Sunday, May 06, 2012

The launch of Tania Hershman's new collection

 Just back from a weekend in Bristol where John and I went for the fabulous launch of a new book by my very good writing friend Tania Hershman: My Mother Was an Upright Piano: Fictions, a wonderful collection of 56 flash stories, published by Tangent Books. Loads of us crowded the lovely Arnolfini bookshop to snap up the piles of this beautiful book and hear Tania read a few of the stories.


Tania's writing has a winning surreality, great wit and lyrical rhythm, and combines the vividly particular with the profoundly universal. Plus, she's a pretty brilliant reader. So we were hugely entertained (and moved):


It was great, too, to meet Calum Kerr, National Flash Fiction Day Supremo, and Joe Melia who runs the Bristol Short Story Prize.

We were generously wined and canaped by Tania's publisher, Richard Jones, who in his appreciative introduction spoke of the need to support our independent bookshops. A smashing evening with a great buzz, and I'm really looking forward to reading the book!

Lots more pics on Tania's own blog here.

2 comments:

Tania Hershman said...

Thank you so much for coming, E, having you and John there made me so happy! And thank you for your lovely words about my writing, that means a great deal to me.

And that's one of the only colour pics of me that I don't hate....

Elizabeth Baines said...

We wouldn't have missed it, Tania, and thank you for inviting us! A fabulous evening, and a wonderful book!