Favourite Authors Week – R J Ellory.

Wednesday folks! Happy Wednesday. Today on Favourite Authors Week its the turn of R J Ellory.

 

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I love Mr Ellory’s books – I like to call them Noir Plus they are always evocative and intriguing…with great characters and often dark storylines. Here is what Roger had to say when I posed the favourite questions to him…

 

Favourite Book Written

 

I am so often asked, ‘Of the books you’ve written, which is your favourite?’  This, like all the questions in this interview, is impossible to answer.  That’s like asking a father with a dozen kids which one he loves the most.  However, in France, I was once asked a variation of this question. ‘If you died tomorrow,’ the reporter asked, ‘which of your books would you wish left behind as your legacy, if you could in fact leave only one book behind?’  It was a close called between ‘A Quiet Vendetta’ and ‘A Quiet Belief in Angels’ (and nothing to do with the word, ‘Quiet’!)  After some consideration, I decided on ‘A Quiet Vendetta’, because I feel it perhaps best represents the kind of story I always wanted to write – broad, expansive, an all-encompassing perspective on a slice of American history and culture that fascinated me as a child.  And it deals with honour, integrity, the pursuit of truth, so many areas of human conduct that we battle with in our lives.  It’s also my wife’s favourite, and that means a lot too

 

Favourite Book Read.

 

IN COLD BLOOD – Truman Capote

What can I say about this book?  I have read this four times.  I’ll read it again.  Genius.  Absolute genius.  I feel very strongly about this book.  This was almost a case of ‘one man had one book as his life’s purpose’, and then once the book was written he never really published another word, and he drank himself to death.  For many years – simply as a result of this book – Capote was considered one of the most eminent and important twentieth century American writers.  I don’t think anything could ever take that away from him.  And then there is the Harper Lee twist.  Search out the Norman Mailer essay about the relationship between Lee and Capote (childhood friends – she the author of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, the only book she ever wrote, Pulitzer Prize-winner, Oscar-winning film adaptation; Capote the author of ‘In Cold Blood’, a serialised book that sold more copies of The New Yorker than ever before, generated four films, two of them adaptations of the book, two of them bio-pics of this period of his life), and see what you make of it.  An astonishing book – as William Shawn said ‘I think this book will change the way people read…it may even change the way people write…’  Superb, breathtaking, magnificent.

 

Favourite Meal

 

Late 2009, on a US east coast tour, myself, my publicist and his wife went to dinner in a small hostelry called The Bridge Street Café beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.  Once a whorehouse, then the first licensed porter establishment in New York, they served us soft-shelled crab and hanger steak the like of which I had never had, and probably never will again.  Perhaps it was the wine, the company, the atmosphere, the fact that it had been such a successful tour, but it was an evening I will remember for the rest of my life.

 

Favourite Holiday/Destination

 

Little bit difficult this one as I don’t take holidays.  Never have had, probably never will.  I think the last holiday I took was when I hitchhiked to Wales with my first wife in 1985 and slept under a tarpaulin for a week on the beach.  However, having said that, I do tour a lot, and I have been to some of the most incredible places.  If I was to choose a holiday destination right now it would be Austin, Texas.  Blues clubs, great food, wonderful people.  Either Austin or Nashville, for pretty much the same reasons.  Have been to both of them, and didn’t want to leave.

 

Favourite Film and/Or tv show

 

Another staggeringly impossible question!  I am going to go with All The President’s Men.  I could say Goodfellas or The Godfather or Apocalypse Now or The French Connection or The Third Man or Strangers on a Train or Rear Window or North by North-West or a hundred thousand others.  I spent the vast majority of my teenage years distracting myself with classic noir films from The Golden Age of Hollywood, and I am a huge fan of those films, but there is something that has always intrigued me about political conspiracy and cover-ups.  I remember watching All The President’s Men as a child, and that inspired me to want to be a journalist, a goal I kept for many years but ultimately never pursued.  Great script, great acting, great direction.  A wonderful, wonderful film.

 

Thank you so much Mr Ellory!

 

No dilemma for me today. Picking my favourite of Mr Ellory’s books was a no brainer. I book I have loved and that has stayed with me since I first read it years ago, in my Top 5 and likely to remain there….When I talked about the books that made me cry I talked about this one and here is what I said!

 

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Candlemoth. Oh Candlemoth! The first book to make me cry and realise that sometimes a book CAN touch your heart, I look back on this with great fondness. Also on my reread list to add to Mr Ellory’s page here, it was certainly one of the books that turned me into the prolific reader I am today.

Candlemoth tells the story of Daniel Ford. Sat on Death Row with only 30 days until his execution is set, he looks back on the events that lead him there – and so begins the story of a friendship that was supposed to be forever. Daniel’s story is a sad one. It is. It speaks about how life catches up with you – how events in life can change who you are. So yes, tears. Tears for Daniel and for his friend Nathan. A beautiful story….

 

Other Titles

 

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Find out more here: http://www.rjellory.com/

Follow Mr Ellory on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/rjellory

Linky link for purchase information http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=R.J.%20Ellory&search-alias=books-uk&sort=relevancerank

 

Thank you once again Mr Ellory. He also has his own page here so you can peruse at your leisure!

Tomorrow its the turn of Neil White to tell us a few of his favourite things.

Happy Reading Folks!

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One Response to Favourite Authors Week – R J Ellory.

  1. E. L. Lindley says:

    Great post Liz. I’ve read Candlemoth and A Quiet Belief in Angels and loved both of them. I’m going to have to read more now.

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