Come and chat to MAGGIE O'FARRELL about Instructions For a Heatwave (and all her previous books), Weds 23rd Oct, 9-10pm

[TillyBookClub]

If youre still loath to let go of summer, our October Book of the Month keeps the temperature high. Maggie OFarrells bestseller, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, is set in London, July 1976. The Riordans are an Irish couple with three grown-up children, and as they sit sweltering in their kitchen, Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he's going round the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn't come back. The search for Robert brings the children - two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce - back home, each with different ideas as to where their father might have gone.

As always, O'Farrell captures daily life with acute observation and empathy while sustaining a gradual suspense that reveals secret histories. Another entrancing and beautifully paced novel from a truly excellent storyteller.

To find out more, go to our book of the month page, where you can also find links to video interviews, Maggie's website and to her previous Mumsnet Bookclub chat back in 2011.

Tinder Press have 50 copies to give to Mumsnetters to claim yours please go to the book of the month page. We'll post on the thread when all the copies have gone.

If you're not lucky enough to bag one of the free books, you can always get your paperback or Kindle version here.

We are thrilled that Maggie will be joining us and answering questions about INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, her writing career and her previous novels on Wednesday 23 October, 9-10pm. So please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month, pop up any advance questions and we will see you all here, Wed 23 October.

[Spottybra]

I'm loving this book. There has been nothing better on a cold dark evening when the children are finally settled (about 9:40 ish) than reading about the family in a heatwave. I miss summer already. It has to be the best new book I have read in a long time. Am only about half way through though. Aoife not being diagnosed and helped despite being so bright made me cry, although to be fair I have recently gone through a similar experience with a 14 yr old student who has slipped through the net and hid it very well, so it really touched me. Can't wait to finish it and I care enough about the characters to wonder when the hell is Monica going to leave Peter? Why doesn't she want a baby, although I do know, it's there in the text what Aoife 'did' to their mother, but there has to be another reason surely?

[littlestar]

I loved this book and found it very engrossing, once I got to grips with the various characters and their stories. I thought the setting was very evocative of the long hot summer of '76 (showing my age!) and was a really interesting setting for the story of a seemingly ordinary family. I got really drawn in by the different threads of the story and the secrets that were revealed along the way; I was in suspense towards the end and I am going to recommend this novel to my Book Club. Thank you Mumsnet!!!

[DuchessofMalfi]

I finished reading it a few days ago. Thinking about a question atm.

[TillyBookClub]

Thanks to all for the messages so far - just a reminder to pop your advance questions here, and I'll send to Maggie at the end of the week.

Looking forward to next Weds.

[slev]

Finished my copy and if I'm honest, I struggled a bit. I wanted to know what happened (always the benefit of a plot with an unanswered mystery) so kept reading from that perspective but I just couldn't bring myself to like the characters. I really just wanted to give them all a good shake!

So my question for Maggie - how did you expect people to react to your characters? Did you intend them to be likeable or do you think it's more about having characters who inspire a reaction, positive or otherwise?

[DuchessofMalfi]

First of all I wanted to say how much I enjoyed the novel.

I found it an interesting examination of how fragile relationships are and how everything can turn on a lie and its discovery. Do you think Gretta and Robert's relationship would survive, now that everyone knows their secret? I really wanted to know what happened to his first wife, and wanted closure with his brother's story. Trying not to plot spoil :o

Aoife was my favourite character, and I was willing her to tell the truth and not destroy her relationship. Heaved a huge sigh of relief when she did :) And what on earth was Monica thinking of marrying Peter? There just didn't seem to be anything going for them at all.

And who did tell Joe about the abortion? Did I miss that? I wondered whether it was Gretta who put two and two together.

[SunshinePanda]

I have been busy reading not just this novel but rereading Maggie's back catalogue over the past few weeks. Maggie, "you are good with secrets." My favourite book ever I think is The Hand That First Held Mine. As with Instructions for a Heatwave it is fascinating how a single decision has such repercussions and deeply buried impact on others. When writing did you start with this idea of deception or with a character (thinking really of Aoife)?

[Feathered]

This reminded me, in terms of oppressive heat, of "The Go-Between" by L.P. Hartley - I just wondered if you read that as part of your research?

Do you think you will write about these characters again? I finished the book wanting to know more!

[Paloolah]

Hi. Really enjoyed the book. I'm intrigued by the title - presumably it refers to the snippets of the drought bill that introduce the chapters, and the expectations of people to behave in particular ways, but could Maggie tell us more about this? Thanks!

[Chlorinella]

Just finished this book ( thanks for my free book )
I remember the drought of 1976 , the heat and the emotions of that summer will stay with me forever ( O level year , and as a family we had a big house move )
Loved this book , the way the siblings reacted together was so true .
I thought the end was a bit rushed , but I thoroughly enjoyed the read .

[dreamygirl]

Loved this, thank you so much for my copy! Loved the emerging questions as the plot was laid out, the oppression of the weather adding to the difficulty of the situation, and found it really easy to get to know the characters!
I especially loved all the attention to detail, there were some fantastic passages with lovely tiny details such as Aoife's feelings when Monica had blanked her in the house, that it had erased all those shared experiences she mentioned of sisterhood and sharing a room. I also liked the contrasts, such as the traditional approach to marriage & relationships that the Riordan children have be brought up with vs. Peter and Jenny's "modern" views for the time (and of course the revelation near the end about Gretta and Robert's own relationship). Monica and Aoife both feeling that they were the one excluded by the other 2 siblings. And Monica and Michael Francis' contrasting views of their mother's character, how Monica was desperate for her to become "large" again whereas the whole thing was such an embarrassment to Michael Francis. Contrary to some people's feelings I felt sorry for him & Claire, that they were both living with disappointment, a life they hadn't planned for (obviously of their own making but she seemed to think it was all his fault) and struggling to make the best of it. Some people have been offended by the OU comments but I think at the time it was held in a lower regard than nowadays, particularly by those from academic backgrounds.
I felt a lot of sympathy towards Monica, the pressure she felt to live up to expectations, the fact that Joe didn't believe her about not wanting children and that Peter was so WEAK! For a really minor character her probably provoked the strongest reaction in me, I felt really angry with him at times!

I'm interested in the idea raised further up about St Swithun's day and if that was deliberate, to contribute to the sense of endlessness around the weather and the difficult situations, if that would have enhanced the fear Maggie O'Farrell mentions in her notes at the end.

[Theimpossiblegirl]

I'm still reading my copy so trying not to read the comments yet, but wanted to say thank you for the free copy. I'm really enjoying it and want to keep reading so I can find out what happens. It's one of those books that I am really keen to keep reading. My friend is also willing me to hurry up so she can borrow my copy.

[dreamygirl]

Just at the end of the penultimate paragraph that should say "he provoked", not "her".

[helenahalme]

I read Instructions for a Heatwave in a matter of days and cannot wait to join the discussion on Wednesday.

[TillyBookClub]

Advance questions have now been sent to Maggie... Hope everyone can come and chat to her live on Wednesday night. She's a brilliant guest, and will be talking about all aspects of her writing career, both this book and her previous ones. So even if you don't have specific question, do come and say Hi..

[defineme]

I was gripped by this book. I found I was most moved by the character Gretta ...the clinging onto her culture and desperate attempts at manipulating her children. The hypocritical living in sin is actually remarkably similar to a situation that was recently uncovered in my extended family!

My questions are:
Do your sisters ever wonder if elements of the sisters in your novels are based on them?
Do you remember the heatwave (I can remember people taking about it and I'm 40) and I too want to know why you chose to start on St Swithins day (just like the novel 'One Day')?

[FaddyPeony]

I liked the novel a lot and found Gretta very interesting -- I recognised her shiftiness and self-delusion and the constant talking thing as a device for deflecting discussion. Excellent. I liked the sibling relationships too, very well drawn.

Maggie, I always want to ask successful women writers about their experience. Do you think that there is still a tendency amongst critics to think 'meh, a book about children/families...how domestic.' Or has that landscape changed? And do you care, particularly?

[Clawdy]

I loved the book,and became very involved in the lives of the characters especially Monica. I also enjoyed re-living the incredible heatwave of 1976,no-one who lived through it will forget it! My question is about the swarms of redbacked aphids! In the North-West it was ladybirds which covered gateposts and pavements?

[Plus3]

Have this book to read next, but can I ask a question about After you'd gone which may be a spoiler??



I love this book, and made everyone I knew read it. The end.... Only one other person agreed with me - I feel that Alice is coming out of her coma, moving towards life. Nearly everybody else thought she died.

Please tell me that I am right! It is such a beautiful book.

[Phaedra11]

I really enjoyed the book and particularly appreciated the way you could warm to the characters and sympathise with them, as well as recognising them as complex individuals with their own hang-ups and flaws. I really felt for Monica at the same time as being glad she wasn't my sister!

Whenever I've read Maggie's more recent books, I've remembered an interview I read from when she was pregnant with her first child. She said she was worried about "the pram in the hall" syndrome and whether having a child would affect the time and commitment she could give to her writing. I would be really interested to hear what Maggie thinks about combining writing and parenthood now.

[HormonalHousewife]

I was absolutely thrilled to receive a copy in the post as I 'discovered' only recently Maggie's earlier books. I tend to be a read once and then give away kind of book person as I feel life is too short to read the same book over and over. Exceptions are made occasionally where books are kept on my bookshelf to re-read (and this includes the hand tfhm, the distance bu and After you'd gone) couldnt wait to start reading this one.

I must admit however, it didnt live up to my expectations. I enjoyed it yes, but I found the end a bit Harold Fry... and I have to admit I have given the book away already to my sister.

They were all interesting characters, Monica and Michael Francis particularly.

My question to Maggie is which authors inspired you and what book are you reading at the moment ?

[alicethecactus]

Have just started reading this, enjoying it v much so far! I read The First Hand that Held Mine (which was a lovely but heartbreaking!) and I notice that you've set Instructions for a Heatwave in a similar area - what is it about that area of North London for you?

[MaggieOFarrell]

@TillyBookClub

Advance questions have now been sent to Maggie... Hope everyone can come and chat to her live on Wednesday night. She's a brilliant guest, and will be talking about all aspects of her writing career, both this book and her previous ones. So even if you don't have specific question, do come and say Hi..

Hi everyone,

I'm just posting a test message to say that I'm really looking forward to the chat later. I have a teething baby and a sickly four-year-old in the house so I'm keeping my fingers crossed no one is going to wake up and interrupt us ...
All the best,
Maggie

[decaffwithcream]

Exciting!

[decaffwithcream]

You are one of the few authors whose books I get hold of as soon as they are published.

In light of the teething baby and sickly 4 year old, I should be hesitant to ask this question, but I would love to know if you are working on another book?

Hope you all get a good nights sleep.