Today I have the pleasure of featuring Anne Berry
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| photos courtesy of the publisher |
The red letter day is nearing fast for me with the publication by Ebury books, Random House, of my third novel ‘The Adoption’ on June 21st. Let me tell you exactly what it is like. I am nervous, excited, and in something of a rapture as I look at the superb finished product, my novel in its smart little cover. It reminds me heartbreakingly of seeing off my children off in their crisp school uniforms on their first day of school. How will they fare in the big bad world? Will their words find the hearts of the readers? And will they fall in love with the characters as I did? Will they laugh? Will they cry? And as they finish the final page will they feel they have had a feast and are well satisfied?
What really helps at this nail biting moment is when your publisher, for me the exceptional Gillian Green, has chosen a cover that you love, that is perfect for your narrative, that captures the soul of your book. The cover of ‘The Adoption’ with its soft colours and authentic photograph of a little girl in an old fashioned crocheted bathing suit does just that.
The story of ‘The Adoption’ is told by three narrators, the birth mother Bethan, the adoptive mother, Harriet, and the adopted child, Lucilla herself. It begins with star crossed lovers at the close of the Second World War and spans nearly sixty years. I found the research for this novel fascinating and appalling. It was just so easy to adopt a baby after the war. No checks on the adoptive parents. Handover the child like a bag of sugar and rubber stamp a piece of paper. Adoption is such a hot topic at the moment but for the opposite reason. It is taking far too long with many children denied loving homes while red tape ties itself up in ever increasing knots. David Cameron is promising change . . .
But we authors are fecund creatures, and as I wave off ‘The Adoption’ with a lump in my throat, my second novel, ‘The Water Children’ is being published in America. News of my first novel, ‘The Hungry Ghosts’ continues to reach me from near and far. Meanwhile as I prepare to let go of my fourth novel, the characters in my fifth novel become increasingly rowdy demanding my attention. So this dear readers is what I am up to. You know what, it was easier having children!
The Adoption by Anne Berry, 21st June 2012, hardback, £12.99
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