Book after Book

To celebrate this once-every-four-years day, MacLehose Press and Sussex-based Pure Fresh Tea have teamed up to offer you the chance to win this gorgeous prize: One lucky winner will soon be able to enjoy Jane Urquhart's latest novel, Sanctuary Line, while sipping one of the ten different varieties of organic tea included in this sample pack. For more information on Pure Fresh Tea, please click here , while to read a recent blog post by the Canadian author on Book After Book , please click here . For a chance to win, please click here . The competition is open world-wide and will close on the 28th March at 1pm.

One of the things that has always delighted me about writing novels is how astonished the author herself can sometimes be by the way a novel is conceived or by the way it ends. In an early novel, The Underpainter , for example, I was completely surprised and taken aback toward the conclusion of the first draft by what my male protagonist ultimately decided to do. And, yet, once I got over the shock, I realized that his act of unkindness was completely in character. It was about this time that I began to understand that I was writing about the world the way it is, not the way I want it to be, and that I would have to allow my characters to be themselves… not just an extensions of my own personality. Once again in Sanctuary Line the end of the book was initially as much a surprise to me, the writer, as it has been for many readers. Writing is a very visual experience for me; I actually “see” what is going on while I am working. I knew that one more character would be entering the book i...

Fans of Canadian writer, Jane Urquhart, are invited to hear her discuss her latest novel, Sanctuary Line (published by MacLehose Press / Jan ’12/ £16.99 hardback), on Thursday 26th January from 10:30 – 12:00. You will have the opportunity to talk with her after the event whilst refreshments are served. This event will be hosted by the Canadian High Commission, who, for security reasons, ask that you make sure to RSVP to the address featured on the invitation: academic.london@international.gc.ca .