The Reading Season

It’s October 1^st. 

We’re moving away from the summer and into the reading season. 

Schools, colleges and libraries in Leicester are all involved in Everybody’s Reading and further afield teachers are looking for authors to visit their schools. 

Now’s the time to contact authors to visit your school, talk about their work and help students to develop their reading and writing skills.

Over the next few weeks I am visiting schools to promote Gambledad and to encourage reading and creative writing. If your school would like a visit, contact me on feeneymckay@btopenworld.com

Look forward to hearing from you and helping to raise standards in your school.

The Hungarian Pastry Shop

It's a few weeks since our flight home from the United States and I'm looking back at the wonderful times we had in Salem, Virginia; Washington and New York. One of my highlights was the Hungarian Pastry Shop,  opposite the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Amsterdam Ave. where we stopped on our way out to Harlem.

This was one of the best cafes I have ever visited: the cakes were delicious; the staff were friendly and welcoming and the place was full to bursting with... writers. A writer was sitting at almost every table - either on their laptops or writing notes in thick journals. On one wall was a display of book and theses covers of works that had actually been written in the Hungarian Pastry Shop. What a wonderful place!

Thanks to the Hungarian Pastry Shop for your hospitality and welcome. I've sent you a copy of Gambledad for you to read and enjoy and if there are any film producers or directors there wanting to turn my story into a film... well, take your time and enjoy the refreshing coffee and delightful cakes at the Hungarian Pastry Shop.

Then you can contact me.

World Book Day 2015

On World Book Day, I had the most brilliant time in New College Leicester.

I was born in a house close to New College. I played in the same parks as those students and some of them live in houses built on a farm where me and my brothers and sisters used to feed the horses.

I loved our house.

It was a three-storey Victorian terraced house built in 1901. In my mind I can still picture every room in that house: the front room with the long settee where our parents laid out our presents each Christmas; the middle room with doors opening out onto the back yard; the kitchen with the 1950s blue cabinet, the stove and the washing machine, pulled out from under the counter every Monday. I can still remember the day when our gas supply was converted to North Sea Gas and a new cooker was installed. My mother made a meat pie to celebrate.

When I was seventeen, my parents decided to move house. I was heartbroken. I loved every corner of that house and the day we handed over the keys to Leicester City Council, I walked around and looked at each room, empty of furniture, movement and sound and I vowed to remember those rooms all my life. Like many authors, I have used my first home in many stories. Colm Toibin used his childhood home in Enniscorthy in his recent bestseller, Nora Webster. I used mine in Gambledad and I tried to recall the loneliness I endured on leaving the house where I was born. It's slightly different for Antonio - his father loses the house in a card game, making the family homeless.

Talking to students at New College, I showed how I used my own memories of moving house to inform how Antonio felt. Imagine if all your beloved possessions, even your X-Box, were taken out of the house to be sold on and used by others. How would you feel? How did Antonio cope? It's no wonder he's angry at everyone and aggressive in school.

Many students at New College told me stories about how they have had to move house several times in their lives. I was really inspired by their courage and strength. It's no wonder school is hard for so many young people.