JANUARY BOOK OF THE MONTH - discussion night and author chat will take place here Thursday 31st Jan from 8pm

[TillyBookClub]

This the place to come for our January Bookclub discussion and to chat to our esteemed author Tim Dowling, author of The Giles Wareing Haters Club.

If you can't make it on Thursday then do post a question for Tim here and we'll make sure he gets to it. And if you are coming on Thursday but want to post an advance question then feel free - we'll email them to Tim and will kick off with the answers when he comes on.

Hope everyone can make it, see you Thursday...

"I will aim to become a better writer, of longer and more serious things, with the ultimate goal of rendering all criticism of my work, be it Internet-based or otherwise, laughably wide of the mark."

This was included on an amazon review, a desperately sad situation really if you have any empathy.

I hope Lucy Mangan stays away

And I agree that people can get out of hand online far quicker than RL. I think that's very interesting, that a modern comic novel has this whole new dimension of the internet where emotions are amplified and things can happen in a farcical way.

Oops I can't do any of those fancy things.

@ primarche-devil

Yes Tilly I liked the way he captured that - very well I thought.

Yes I think John Ronson is laugh out loud funny in what he writes but clearly lacks a bit of a sense of humour about himself - still am sure Tim doesn't want to focus on John Ronson. Tim have people been mean about you online much? I'd imaging you have a huge fan club actually?

I looked up "Tim Dowling Haters' Club" but couldn't find one

Lets see if Mumsnet can get a hat-trick - three Guardian Weekend columnists, all bashed by the same site....

I think that Giles would probably split from his wife in the end. There didn't seem to be enough holding them together. His 'drifting off' made me think he'd never really engage with any of his family, whatever happened. Too much time on the internet, that's the problem...

DH much prefers him, very similar subject, but much more subtle. Oops sorry to mention JR again.

Don't get me started on the 'Green House' woman.

... or "American Psyche"

or "Love by Numbers"

or "What men don't know about women"

ffs

On the subject of all these columnists, I think that they're hired to have a 'schtick' and paid to give the audience the same sorta thing every week, which is always going to engender some criticism. They're supposed to be opinionated etc, that's why they're there. So if I didn't like someone's column, i'd blame the editor of the paper rather than the writer. The writer is just putting bread on the table whereas the editor has made a conscious decision to make that voice the voice of the paper...

He liked the easy life, whether it is committment to family, or work, and once in this rut then probably would have been hard to get out of, especially as his booses were commissioning light ha=earted pieces

I know what you mean Tilly but there wasn't really much EVIDENCE that his wife was that bothered by her husband having a complete breakdown. I spent most of the book thinking she was shagging the chap who was installing the kitchen.

Yes, people are more prone to make strongly-worded, judgemental responses in cyberpace than they would in RL, even about subjects that they probably don't otherwise really think about, and I think the expose of Grotius reflected that well - Grotius/Salome66 actually only thought Giles was mediocre, rather than the shockingly bad blot-on-all-literature he had talked about on-line. Grotius used the chatroom to make himself an interesting person.

Okay, it's time for our author to join us and spill the beans.

Tim, thank you for braving another internet chatroom - perhaps the best question to kick off with is from the beginning of this thread: which sites did you research? And were they more or less vitriolic than the GWHC?

I thought Salome66 was going to turn out to be his wife.

MP - wasn't the evidence that Caroline was bothered there in the final showdown? ALthough in fairness, there wasn't much evidence of Caroline at all, really - she was a very shadowy, peripheral figure which I guess reflects the level of Giles' self-obsession.

MP we must have this discussion at a later date so as not to hijack this thread!
I seriously wonder why some journalists are paid for the drivel they write. And this opinion is not exclusive to the Guardian..

Yes it was in the final showdown - but that was a bit late, I thought? I mean if it was ME I'd have been shouting at him every night.

I think Caroline, Giles' wife, was allowing him space/ indulging his midlife crisis and in her way, by having faith that he'd sort himself out in the end showed a great deal of love towards him (as a mother towards an errant child).

I think they'll go on to have a gloriously happy retirement, probably in an Umbrian farmhouse...

I note that the picture on the front of the novel was of a man peering through the TELEGRAPH.

WTF is Dowling? Is he watching CSI or something?

He's probably reading the JR thread.

sorry everyone, Tim is having problems posting - carry ona nd we'll be with you soon

He is going to publish this in the Permachat column.