Malcolm Burgess
Guest : Malcolm Burgess, (where do I begin!!) has worked in Advertising, PR, Journalism, Marketing
Manager for HarperCollins as well as freelancing across the publishing industry. For six years he
worked as the first Literature Development Manager for Essex County Council working closely with a
range of public and private partners and funders; he helped develop the Essex Book Festival into the
biggest writing and reading festival in the Eastern region. He was chair of the National Association
for Literature Development for three years. He is the author of two recent humour books, writes for
national newspapers and Radios 3 & 4. Malcolm also works as a freelance arts projects manager/
consultant for Creative Partnerships nd for the Arts Council. Last but not least, Malcolm is also the
author of 'I hate the Office' and 'Forty-fied:How to be a forty-something'.
Competition beginning today and ending on Friday the 7th March- Win 2 free tickets to the Terrance
Dicks event on the 12th March AND 2 free tickets to the Allan Mallinson event on the 13th March -
both events are part of the Essex Book Festival. Answer the following questions correctly and you
could be the lucky winner/s of these tickets.
Q1.What is the name of the Dr.Who scriptwriter and novelist who is coming to the Essex Book Festival on 12 March?
Q2.Allan Mallinson has written novels in which the hero is an officer in the 6th Light Dragoons.
What is this officer’s name?
Send in your answers to radio@phoenixfm.com by 8pm on the 7th March. Please specify in your subject line with 'Book Club Competition'.
Basildon Childrens Book Festival begins on the 23rd Feb to the 12th March. Check out the websitewww.basbookfest.co.uk for more details.
Books
Are you there God? Its me, Margaret by Judy Blume
This book, published in 1970, is about a pre-teen girl called Margaret who grew up with no religion.
Margaret has one Christian and one Jewish parent. While neither parent is insistent about the religion
that Margaret will choose to follow, the novel explores her quest for a single religion. Margaret
confronts many pre-teen issues, such as buying her first bra, having her first period (coping with
the stress of being the last of her friends to get her period), liking boys and whether to voice her
opinion if it differs from those of her friends.
This is a great read- regarless of your age. Its entertaining; its nostalgic and makes you want to
look back to the days when life was so simple yet complicated.
Bad Girls by Jacqueline Wilson
Mandy has been picked on at School for as long as she can remember. Thats why she is delighted when cheeky, daring, full-of-fun Tanya picks her as a friend. Tanya's mum isn't happy- she thinks Tanya
might be a bad influence on Mandy. Mandy is convinced that Tanya can only get her out of trouble, not
into it...or is she wrong?
Teacher, Teacher! by Jack Sheffield
Miss Barrington-Huntley took off her steel-framed spectacles and polished them deliberately.
‘Mr Sheffield,’ she said, ‘after careful consideration we have decided to offer you the very
challenging post of headmaster of Ragley School’.
It's 1977 and Jack Sheffield arrives at a small village primary school in North Yorkshire. Little
does he imagine what the first year will hold in store as he has to grapple with:
Ruby, the 20 stone caretaker with an acute spelling problem;
Vera, the school secretary who worships Margaret Thatcher;
Ping, the little Vietnamese refugee who becomes the school’s best reader and poet;
Deke Ramsbottom, a singing cowboy, father of Wayne, Shane and Clint;
and many others, including a groundsman who grows giant carrots, a barmaid parent who requests sex lessons, and a five-year-old boy whose language is colourful in the extreme.
And then there's beautiful, bright Beth Henderson, a deputy head, who is irresistibly attractive to
the young headmaster...
Synopsis courtesy of www.jacksheffield.com
When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson
Claudia Rubin is in her heyday. Wife, mother, rabbi and sometime moral voice of the nation, everyone
wants to be with her at her older son’s glorious February wedding. Until Leo becomes a bolter and
the heyday of the Rubin family begins to unravel . . .
The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald
Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach ...
Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion
buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby -
young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no
one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent
longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to
unravel.
Coming up next week- Faber and Faber's Rights Manager, Archana Rao. Tune is to win R.N.Morris'
2 great crime novels 'A Gentle Axe' and its sequesl 'A Vengeful Longing'.
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