Upcoming events at Backstory
(all at 71 Balham High Road)
BRING YOUR TEENS TOMORROW! Yaba Badoe: An introduction to YA (young adult)
Tuesday 11th April, 7.30pm
Yaba Badoe is a Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker and writer who has judged a few YA book prizes. We're going to talk about her experience writing for young adults and judging prizes in that category. Come to learn about all things YA, what it takes to build new worlds and create memorable characters. Under-18s go free (but need to reserve a free ticket)
Wednesday 26th April, 7.30pm
The Costa Book Prize-winning author of Unsettled Ground and Swimming Lessons joins us to chat all about her latest, The Memory of Animals. In the book, a pandemic is sweeping the planet. Neffy joins a vaccine trial, cut off from the outside world. The novel puts isolation and humanity under the microscope.
Wednesday 3rd May, 7.30pm
In his book The Digital Republic, Jamie Susskind asks how freedom and democracy can survive in an online world of data leaks, racist algorithms and hate-filled social media. A manifesto for navigating, and managing, the increasingly digital world.
Wednesday 10th May, 7.30pm
Georgina Sturge uses skills from her day job as a researcher in the House of Commons library to debunk nefarious numbers and explain the uses and abuses of statistics in her new book, Bad Data. Numbers tell stories, if only you know how to read them. Thankfully, Georgina is the perfect guide.
Wednesday 17th May, 7.30pm
Breathing life into legendary women of Greek myth who have been forgotten, misrepresented, or misunderstood, Jennifer Saint is the bestselling author behind the magical Ariadne and Elektra. Her third novel tells the story of Atalanta, a heroine whose role in the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts is often overlooked, but is bursting with legend.
Team pick of the week
Denise recommends: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
I would happily read Curtis Sittenfeld’s shopping lists. She is a fantastic writer. In this book we meet Sally Milz, a sketch writer on a fictionalised version of Saturday Night Live. A recent young divorcee, she is fairly cynical about love, but a lengthy email exchange with a guest presenter changes everything. As with all of Sittenfeld’s books, she delves straight into the world she is writing about. The first third of the book is a deep dive into scripted comedy and live TV - the egos, let-downs, excitements and nerves. Romantic Comedy is full of wit and warmth, without ever getting schmaltzy.
Our bestsellers this week
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight - April’s Backstory non-fiction book club pick
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait
Send Nudes by Saba Sams
The Romantic by William Boyd
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
GETTING A JOB on a national newspaper as a shy 21-year-old is a pretty extreme example of the therapist’s stock injunction to “face your fears”. I very quickly learned that talking to strangers wasn’t a necessary hurdle to overcome; it was the whole job. I still remember the terror of those first few weeks, psyching myself up to pick up the phone to cold call a random member of the public and somehow persuade them to impart information, in an open-plan office surrounded by 500 hard-nosed newshounds.
I never - thank God - did a “death knock”, typically sangfroid journalese for turning up unannounced to secure an interview with a grieving family member. But I did get pretty good at keeping the conversation going with just about anyone, from a village elder on Tokelau, a South Pacific atoll three days by boat from Samoa, to a Glaswegian billionaire. (“Really?”, “go on”, “can you give me an example?” or just a raised eyebrow are your friends here.)
So I don’t typically get all that nervous before hosting our events at Backstory. It helps that I’m usually one half of front-of-house as well as the interviewer: once I’ve ticked audience members off the list and poured everyone a glass of wine, there’s not much time for butterflies. I jot a few themes down beforehand, but I’m usually pretty happy to let the conversation meander.
Oddly enough, the exception to this rule is our non-fiction book club. In theory, this ought to be more relaxing: as the sessions take place on Zoom, I can host them from anywhere. Sometimes I’ve sat in my favourite seat in the shop; other times, I’ve logged in from the sofa at home. I think I find it more stressful because of the tech: not only am I responsible for making sure the author and the audience have a good time, but also for ensuring we can actually hear what people are saying and that I’ve made sure to send the right web link to everyone.
But wow, it’s been worth it. Some of my favourite Backstory moments so far have been at the book club, from Barbara Demick deciding to surprise four members in a breakout group rather than grab a cup of coffee and wait for the interview to seeing the excitement on people’s faces as they asked Sathnam Sanghera their questions about empire. Zoom somehow makes these sessions more rather than less intimate: we’re privileged guests welcomed into the author’s home to talk about her writing. Sometimes, as was the case in our session with Cal Flyn, we get to see their dog, too.
The book club is also different to our normal events because everyone has read the book beforehand, which allows for questions that drill deeper into style and content, without worrying about spoilers. And because people can join from anywhere: we’ve often had authors come along from their homes in America and there are book club members in Scotland and Canada.
I’m biased but I think it’s pretty special as book clubs go. You get to discuss the book in small groups to re-create the feel of a normal book club, then there’s an interview and then - once you’ve remembered to take yourself off mute - you get to ask the author your questions. Because the author can Zoom in from anywhere, we can invite authors to join us who might otherwise struggle because of where they live or their hectic schedules.
Quite a few of you have been asking whether we can have a fiction book club too. So we’ve finally decided to do it. Just like the non-fiction one, it will meet once a month for an hour on Zoom; you’ll get each book four weeks in advance, then come together to discuss it with club members and the author herself.
We’ll be launching the club in May, with the first session in June, so please stick your details here if you’d like to be the first to hear when we reveal our line-up of authors. We’re so excited about some of the writers who have already said yes. All members of both our book clubs will be invited to a special in-person book club social this summer, because we like an excuse to throw a party.
And if you like the sound of our non-fiction club, but haven’t joined us yet, please check that out, too. You’ve still got time to read The Premonitions Bureau in time for our session with Sam Knight at the end of the month. Then it’s Michael Pedersen, talking about Boy Friends.
Thanks, by the way, for all your recommendations of overlooked books. I’ll share the final display with you in a couple of weeks.
Enjoy the rest of the Easter weekend,
Tom