A little after the event, however…
Yup! You read right. Not only a British author, but also one I’ve heard of. Here, in Aarhus, where I live and everything.
She was at a/the bookshop down in Aarhus (on Stor Torv ‘big square’) called Kristian F. Møller (they don’t have a website, they don’t do mail order, but if you click their name there, you’ll go to their Facebook page). There’s not a lot of room in the bookshop – too many books! – so they’d cleared a space towards the back, where all the arty books are. Danes seem to like their arty books. At least, bookshops seem to think they do. There was a table for her to sit at and some chairs for us. There were quite a few people there, people who – unlike me – had read her books – and read them often and thoroughly, by the sounds of it.
I’d heard of her and seen some of her books, but never read one. I knew she was famous in literary circles and…well, that’s about it. I went along because I think Kristian F Møller do a fantastic job with getting authors – mostly Danish of course – to come in and I wanted to support them as much as I wanted to find out more about Antonia.
She read the final passages of (perhaps) her most famous book, Posession, then took questions. After a pause, presumably while those Danes present were marshalling their English in their heads (all Danes can speak English to a level), so I jumped in and got the ball rolling. That set things off and there was an interesting discussion or two.
I bought her latest, called Børnenes Bog here in Denmark (I read Danish as well as speak it…you have to really, after all, I’ve been here 11 years now). It’s called The Children’s Book in English. As I said, I hadn’t read any of her’s, so I thought while she and I were there, I’d get a copy of Posession for her to sign, you never know…
She was a lovely lady, really friendly and open and it was – yet another – excellent event by the fabulous Kristian F Møller people. A big thanks to Dame Antonia for making my day.
Buy The Children’s Book at The Book Depository
Buy Posession at The Book Depository
Contact me for details of buying the Danish version, eh?
speeshreads.com 