeminen Kirjakauppa and Suomalainen Kirjakauppa and from Pocket Books in Helsinki railway station.

In Finnish

I´ve translated one of the poems from my collection, Midas Touch, into Finnish, with some help from Eevi Apponen (acknowledgement duly rendered). The poem is `Family´ from the prologue, `Two Poems From Finland´. This is what it looks like in Finnish:


Perhe

Rappu, puutarha
polku, pensas, ruohon
tuoksu sateen jälkeen,

pehmeä pip kun vettä
putoaa lehdille,

hohto autotallin
seinävalon ympärillä.

Ja tuolla
emo-janis
kahden poikasensa keskellä,

kuusi korvaa silhuettina
lampujen valaisemassa
asfaltissa.


... and this is how it sounds when read aloud by an Englishman with a poor accent. Still, non-Finnish visitors to my blog can at least get an idea of the Finnish version, I think. You can hear the same poem read in English on the video `Two Poems From Finland´ below; `Family´ is the second.

Readings of some poems from Midas Touch

I´ve uploaded two videos of me reading poems from my collection, Midas Touch. These poems are on YouTube as well. I plan to add some more poems in the future and also an excerpt from my novel, The Finn´s Tale.


Claire Clairmont and Allegra

Claire Clairmont was briefly the lover of the poet, Lord Byron and Allegra was their daughter. Allegra died at the age of five. Claire later lived with Percy Shelley and his wife, Mary Shelley. It is not known whether Claire and Percy were lovers but there is no doubt that she loved him. The shawl referred to in the poem was a gift from Percy to Claire. After Percy´s death Claire spent many years living in Russia and other countries.





Two Poems From Finland

The second video should interest blog readers in Finland as it includes the two poems from Finland that make up the prologue to Midas Touch, Winter Swans and Family.




I hope you enjoy listening to these poems. Do leave comments if you feel inclined.

Getting The Finn´s Tale into bookshops

Now that the academic year has ended and I´ve got a bit more time, I´ve been doing some marketing for The Finn´s Tale. I visited Helsinki yesterday and had meetings with the managers of three bookshops. I had already supplied copies to Tampere bookshops: Akateeminen Kirjakauppa and the two Suomalainen stores. All three of those shops have copies on their shelves as I write this. So I thought it was time to widen my market area. I´d contacted the managers of two Suomalainen Kirjakauppa stores in Helsinki to set up meetings for Tuesday and I visited the bookstore in the railway station on spec.

The managers were interested in the idea of a novel set in Finland which includes a lot of information about Finnish history, nature, art and culture, architecture and cooking in the course of telling a story. They were quite cautious about the prospects for sales, though. Of course, they know the business better than I do. I think that Finn´s who can read English quite well, of whom there are a great many, and foreign visitors to Finland who are looking for an interesting souvenir, would be likely to buy the book and that´s what I said. The conversation was positive and friendly and I felt that it was a good idea to make that personal contact, although I´m aware that I´m not much of a salesman. I felt that didn´t matter for the kind of approach I was making. The outcome was that one shop took 5 copies to try and the managers of the other two shops took just one copy each to have a closer look at before deciding whether to put copies on the shelf.

And when my business was completed I went to the wonderful Helene Schjerfbeck exhibition at Ateneum.

I returned home feeling reasonably pleased. So if you´re in Helsinki, you can buy a copy of The Finn´s Tale at the Pocket Books shop in the central railway station. And maybe from Suomalainen bookshops in Kamppi and Aleksanterinkatu later, if they decide to stock it.

And you should definitely get to the Schjerfbeck exhibition, too!