What authors do you think you would get on with?

[Peggotty]

I really like Kate Atkinson's books - cracking stories, well written and just a wee bit odd - she reminds me of Angela Carter in some ways but not quite so daft. I think Kate Atkinson has a new one coming out soon as well. I have the feeling just from reading her books that I would like her as a person, she seems down to earth but slightly strange at the same time, are there any authors that you feel that way about?
On the other hand the authors I think I would NOT get on with are the real blokey ones like Christopher Brookmyre or Iain Banks (even though I like Iain Banks books I think he's stuck in a sort of 19-year old boy's mental state with most of his main male characters!)

I can think of quite a few I would like to get off with

Actually my sister maintains that Iain Banks is the sort of bloke she would like to go down the pub with, and she wrote to him saying as much and got a charming reply back.

marian keyes

I would like to go for a drink with Joe Orton, Brian Keenan, John Irving, Helen Hanff and Armistead Maupin.

I've met Julian Barnes and he was fairly scary and snooty

I've also had a correspondence going with Melvin Burgess and I think he is a fab person.

My brother interviewed Iain Banks for a newspaper article and got on like a house on fire, spent hours drinking and chatting and said he was totally friendly and down to earth (brother is writing a novel atm and Iain Banks gave him loads of advice, when he really diddn't have to).

I'd like to meet James Elroy, I don't know if I would get on with him but I think he is very interesting.

I know Jonathan Coe and i would get on so well that trouble would ensue.

Oh yes, I would love to drink with Armistead. Have been to a reading of his and seriously considered a sex change to be his new boyfriend. And I fell madly in love with Sarah Waters at a reading recently and seriously considered being her stalker.

Marianne K would be fun (although no booze obviously) and I agree about Iaian Banks. Have met Alison Fell (loooooovely) and Michele Roberts (fab) and Sara Maitland (I liked at the time but suspect she is a bit scary these days).

Jonathan Coe is MINE, you slapper. MINE MINE MINE.

We could share???

I wondered why you'd been recommending that I read Sarah Waters' entire canon...

I know what you mean about iain banks I think he would be good company and I bet he does like his whiskey, but I think i would have to be 'inthe mood' for him. I suppose i'm just getting the author confused with some of his more irritating male characters. i couldn't stand the male character in the novel about the shock-jock who gets involved with a gangsters wife (sorry can't remember what it's called), but liked Prentice in The Crow Road. I think I would find Helen Fielding VERY irritating. What do you think the Brontes would be like ( I always think of Emily as LOOKING like Kate Bush for some reason ), but wonder what they'd be like down the pub. I bet their brother Branwell was a good laugh!! if perhaps prematurely dead from drink.

Tell you what, I get him first and then when I have worn him to an exhausted shadow of his former self you can pour him a nice cup of tea.

I reckon George Eliot would have been fun to hang out with, if a trifle stressful on the intellect. Ditto Angela Carter.

God just had awful thought - what if one had to hang out with Jeffery Archer and liked him??

I think Emily would have been profoundly anti-social and have spent all her time quite obviously looking out of the window at the moors; Branwell would have got hog-whimpering drunk within about 10 minutes and leched and/or thrown up into your cleavage; Charlotte would have been interesting but rather shy and scary; Anne would probably have been the easiest to get along with.

Know what you mean about Angela Carter, I wrote my dissertation about her books, so I got a bit Angela Carter-ed out, some of her earlier stuff is a bit weird to say the least, and you need a huge brain (not me then) to work out her references. Nights at the Circus and Wise Children defo my favourites.

If you did MrsBC, you just could never tell anyone

Anne Bronte, crappest novels out of sisters= easiest to get on with as has much to prove, will try really hard to get you to like her. Branwell wouldn't give a toss what you think about him but did paint some rather crappy portraits so might want you to pose for him (inthe nude of course)

Bill Bryson....funny and like a teddy bear.

I 'met' him at a book signing. I had taken dd and needed to bribe her with chocolate buttons while we waited. As we arrived at the front, I gave her the last and said to Bill' I alawys said I'd never bribe my kids to behave' He burst out laughing and said that 'It always worked for me'

Seems like a nice guy.

I would love to be Armisted Maupins fag hag

Agree with Bill Bryson. And Terry Pratchett - love his take on human nature. I like books by journalists because they don't fanny around - I enjoy prose which is tight. Even at school I HATED Thomas Hardy and Wordsworth.

Oh, and Alan Bennett - he's another one who sends nice postcards to people who get in touch (friend of mine got one of these).