Monday 23 July 2012

Kind words from Sidney Du Broth's Shooting and Fishing Journal - bet I'm the first Vampire writer to get a review from a fishing and shooting journal - big thanks Sid!



Sidney Du Broth describes a day at the London Book Fair 2012...

As I moved along, two young men in the twelve year old category, wearing white tee shirts, with what appeared to be a book-cover reproduction emblazoned upon them, approached. Seeing my press badge they stopped and explained their mission. They were seeking out appropriate members of the press who might be prepared to review a book. It was the work of the mother of the young man on the right in the photo (the chap on the left is a friend). And it was a book about Vampires. We don't usually review books about vampires, it/they being somewhat remote from the usual shooting, fishing and gun scene that is our more or less normal domain. The young man was an absolute charmer, and it would be impossible to say No. The young man explained that he would be writing his own book in due course, probably a work of non-fiction.

'Carole Jahme's son, right promotes his mother's book, with help from colleague'
Carole Jahme is no doubt very proud of her young son, as well she should be. Ms Jahme is a science writer on the Guardian newspaper, so she should know something about Vampires. She is a psychologist whose previous work , Beauty and the Beasts, Women Ape and Evolution, was published by Virago in 2000.
WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN BLOOD by Carol Jahme. Published by Mira Publishing House ISBN 978-1-908509-01-7
This is a book of 343 pages so you come to know vampires quite well, and become aware that there are different kinds of vampires. Scarlet tells her story in the first person, a single mother with a six year old daughter, and a man responsible for the child whom she hates. She doesn't like her mother much either, nor does her mother like her. Scarlet is vulnerable; vampires would seek her out. She is given a stark choice: become a vampire or die. As Ms Jahme, who would know, puts it: "…bit by bit the beautiful face, another, otherworldly, version of myself, pixilated away into little pieces until the mirror was empty of life and I was no longer there." So you can see what can happen, and does.