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IS THIS A POSSIBLE BIG NAME FOR THE FUTURE - OUR EDITOR REVIEWS OUR YOUNGEST WRITER'S FIRST BOOK
Mar 20th 2005
Mar 20th 2005
One of the best books I've read so far this year is Cally Highfield's 'Rose Petal Tea'. It landed on our desks a couple of months ago with some highly original artwork and an intriguing title. As soon as it was published I picked it up and started to read. It very soon struck me as a very well written piece of work showing great insight into both a period of history I remember well, the early '80s, and into human nature, particularly human misery.
Let me explain something before I go on. Now that the company is growing rapidly the amount of time I spend dealing with books and our authors is unfortunately getting to be less and less, as the vagaries of running a business take over. I therefore sometimes know very little about our authors and their books until after they are in fact published. I leave that to our excellent submissions editor, Wendy Lake and her team, who anyway do it much better than I ever did. So I knew absolutely nothing about it, other than the odd positive remark made to me by my colleagues. - Back to the point.
Imagine my surprise then when I discovered that this book wasn't written by a now fifty something, who'd had experience of the AIDS era amongst the Gay community in London, before the awful truth about this killer disease dawned on society. No, this was in fact written by a 19 year old girl fresh out of school and college, who is not even from London. What's more I have since discovered that she started writing it when she was just 14. I was, and still am, amazed.
I won't spoil the plot or do anything I'm not qualified to do such as attempt a critical review, but I will say if we haven't published a future household name in the literary world I'm a Dutchman! A fine first novel and, even if I am biassed with a vested interest, I just urge everybody to go out and buy it - it's quite brilliant! It also contains some of Cally's fantastic modern artwork drawings. This I can assure you is a lady with more than one talent, and a very bright future - to say the least!
And if you don't believe me read the reviews below from the Liverpool Star and The Crosby Herald, and certainly go and browse the synopsis.
Let me explain something before I go on. Now that the company is growing rapidly the amount of time I spend dealing with books and our authors is unfortunately getting to be less and less, as the vagaries of running a business take over. I therefore sometimes know very little about our authors and their books until after they are in fact published. I leave that to our excellent submissions editor, Wendy Lake and her team, who anyway do it much better than I ever did. So I knew absolutely nothing about it, other than the odd positive remark made to me by my colleagues. - Back to the point.
Imagine my surprise then when I discovered that this book wasn't written by a now fifty something, who'd had experience of the AIDS era amongst the Gay community in London, before the awful truth about this killer disease dawned on society. No, this was in fact written by a 19 year old girl fresh out of school and college, who is not even from London. What's more I have since discovered that she started writing it when she was just 14. I was, and still am, amazed.
I won't spoil the plot or do anything I'm not qualified to do such as attempt a critical review, but I will say if we haven't published a future household name in the literary world I'm a Dutchman! A fine first novel and, even if I am biassed with a vested interest, I just urge everybody to go out and buy it - it's quite brilliant! It also contains some of Cally's fantastic modern artwork drawings. This I can assure you is a lady with more than one talent, and a very bright future - to say the least!
And if you don't believe me read the reviews below from the Liverpool Star and The Crosby Herald, and certainly go and browse the synopsis.
Richard Fitt - Editor, Authors On Line Ltd
