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...

To midnightexpress:
I don't like the term "comic novel" much, but only because it makes me think of something I wouldn't want to read. Lots of serious books are funny as well, and vice versa. I overheard someone having his photograph critiqued by an art teacher once, and he said that a good pic should have some saturated black, some bits as white as the paper, and every gradient of grey in between. So should books. That's so pompous. More italics, I think.

(And please use brackets, even where unneccesary, as often as possible)

So Tim, why aren't you on Facebook?

To bananaboat. No way,I'm not ignoring you. Typing as fast as I can. That question was...

-How close is Caroline in character to your own wife and did/ does she mind the comparison. Also you've got kids right? Are they old enough to read it and if so, have they and what did they think?

Close enough that people recognised her; not so close that the fears for our marriage expressed by many friends were justified. It's not that bad here. I don't think she minded the similarities as much as people thought she might, but maybe that because she thinks being like Caroline is perfectly acceptable.

My kids aren't quite old enough to read it, or care (they're boys, 13, 10, and 8 now), but I did have to go into school during Book Week and read a bit of it to years 3 and 4 last year. It took a long time to find an appropriate passage.

Typing as fast as I can.

See that's why you had to get up at 6 a.m. every morning.

You can use ALL your fingers, you know.

Tim,
was it you who wrote a short piece for the Guardian maybe a couple of years ago about receiving an unsolicited package, and the best way to go about opening it?

I am on Facebook. I have 26 friends.

Damn, I am a useless cyberstalker

I thought that Salome66 was going to turn out to be Caroline, and I saw further down the thread that someone else thought the same. Were you trying to lead us down that route?

To mablemurple:

That was me. Extendable Arms, that's the best way.

Jon Ronson was on Facebook until last week, and now he has DISAPPEARED

creepy

Perhaps his wife has threatened him with Divorce is he writes about her on here?

(I regularly stalk Guardian columnists)

Hi Tim,
Interesting that you think ignoring abuse is the way to go, have always thought that if you actually engage then people usually find it hard to carry on being mean - but of course it does take up a lot of time. Am not talking about MN by the way which despite all the Vipers' Nest accusations is a bed of Roses compared to the vitriol on the Guardian boards and in particular on Comment is Free - why is that - is it that its choc full of dissatisfied young males do you think?

Hi Tim,
If Giles were American, and the story set in the US, what would you change about him?

he's v elusive isn't he? i don't think this is you tim, think it's your dw posting as you couldnt be arsed and she is more opinionated anyway.... go on, fess up!

Is it available in print anywhere (other than the Guardian vaults, of course)? I pmsl when I read it.

To Squonk:
When I started the book, I thought Caroline was going to turn out to be Salome66. Then I realised that would be too pat, but for a long time I didn't really know who would be whom. The publisher wanted to know how it ended, and I couldn't tell her.

That is true, Justine, the Guardian talkboards are terrifying. Despite us all being women, I think we are generally decent to each other (generally).

I think that silence is undoubtedly the most dignified response but when you are employed to be opinionated that must be an incredibly hard line to take.

Hello Tim/Book Club attendees! I usually crash into these threads loudly at the beginning shouting loads of questions, but I have been unavoidably detained with job applications.

Just wanted to say....

I enjoyed it. Not sure I liked the portrayal of the wife (she seemed a bit one dimensional). But I still felt a bit sorry for Giles mainly because I could see a bit of myself in him....

well, mablemurple, it so happens you can purchase it in a collection of pieces, coincidentally titled Suspicious Packages and Extendable Arms, availble from Guardian Books.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think my agent is here...

Love the idea of you reading it to a classroom of bewildered children...

Can i ask what's next? Are you planning another book?

Do you have a job 'on the side'?
My friend is a fairly successful author and journalist but is still happy (and needs) to do the odd electrical wiring job here and there.

Have you ever felted a shed?