Webchat with Jonathan Freedland, author of The 3rd Woman, on Thursday 6 August at 1pm

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with Jonathan Freedland on Thursday 6 August at 1pm.

Jonathan Freedland is an award-winning journalist, No. 1 bestselling author and broadcaster. He is the Guardian's Executive Editor for Opinion, and also writes a weekly column. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times and the New York Review of Books, and presents BBC Radio 4's contemporary history series, The Long View. In 2014 he won the Orwell special prize for journalism.

Since 2006 he has published five internationally bestselling novels under the pseudonym Sam Bourne, which have sold over two million copies and been published in over 30 languages.

Jonathan has recently published The 3rd Woman, listed in our Summer E-book Reads. Set in an alternate universe against a background of political upheaval and corruption, journalist Madison Webb is on the trail of the serial killer who murdered her sister.

You can read an extract of The 3rd Woman here, and buy a copy here.

Please do join us on Thursday 6 August at 1pm - or if you can’t make it, leave a question for Jonathan below.

Thanks
MNHQ

[woeface]

Well that was a very comprehensive and enjoyable webchat . Thanks Jonathan!

[BojanaMumsnet]

Thanks very much for joining us today Jonathan! We'll look forward to seeing your thrillers on TV too.

Thanks to everyone who posted questions - hope to see you all at our next Book Club webchat with more brilliant questions.

[EarlGreyhamGreene]

Thanks for answering my (many) questions Jonathan! best of luck with the book

[thechez]

As an accomplished wordsmith Jonathan, what are your best tips for aspiring journalists and writers?

[JonathanFreedland2015]

Arrgh, it seems we're out of time. I think there was one question I missed - from UnsureofOutcome - about the differences between fiction and journalism. The truth is, the difference is smaller than you think: you need to research both. People need to believe the stories you tell have truth, whether fiction or non-fiction.

This has been great fun -- thanks so much for all those brilliant questions. I hope you enjoyed it too. And if you do read The Third Woman, do let me know what you make of it. I'm @Freedland on Twitter. Thanks again to Mumsnet - and to all of you. Jonathan

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@EarlGreyhamGreene

I hope people will look back on this period in 50 or 70 years time just the same way, wondering quite what all the fuss was about.

Although it would be great if we could start speeding that process up a bit, no?

It would

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@ladolcemar

Hi - thanks for your time and considered opinions!

As a writer - but also as a citizen and journalist - what do you think the long-term consequences will be of the current attack on libraries?

Barnet, for example, is proposing to cut 60% of its service with a focus on closing the libraries that show the best growth in borrowing by kids (kids' fiction borrowing is up avg 20%+ at libraries targeted for closure). Although ownership of smartphones & tablets has grown 300% in the last 5 years, teen fiction borrowing - as physical books - has not fallen and kids borrowing is growing. This week DCMS data shows 11-15 year olds are visiting libraries in greater numbers than ever. But... with councils, like Barnet, interested in selling off property with the zeal of corporate raiders, what will the long term consequences be, in your opinion?

As libraries are the number one means of book discovery for 5-7 year olds, how will authors and publishers find a route to market if the Barnet model becomes the norm?

If the UK creative industries are worth £8bn and much of it starts with stories - like Harry Potter - what will happen when there are no more libraries? (And have you ever been tempted to write a children's book? It seems the upside is that Peppa Pig just sold for £1bn; the downside is, with devolution of power/budgets to councils who are anti-literacy and pro-asset stripping, you'll have to do A LOT of Mumsnet chats to find an audience!)

Did libraries shape your experience as a writer?

Thanks!!!

Thank you for this ladolcemar - no time to respond in full detail, but just to endorse your plea for libraries. I was lucky: I grew up in a house full of books. But I know plenty of writers who would never have got close without their library. There has to be a way to ensure their survival in the age of the smartphone

[EarlGreyhamGreene]

I hope people will look back on this period in 50 or 70 years time just the same way, wondering quite what all the fuss was about.

Although it would be great if we could start speeding that process up a bit, no?

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@lavenderdaisies

Oh I love Smiley's People!

If you could make one massive, radical, terrifically exciting change to the Guardian, what would it be?

Let's pretend you wouldn't have to worry about it potentially going all wrong, you could hit a Rewind button and no-one would know.

Interesting one -- we do so much so well, but one thing I think we could do even more of is audio. We already produce tons of good podcasts, but with real focus I reckon there is no reason why the Guardian couldn't take on the likes of the BBC and NPR at their own game. I;ve always thought radio/audio comes even more easily to print journalists than video - they're similar media, because they're all about words.

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@bethshart

Hello Jonathan
Good to see you on mumsnet. Several years ago I read your wonderful exploratory autobiographical book Jacob's Gift and found it one of the most interesting and moving examples of that kind of personal genre. You sub-titled it: A Journey into the Heart of Belonging. I myself am familiar with this journey as my parents came to the UK from Germany in 1939, as your family came from Eastern Europe in the early 1900s. How do you think your family's struggles to belong compare with today's immigrants? Is it that much harder now or is it just more of the same but related to different immigrant groups?

PS: I enjoy your political commentary in The Guardian as well.

Thanks bethshart for such a lovely question - it means a lot to me that you got so much from Jacob's Gift. It's a very important book to me. I want to say that the immigrant story really is the same, one generation after another. My mother and my grandparents/great-grandparents would have been mocked and scorned as outsiders, just as today's migrants are. And yet, somehow they settle, join this society - and their children become active, valuable citizens. That's almost always how it works. We fear it - and then we get used to it. I hope people will look back on this period in 50 or 70 years time just the same way, wondering quite what all the fuss was about.

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@neverforever

Hi Jonathan,

Welcome to MN. I was wondering, what's been the highlight of your journalistic career?

Hi neverforever - I've been lucky and there've been lots but one came when I was 25, writing for the Washington Post and I got to cover the Clinton campaign. The young Bill Clinton, that is. Following him on a bus tour through the small towns and villages of south Georgia. The man was a phenomenon and it was a privilege to watch.

[Lucythegoosie]

Ha! Brilliant, glad to have you on the team

Smiley's People - so bleak. SO GOOD.

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@lavenderdaisies

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for joining us today.

Why did you choose to incorporate China the way you did in this book? It's fascinating and I'd love to hear more about this aspect of the 3rd Woman.

Thank you -- take a look at my reply to addingtothenoise: hope that covers some of it.

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@DannyTorrance

How do you feel about books being adapted for TV, film etc?

Hi Danny -- I had a go at this in my reply to EverythingsShinyCapt. And thanks...

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@Lucythegoosie

You're doing very well, Jonathan - excellent use of the angle brackets there

Are you a secret Mumsnetter? We won't tell...

Why, thank you Lucythegoosie - my Mumsnetting habits are fully out and in the open

[lavenderdaisies]

Oh I love Smiley's People!

If you could make one massive, radical, terrifically exciting change to the Guardian, what would it be?

Let's pretend you wouldn't have to worry about it potentially going all wrong, you could hit a Rewind button and no-one would know.

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@omnisianbles

Hi Jonathan,

What do women want?

Nice one, omnisianbles - I defer to all of you on that one. In fact, while I've got you all here: what do women want?

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@woeface

Ooh another one to do with the book - I saw a piece of yours recently (which I didn't have time to read, sorry!) where you discussed the idea that the crime novel is a naturally leftist genre, while the thriller was intrinsically to the right. Can you expand here?

Hi again woeface, This was an interesting debate I got into with the great Val McDermid. She said that crime was a leftwing form because it was so often set at the margins, often featuring the dispossessed, while thrillers were inherently of the right, because they are anchored in protecting the status quo. I pushed back, citing le Carre's more recent novels, whether against Big Pharma or denouncing the war on terror, and the many thrillers that turn on the fight to correct an injustice (think of Grisham's courtroom thrillers.) You can get a flavour of my take on it here www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/apr/03/thrillers-politically-conservative-val-mcdermid-crime-fiction-jonathan-freedland

[Lucythegoosie]

You're doing very well, Jonathan - excellent use of the angle brackets there

Are you a secret Mumsnetter? We won't tell...

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@MyCatIsBatman11

Welcome Jonathan!

Where do you find the time to think up and write thrillers alongside your (I'm assuming very) busy day job? Do you have a specific time of day that is Book Time, and the rest for your journalism? Or do you work on a word count target per day?

Hi MyCatisBatman11 -- Time management is a major issue. Luckily, I have a very understanding employer and I've been able to take time off at crucial times to do some of the heavy lifting. What I do find hard is to flip from one to the other, from journalism to the novel writing. With the novels, I do need to be immersed – which means I need a spell rather than just an hour or two here and there.

[DannyTorrance]

How do you feel about books being adapted for TV, film etc?

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@TheSandmansSon

Hi Jonathan! The Guardian's really been on a roll for the last few years - you must be very chuffed. How are you feeling about the paper's future, especially after Alan Rusbridger's left? Thanks for coming on

Thanks, TheSandmansSon -- thanks for what you say about the Guardian. It does feel like it's on a roll. And the mood here is very chipper with the brilliant Kath Viner now at the helm as our new editor. Alan Rusbridger was and is an exceptionally gifted journalist - and, luckily for all of us, so is Kath.

[DontTellTheBride]

[addingtothenoise]

Thanks for answering these questions so far Jonathan, it's really interesting...being immersed in writing a book like 3rd Woman, did you ever begin to get slightly paranoid?

[JonathanFreedland2015]

@DontTellTheBride

Am I allowed to ask whether BuzzFeed have been a-calling?

You can ask! But after 22 years, the Guardian really does feel like home.